Open Letter from the Catholic Worker to Catholic Bishops

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | press release Tuesday December 05, 2006 12:23 by Dublin Catholic Worker 087 918 4552

Peace on Earth, Resist the War, Close Guantanamo, Stop CIA Torture Flights!

This Catholic Worker initiative flows from last December's "Witness Against Torture" walk through Cuba to Guantanamo Bay, nonviolent direct actions at U.S. Mission to the U.N. (NYC) and White House (DC) and a gathering gof 350 Catholic Workers from 55 communities in North America and Europe (Oct, Iowa, USA). Catholic Workers will hold vigil at their local Cathedrals Sunday Dec 10 (Human Rights Day) and then converge on Washingotn DC for nonviolent direct action on Jan. 11th (5th anniversary of opening of Guantanamo military prison).

PEACE ON EARTH, RESIST THE WAR!

An Open Letter from the Catholic Worker to Catholic Bishops

We are Catholic Workers from across the US and Europe who have come
together to celebrate special anniversaries of a number of our houses, to
pray and reflect about what God calls us to at this critical moment in
history, and to recommit ourselves to the Catholic Worker vision of
creating a new society in the shell of the old.

In our various communities we have daily contact with the victims of
our society. Thus, we strive to do the works of mercy and to follow
Jesus' command to be nonviolent witnesses for peace and justice. As we
confront the unrelenting violence and assaults on human life and our
endangered earth, we repent for our own complicity in our culture of
violence, and call on our church and all people of faith and goodwill
to do the same. Taking the Sermon on the Mount as our Christian
manifesto, we commit ourselves to upholding the sacredness of all life
wherever it is threatened.

As a world community, we find ourselves in a complex and dangerous
moral crisis. Longstanding cultural compulsions have obscured the
basic teachings of Christ. We have become the wealthiest nations on
earth in the history of humankind and the price we have paid is the
collective loss of our souls. The ongoing efforts of militarization
and exploitation of global resources have pushed us to a level of
accepting the unacceptable. Pre-emptive war and the slaughter of
innocents is being carried out in our names and for profit. A creeping
apathy has allowed room for extreme abuses such as torture and the
destruction of whole social fabrics. We are violating our own
spiritual principles and civil laws to attain excessive creature
comforts while others suffer from unimaginable deprivation and
violence. We are a living a lifestyle that demands war and
distracts from our true calling of loving and caring for one another. Our path
to redemption lies in the repudiation of domination and embracing the
daily need of service to the vulnerable.

The teaching of Saint Paul tells us that when the health of one member
of our community is suffering, the health of the whole body is
lowered. We must make this time of crisis into an opportunity to move
forward and carry on Christ's message without compromise. In the face
of nuclear capabilities we have no other choice. God, the victims, and
timeless prophetic voices call on us, the Church, the body of Christ,
to repent from the sins of war, torture, and killing, from the making
of widows and orphans, and from the fruitless works of darkness
resulting in this last century being the bloodiest on record.

We as Christians recognize that the Christ, whom we worship, was
himself a victim of torture. We are called to end his
ongoing crucifixion which has been made manifest in our nations policies. This
is particularly relevant in the latest Military Commissions Act of
2006. It is with burning sorrow that we look around at the world in
which we live at the suffering, war, torture, and killing of our
brothers and sisters, and realize that the response of both ourselves
and our Church has been wholly inadequate. We cry out to be part of a
Church that prays and works for peace, loves our enemies, and embraces
the redemptive power of forgiveness. We cry out for a church that
speaks without fear of consequences, including loss of revenues.

We understand that we live in a time of great fear and peril. We need
to remind ourselves that we are not to fear those that can kill the
body, but instead to fear those that can kill the soul. Our domestic
and foreign policies have left us a nation without a soul.

We call on our Church to be a prophetic voice, a
sanctuary, and a source of encouragement to those who want to work
together in community towards peace and justice. To this we recommend:

•Prayer, fasting, vigiling and nonviolent civil resistance to end the
military occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

•That all soldiers refuse to participate in these wars

*That all Irish airport and government workers refuse to refuel and process
CIA torure flights and U.S. troop movements through Ireland.

•That the Church actively support and encourage all conscientious
objectors

*That the Irish government and Shannon Airport cease refueling
war planes en route to the illegal invasion of Iraq.

•That the Irish government and Shannon Airport refuse refuel the
CIA flights involved in renditions and torture

•The closing of Guantanamo and other secret U.S. military prisons

•The eradication of the Military Commissions Act 2006

•Redirect our resources from war making and exploitation to meeting
human needs and saving our planet

•An equitable redistribution of resources by simplifying our
materialistic lifestyle

•All people of faith and goodwill join us in nonviolent action on January 11,
2007, the 5th anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantanamo,
to call for its closing.

As we approach this season of Advent and Christmas, let us be people
of Light. "The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not
overcome it" (John 1:5).

Dublin Catholic Worker
Ph. 087 918 4552
www.peaceontrial.com