Religious leaders speak out against war with Iraq

By Julie Sly
Herald editor

More than a dozen Sacramento-area religious leaders at a press conference Nov. 26 expressed their hopes that the United States will not invade Iraq and bring about the deaths of countless civilians there.

The U.S. Catholic bishops have “serious questions about the moral legitimacy of any preemptive, unilateral use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq,” said Father Michael Kiernan, director of social service ministry for the Diocese of Sacramento. He represented the Diocese of Sacramento at the gathering at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento.

“We pray that President Bush will step back from the brink of war with Iraq, and we invite Catholic lay people to discern how to best live out their vocation to be agents of peace,” he said.

Father Kiernan, citing the U.S. bishops’ statement on Iraq released Nov. 13, said the present situation in Iraq does not meet the just-war principles that Catholic theology uses to judge possible military action. He said the church limits just cause to cases in which the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation is lasting, grave and certain.

He also noted that the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have said in recent statements that a war in Iraq “would be devastating for the Iraqi people” and “thousands of innocent civilians would likely die.”

In addition, “this war can easily stir up more anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, fuel a desire for revenge and promote destabilization,” Father Kiernan said.

The Rev. Donald Brown, dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, contended that the teachings of Christ and the early Christian church — and of most every faith group around the world — point to strong opposition to war.

“To the average person in the pew, in a synagogue or at a local mosque, I ask you to think, ask questions, and don’t accept this march to war as something that is inevitable,” he said.

“War is always tragic, both for the victor and for the vanquished,” he added. “And while the mood in the U.S. seems to be supportive of disarming Iraq….in these tense days, Christians must speak out in favor of peace and a policy of caution against war, and urge every possible means be taken so that peace is pursued rather than war.”

Sister of Social Service Simone Campbell, executive director of Jericho, an interfaith justice lobby in Sacramento, said that she would be traveling with a delegation of 10 other religious leaders to visit Iraq next month.

“We want to be a witness to the religious community in Iraq that we do stand in solidarity, that we as people of faith reach out across boundaries and reach out beyond our government to say that as believers we can make peace,” she said. “We can reach out and risk our personal security to say we trust each other.”

Among the other religious leaders speaking at the press conference were the Rev. David Bennett, representing the United Methodist Church in California and Nevada; the Rev. Kay Doyle, representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; the Rev. Larry George, senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Sacramento; the Rev. Jim Lee, pastor of Christ Unity Church; the Rev. Doug Kraft of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento; Jim Lindbergh of the Friends Committee on Legislation; Imam Al Hajj Askia Abdulmajeed, a chaplain at Folsom State Prison, representing local Muslims; and the Rev. David Thompson, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento.

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