Give Peace a Chance...at last

U.S. Bishops Discuss Iraq With Democrats

Call for End to Stalemate Over the War

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).-

The U.S. bishops will meet with a group of Catholic House Democrats to discuss a responsible transition to end the war in Iraq.In a letter sent Tuesday, the bishops reiterated their call for members of Congress and the Bush Administration to break the political stalemate in Washington and to pursue a bipartisan policy to bring the war to an end as soon as possible.

Bishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the bishops' committee on International Policy, wrote the letter in response to a June 28 request for the meeting from Representative Tim Ryan and 13 other House democrats. "Our conference hopes to work with the Congress and the administration to forge bipartisan policies on ways to bring about a responsible transition and an end to the war," Bishop Wenski wrote.

"Too many Iraqi and American lives have been lost. Too many Iraqi communities have been shattered. Too many civilians have been driven from their homes. The human and financial costs of the war are staggering. "Representatives of our conference welcome the opportunity to meet with you and other policy makers to discuss ways to pursue the goal of a 'responsible transition' to bring an end to the war in Iraq."

He added: "The current situation in Iraq is unacceptable and unsustainable, as is the policy and political stalemate among decision makers in Washington."Our shared moral tradition can guide this effort and inform our dialogue with other leaders as we seek a way to bring about a morally responsible end to the war in Iraq."

Peace awaits its builders

Today's gospel sends some mixed messages.... peace and then the final blast of hot judgement a la Sodom and Gomorrah. The mixed bag of this reading reminds us that there is always conflict even among the people of peace.

Mt 10,7-15.

As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without
cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;
no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick.
The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and
stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace
return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words--go outside that house
or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.


Pope John Paul II reminded us of the importance of peace during his speech to the Representatives of the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions in Assisi, October 27, 1986

"This Day at Assisi has helped us become more aware of our religious
commitments. But is has also made the world, looking at us through the
media, more aware of the responsibility of each religion regarding problems
of war and peace. More perhaps than ever before in history, the intrinsic
link between an authentic religious attitude and the great good of peace
has become evident to all. What a tremendous weight for human shoulders to
carry!

But at the same time, what a marvellous, exhilarating call to
follow! Although prayer is in itself action, this does not excuse us from
working for peace. Here we are acting as the heralds of the moral awareness
of humanity as such, humanity that wants peace, needs peace.

There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without a
relentless determination to achieve peace. Peace awaits its prophets.
Together we have filled our eyes with visions of peace: they release
energies for a new language of peace, for new gestures of peace, gestures
which will shatter the fatal chains of divisions inherited from history or
spawned by modern ideologies.

Peace awaits its builders. Let us stretch our hands towards our brothers and sisters, to encourage them to build peace upon the four pillars of truth, justice, love and freedom. Peace is a workshop, open to all and not just to specialists, savants and strategists.

Peace is a universal responsibility: it comes about through a thousand
little acts in daily life. By their daily way of living with others, people
choose for or against peace… What we have done today at Assisi,
praying and witnessing to our commitment to peace, we must continue to do
every day of our life. For what we have done today’s is vital for the
world. If the world is going to continue, and men and women are to survive
in it, the world cannot do without prayer."

Here or Westward God is One

Here's a reminder to pray always for peace in Iraq and reconciliation among religions.

A message from the President of Ireland in the wake of a priest's recent death in Iraq:

I was in Rome last weekend when the tragic news came through that Father Ragheed Ganni, someone I first met in Lough Derg some years ago, and a former student of the Irish College, had been killed with three of the deacons who worked with him -- one of those deacons his cousin.

Father Ragheed's father and mother, and all his family, must suffer great pain at this time. Their loss is all the more terrible for the suddenness and evil manner of his death. May Father Ragheed's dear parents be sustained by their deep faith. The manner of Father Ragheed's death will be mourned in particular by the people of Iraq -- and as his funeral mass in northern Iraq demonstrated -- by the people of the whole region. Father Ragheed returned to live and minister in the ancient city of Mosul, in the parish of the Holy Spirit, in full consciousness of the risks.

There had been a bomb attack on the parish church as recently as Pentecost Sunday. Let us recognize Father Ragheed's sacrifice for what it was. Equally, we should reflect in truth on the sequence of events that has brought so many communities in Iraq to the edge of survival.

As we follow the daily tragedies of Iraq, we should pray, as Benedict XVI said, that this "costly sacrifice will inspire ... a renewed resolve to reject the ways of hatred and violence."

In the middle of the forced exodus to Connaught in the 1650s, a Gaelic poet (Fear Dorcha O'Mealláin) wrote about the possibility of faith even under dire circumstances of persecution and social dislocation (An Duanaire).

He spoke too of God's oneness:

"People of my heart, stand steady,

Don't make play of your distress.

Moses got what he requested,

Religious freedom, even from Pharaoh.

"Identical Israel's God and ours,

One God there was and still remains.

Here or Westward God is one,

One God ever and shall be."

Father Ragheed Ganni's death challenges us to work for reconciliation between faiths and to create a world where each human life is revered. The process of our own island's reconciliation that began so promisingly in Belfast a few short weeks ago may hold out hope for Father Ganni's beloved, but troubled, homeland.

These are days of sorrow for a caring family, for a lacerated country, and for so many others. But Father Ragheed lived his life by a commandment to love. In our sorrow we remember, on this feast of Corpus Christi, his sacrifice, his willing sacrifice in service of his faith. I thank God today for the blessing that has been given us in Father Ragheed Ganni.

"Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm dílis" (May his faithful soul be on God's right side).

What to Do About Iraq?

I was gratified to read that the U.S. Bishops have called for extensive public discussion concerning our options for the future regarding Iraq. Will they go further and help us start to examine why we went there in the first place and what that says about our national priorities and policies towards other nations? I hope so.

U.S. Bishops Call for Responsible Action in Iraq WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 14, 2007

(Zenit.org).- New proposals for how to proceed in Iraq must be judged by how the plan seeks to "bring about a responsible transition in Iraq," says the U.S. bishops' conference.Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. conference, said in a statement sent Friday that the "course of action, including current policies, ought to be evaluated in light of our nation's moral responsibility to help Iraqis to live with security and dignity in the aftermath of U.S. military action."

He added: "Our nation's military forces should remain in Iraq only as long as their presence actually contributes to a responsible transition. Our nation should seek effective ways to end their deployment at the earliest opportunity consistent with this goal. "Determining when a responsible transition can be met, Bishop Skylstad noted, will include reaching such benchmarks as minimally acceptable levels of security; economic reconstruction to create employment for Iraqis; stronger political structures and greater respect for religious freedom and basic human rights.

Bishop Skylstad also repeated calls for a "substantive, civil and nonpartisan" debate about alternative choices in Iraq and added that this "civil dialogue is even more essential and urgent at this moment of national discussion and decision."

Could it be... Seton or Satan?

My first experience of Elizabeth Ann Seton was when I visited her shrine daily in lower Manhattan when I was in New York City for financial advisor training in 1997. It's an unassuming Federalist chapel attached to a mansion built in the late 1700's on the site of her former home. Daily Noon Mass there was a trip. Folks of all varieties were present, from tourists to executives, all in the shadow of One World Financial Center where I was taking classes.

I was and am fascinated by the various roles in Seton's life. She was the first daughter of America to be canonized. Married woman of the world, teacher, foundress of an order of nuns. She was all of these things in turn, and she exemplifies what is best in the American spirit and in Catholic Social Teaching.

We could do worse than emulate her spirit of service. She, like our Lord, counted her position as nothing, and lowered herself to work on behalf of those who were in need. Like our Lord, hers was a choice she freely made.

Pope Paul VI spoke to the American situation when he said the following in 1975 at her canonization ceremony:

This most beautiful figure of a holy woman presents to the world

and to history an affirmation of new and authentic riches that are yours:

that religious spirituality which your temporal prosperity

seems to obscure and almost make impossible.

I shudder when I compare Seton's spirit of selfless service with the Spirit of Fear and Greed which animates our economic system. For example, we're fighting a war in Iraq whose economic cost is overshadowed by the lost opportunity cost of being unable/ unwilling to feed our hungry, house our homeless and educate Americans to a level we all deserve.

The tally on the box at the right shows the cost in dollars. That's bad enough. But, when you dip that dollar wad in the blood of innocent civilians as well that of our own service people the result is downright Satanic. We are not just shooting ourselves through the foot with this misbegotten war. We are stabbing ourselves in the heart.

I ask Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton to pray today for us, that we may have peace and gospel priorities for this dear country of ours.

Blessed be you, Lord Jesus, for having given us Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton as our sister. United to you, she loves us and carries us always in her prayers. May the fidelity and fervor of her life here on earth renew us in our own vocation. Hear us, Lord, in whom all the saints are one.