National Catholic Reporter
Subscribers only section
October 27, 2006
 

Letters

Ubiquitous bomblets

While Bill Clinton and Condi Rice have been slugging it out over who had the best administration record against Osama bin Laden, people continue to die. In the U.S.- supported incursion into southern Lebanon, Israel dropped enormous amounts of cluster bombs across fields and villages, mostly in the last days. Since the truce, 14 persons have been killed and scores maimed from unexploded ordnance. U.N. officials reported at the end of September that close to a million cluster bomblets remain unexploded, a number higher than first reported. The 200,000 displaced persons planning to return home are now delayed by as much as two years as a result of this discovery. Simple math indicates that there are five cluster bomblets for every one of those children, women and men, all because of American-Israeli policy. It would make more sense for the former president and the current secretary of state to stop arguing and go inspect the bomb-infested areas, much as Princess Diana did for land mines a decade ago, with the express purpose of focusing world attention on this situation. Specifically, they must demand that Israel turn over information on grid references for cluster bomb strikes, which they have failed to do. The two antagonists should also ask for bomb removal experts to join the Lebanese and U.N. teams in disarming these ubiquitously scattered live bomblets. Better that Bill and Condi make peace together than lob darts at each other. The ancient Hebrew injunction still applies: Whoever saves a single human life saves humanity.

MARTIN DEPPE
Chicago


Different view of torture

In response to “Debate about torture misses the point,” by Margaret McCaffrey (NCR, Sept. 29): When I saw the first photos that accompanied the news about the torture at Abu Ghraib, I instantly thought of the crucifixion. The positioning of the hooded prisoner who was made to stand on a box with his arms outstretched and electrical wires connected to his hands seemed like an obvious parody of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Yet I’ve never heard anyone else make that connection, which seems so apparent. Maybe if they equated the two, Christians would have a different view of torture, the status of the prisoners (“enemy combatants”) and the war itself.

CONNIE RUTTER
San Pedro, Calif.

* * *

My faith proclaims that Jesus Christ is the eternal and all-loving God. Accordingly, the life of each individual is priceless and of infinite value, even the life of one guilty of the most heinous crime. Consequently, the invasion and bombardment of Iraq was totally immoral, unjust and intrinsically evil. It ignored divine law, which supersedes all national and international human law, even the Geneva Conventions. Further, the deliberate torture of a human being for any reason whatsoever is also evil. The meaning of the word “torture” is not open to interpretation. It can’t be minimized or redefined as Congress recently attempted by legislation through the president’s influence. Torture is totally heinous, disgusting, depraved and un-American. To torture another for any reason is to torture Christ himself. “For whatever you do, even to the least of my sisters and brothers, you do unto me.”

The pastor of a church is called to boldly, unselfishly, aggressively and without personal aspirations lead, direct and feed the flock with Jesus’ sacred word. If clergy fail to humbly speak out and proclaim the evil of war and torture to the people under their care and to the war machine that acts fallaciously in their name and on behalf of every American, who will?

ROBERT P. DAILY
Florence, N.J.


What would Francis do?

In October, animal lovers all over the country brought their dogs, cats, birds and other animals to churches for the blessing of animals. This ceremony is conducted in remembrance of St. Francis who loved all creation. It’s a nice ceremony, but it raises a question I believe Francis would ask were he here today: In our animal-loving society, why does the majority miss out on our compassion? More than 10 billion intensively-raised land animals will end up on dinner tables this year in America alone. They’re flesh and blood and can feel love, happiness, loneliness and fear just like dogs and cats. Because they were born chickens, pigs or cows, these animals are denied everything natural to them, never able to feel the earth beneath their feet or the sun on their faces, what they were designed and created to enjoy.

Instead, they endure mutilation without painkillers. Chicks have their beaks burned off. Cows and pigs are castrated without pain relief, dehorned, branded. Veal calves are kept in lonely isolation, while chickens are crowded so closely together they can barely move, spending their lives confined to stalls and metal cages, terrified and suffering. Their fear and pain end only after they have been driven to the mechanized massacre of today’s slaughterhouse. We have a choice when we sit down to eat, to add to the level of violence, misery and death in the world, or to emulate Francis’s active compassion for all creatures. In honor of this great saint, consider blessing all animals by not eating any of them. Why just say grace when you can show it?

DAN PADEN
Norfolk, Va.


Defense spending

Our policy of $1 billion daily for “defense” seems to be draining the treasury while filling the hostels, hospitals and jails with the homeless. The Associated Press reported last year: “Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, the nation’s jails held 2.1 million people or about one in every 138 U.S. residents.” In the same report it was noted the number of admissions to federal prisons in 2004 exceeded releases by more than 8,000. What’s more, our “secret” CIA prisons abroad held over 14,000 “terror suspects.” National Public Radio in April 2006 reported that 10 percent of the homeless in Los Angeles were Gulf War veterans. There has been a tenfold increase in Gulf War vets seeking treatment in hospitals according to the Veteran’s Administration. Recent disclosures of classified documents reveal that “staying the course” means we are generating terrorists faster than we can kill them. We are also transfixed in what historians call “imperial overreach.” The opposite of love is not hatred but passivity. How can we remain on our sofas when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld admits over $2 trillion missing in the Pentagon books?

VIC HUMMERT
Lafayette, La.


On the warpath

In the context of your editorial on Bush, Iraq and the truth (NCR, Oct. 6), one hopes that folks are well-informed and paying attention. The Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Woolsey-Perle-Abrams-Feith coalition put together their war-making plan, the Project for the New American Century, in the 1990s. It’s straightforward and clear. So is their strategy to sell it. They foment fear, manipulate a compliant media, then hoodwink a misinformed or uninformed electorate into buying it. It worked perfectly with regard to Iraq. Now it is at full throttle again with regard to Iran and North Korea. (It’s election time!) Will it work again? Who knows? At this time, one cannot know. One can only fear. We will know on Nov. 8. Fool me once, your fault. Fool me twice or more, my fault.

(Fr.) ARMAND MATHEW, OMI
Brownsville, Texas


Israeli objectives

I find Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz in denial when he states in his letter (NCR, Oct. 13) that “Israel does not want to dominate its neighbors nor does it want to occupy others’ lands.” Obviously it is doing both. He omits crucial facts and misrepresents the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians, like everyone else, have a right to resist occupation of their homeland. In a preemptive strike in 1967, Israel illegally invaded and occupied their territory and arrogantly created Israeli settlements, making it difficult to conduct peace. I wouldn’t call the Palestinians terrorists but rather homeland defenders. In any other country, settlements in which only Jews are allowed to live, connected by roads that non-Jews are forbidden to use, would be cited as an example of discrimination, if not racism. Rabbi Ehrenkranz failed to state that Israel has ignored two U.N. resolutions demanding it withdraw from Palestinian territory and that Amnesty International contends that Israeli forces committed numerous war crimes. Left out is the fact that Israel destroyed 4,170 Palestinian homes since September 2000.

In Lebanon, the Israelis destroyed bridges, roads, gas stations, airports, seaports, wheat silos, vehicles with medical supplies, clearly marked ambulances taking the wounded to clinics, even a milk factory. The number of fleeing refugees neared 1 million. Israeli soldiers shot fleeing refugee families in cars, bombed apartment buildings, hospitals and the poor huddled in south Beirut slums, none of them Hezbollah soldiers. Israel need only withdraw to the 1967 border for all hostilities to end. Most important, omitted is the fact that the Arab League has offered to recognize Israel and safeguard its borders if it will withdraw its troops. Israel has refused this peace offer.

FRANK P. BELCASTRO
Des Moines, Iowa


Icons of Jesus

In her efforts to enlighten an already enlightened Catholic church, Denise Groves writes from a position of anger and frustration regarding the issue of women in the priesthood (NCR, Sept. 29). She proposes that women are not accepted as priests due to latent fears of those who would wish to become bishops in the future. She purports that women do, in fact, image Christ; and that just because women and men are not equipped with similar genitalia, “medieval mummery” has occurred. Ms. Groves is a student and should continue as such, since obviously more history, scriptural research and church experience are just what she needs. The church is not a forum for societal or cultural feminism. The priesthood is not about power or climbing up the corporate ladder. The church doesn’t equate men and women, although each has specific vocations and gifts to offer. The priest is in persona Christi, so it would be a sacrilege to put an iconic Jesus in a dress.

I could cite numerous scriptural passages supporting why the apostles were men, why priests are men, why our Blessed Mother was not an apostle, but I will leave that for her independent study, I hope with a very patient male priest. If she believes women should be priests and is happy with spiritual guidance in the Episcopal church, then stay there. She should feel free to return to the Catholic church when she recognizes the fullness in its truth and the strength and pride of women who celebrate the blessing of being women, instead of always trying to be the equivalent of men.

SHARI McGUINNESS
Buffalo Grove, Ill.


Sex scandals

Regarding the sex scandals in Washington and in the church, the “enablers” seem to be all over the place. Who knew what, when, and what did or didn’t they do with information? I’m talking about the Republican Party and church leadership. The parallels between the two are shocking as well as striking. The Republicans blame the Democrats. Together with the church hierarchy they blame an overzealous press. Even the Vatican took up this position early on in the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Both Republicans and the church are blaming homosexuals for the root cause of their problems. Now we find out that both Foley and Fr. John Skehan, who stands accused of grand theft charges in Florida for having misappropriated at least $ 8.7 million dollars in church money, are even sharing the same lawyer, David Roth. Fr. Skehan hired Roth to negotiate the terms of his surrender with the state attorney.

(Sr.) MAUREEN TURLISH, SND
New Castle, Del.


Movements thwarted

Regarding the comment by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in Joe Feuerherd’s column (NCR, Oct. 6), “I only see what I see and when all is said and done, your guess is as good as mine,” it shows that feigned ignorance is bliss, as long as the clerical caste is in charge of the future of the Roman Catholic church. If the priest-worker movement was not squelched in France, the Catholic Action movement (Christian Family Movement, Young Christian Students, etc.) not disrespected, and the suppression of women religious not permitted, we would have a vigorous, happy church today. If Paul VI was not intimidated by the future Pope John Paul II to dismiss the findings of the birth control commission and pull back his decision for optional celibacy, we would not have the distrust of church authorities we have today. All of these movements were thwarted as if they were weapons of mass destruction.

MICHAEL J. GALLAGHER
Titusville, Fla.


No profiles in courage

You naively went to press too soon with your editorial, “Patriotism’s new profile” (NCR, Sept. 29). I have been an avid reader for many years. For your editorial staff to be taken in by professional politicians is a critical mistake. These people -- John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham -- as politicians, are primarily interested in the preservation and advancement of their own careers. They speak well but act differently. They, in the end, act like most of the others. To describe them with words such as “courage” and “bravery” is to do a disservice to those concepts. In the end they compromised and sold out the ideas of justice and fairness to the Bush doctrine. If you are looking for glimpses of courage in the U.S. Senate, you may want to look to people like Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy.

FRED PERRI
West Salem, Wis.


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National Catholic Reporter, October 27, 2006