Catolic Workers on the Papal Visit to the U.S. and the War on Iraq

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Monday April 21, 2008 21:35

by Catholic Worker

Why Did the Pope Avoid Addressing the Iraq War?

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is a Catholic Bishop from Detroit. He attended the first trial of the Pitstop Ploughshares www.peaceontrial.com in Dublin in March 05 walking to court with the five defendants. He was the youngest Bishop ever appointed in the American church and the longest serving Bishop in the United States. He visited Iraq a number of times in the 1990's breaking the sanctions. The Catholic Worker founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in New York City in 1933 is an anarcho pacifist faith based movement of 180 communities

Bishop Gumbleton said Thursday: "While it's disappointing that
the Pope has not addressed the Iraq war in his trip yet, I expect he
will do so at the United Nations.

"Back in 1965, Paul VI said 'No more war! Never again war!' at the
United Nations. In 1982, John Paul II, while accepting nuclear
deterrence, said that it could be acceptable only as a step toward
total disarmament -- so we should abolish nuclear weapons. It's my
hope that Benedict speaks not only against this war in Iraq, but
against all war.
"In 1991 John Paul II repeated the cry of Paul the VI in an encyclical
letter, condemning the 1991 Iraq war. After that war there were over
12 years of sanctions that brought about the death of 1.5 million
Iraqis, half of whom were children. This invasion has brought about
the deaths of hundreds of thousands more and made refugee or displaced
4 million. We've had thousands of U.S. soldiers killed, even more
veterans commit suicide and tens of thousands of casualties. That's
why John Paul II condemned the 1991 war and pleaded that the second
one not start."

Gumbleton's weekly Sunday homilies given at Saint Leo Church, Detroit,
from September 2001 to the present are available at the National
Catholic Reporter web page:
.

A member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker and a former priest,
rank Cordaro also visited Dublin i support of the Ptstop Ploughshares.
Frank Cordaro said : "The previous Pope -- before the Iraq invasion --
said it would be unjust, immoral and illegal. The current Pope met
with Bush and spoke to thousands in D.C. without saying anything like
that. I say shame on the Pope. He uses the word 'peace' -- but so
what? Even Bush does that.

"On birth control and abortion the Pope tells Catholics: you have to
agree with me. But with the Vatican's stated stance on this war --
that they are against it -- isn't backed up. The Pope and the U.S.
Bishops have got to let U.S. Catholics in the military, who agree with
Pope John Paul II that the war in Iraq is unjust, know that the
Catholic Church will support them as conscientious objectors.

"Our church has to get real about this war. There's no real support
from the pulpit against it, no real action from the Bishops against
it. The war in Iraq sadly reveals that the Catholic Church in the U.S.
is far more nationalistic and militaristic than it is Roman Catholic."

Both Gumbleton and Cordaro had signed a letter calling on the pope to
protest the Iraq war: "Shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq, you
rightly declared that 'there were not sufficient reasons to unleash a
war.' You've also called attention to the terrible new technologies
which cause indiscriminate destruction. Five years later, how much
more reason you have to call for an immediate end to this war, and to
refuse to meet with the President of the United States until that is
accomplished. ...

"If meet with him you must, then meet as a prophet should -- issuing a
warning and an invitation to repentance. Courtesy cannot be used as an
evasion of our biblical faith. ..."
http://vox-nova.com/2008/03/08/letter-urges-pope-to-protest-war-during-us-visit