More
resources for observances of September 11 [8-22-02]
Received from Pax
Christi USA Rapid Response Network (RRN), with thanks to Janet Adair
Hansen
September
11 Statement from Catholics for a Peaceful Tomorrow
plus
Pax
Christi USA September 11 Prayer Service and links to other resources
Dear Pax
Christi Members and Friends,
Greetings of
peace from Pax Christi USA. Below you will find a new statement, Do
Not Forget the Things Your Eyes Saw - A Letter on the First Anniversary
of September 11,
from Catholics for a Peaceful End to War and Terrorism. Pax Christi USA
has endorsed this statement and invites its members and friends to do
the same. Endorsements can be organizational or individual and should be
sent by the end of the day on Thursday,
September 5th
to theendofwar@yahoo.com
- please include a note in the text of your message indicating that you
wish to endorse the statement as well as your name, address, and any
identifying title you may wish to add.
Resources
for Remembering September 11 -
Pax Christi USA also invites you to go to our website < www.paxchristiusa.org
> for the following resources (look for the blue bar with red
lettering on PCUSA's home page):
[A bemused note from your WebWeaver: It took me
at least a couple minutes to figure out that when you visit Pax Christi
USA and see "PCUSA," they're not talking about Presbyterians.
Live and learn.]
1. Pax
Christi USA Prayer Service in Remembrance of September 11th
2. USCCB:
Nine Days to 9-11: Looking Back and Moving Forward
3. There Must
Be A Better Way - Fast for Peace and Nonviolence
4. UN
International Day of Peace (September 21)
We hope these
materials will provide comfort and direction as together we mark this
first anniversary. We hope, too, that together we can find a better way
to defuse our enemies...as Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us,
"wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
Blessings of
Peace,
Phyllis
Turner Jepson, Director
Pax Christi USA
Local/Regional Development Office
Email: paxwpb@gate.net
Web: www.paxchristiusa.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do
Not Forget the Things Your Eyes Saw"
A
Letter on the First Anniversary of September 11
Catholics
for a Peaceful End to War and Terrorism
Only
guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things
your eyes saw. And lest these things depart your heart all the days of
your life. And you shall make them known to your children, and to your
children's children. - Deuteronomy 4:9
On this first
anniversary of September 11, 2001, we remember the horror of that day;
we honor the heroes and heroines; we renew our support for the survivors
and bereaved. But the challenge before us and the potential of this
anniversary is greater even than those important tasks. For as a nation
and as people of faith we have not yet done enough to probe that wound -
to use the painful experience of national brokenness and vulnerability
to ponder the possibilities for the making of peace -- in our own times
and for future generations. September 11th remains a
watershed event for our nation's soul, but the instinct for
transformation has not been nurtured.
Now perhaps
we are ready -- after a year has passed -- to stand in the rubble and to
seek another way. Now perhaps we are ready to ask what seeds were
planted on that horrendous day. In spite of where we have gone thus far,
what new life will we discover as we relive the trauma and experience
again the fear? Can it reshape our way of life and our relationships
with the rest of the world? This is a time to gather and remember, to
pause and reflect, to reclaim the hopes and dreams of justice and
shalom.
We are
Catholics seeking a peaceful end to both war and terrorism. We speak
today, not as religious leaders, though many of us are; but as people of
faith who want to join our hearts to the "joys and hopes, the grief
and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor
or afflicted." [1]
As missionary
congregations and communities of faith with relationships on nearly
every continent, we are impelled to view this moment in history from a
global perspective. Inextricable ties and universal values bind our
human family together, whether for our common survival on this planet or
for the pursuit of a more hopeful future.
In particular
at this time we lift up the cries of the Iraqi people, whose long term
suffering under authoritarian regimes and in bloody conflict with
neighboring Iran has been compounded by over a decade of U.S. bombing
and U.N. economic sanctions. In the past eleven years, according to U.N.
estimates, more than a million people have died, half of them children.
We cannot condone the threatened U.S. war in Iraq; the cost in human
life and suffering would be enormous - the possibility of destabilizing
the entire Middle East region, almost certain. We support the wisdom of
experienced voices that call for a policy of containment, lifting of the
sanctions, and negotiations for the return of United Nations weapons
inspectors. We reject the manipulated and truncated debate that is
leading inexorably to war. As people of faith we cannot be silent. A
preemptive war on Iraq would be illegal and immoral.
We are also
concerned about the escalating conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians - which war in Iraq would inevitably intensify; chaos and
violence in Afghanistan; enormous increases in military expenditures;
erosion of a commitment to defend human rights abroad and civil
liberties at home; and an ever increasing gap between the rich and the
poor throughout the world. Indeed, we are faced with life and death
choices. Violence, rooted in injustice and historic animosities,
threatens to overwhelm us. War is on the verge of circling the globe.
And its rationale comes in many forms: religious fundamentalism of every
kind, a presumption of racial and ethnic superiority, the pursuit of a
false national security, corporate and personal greed, and even
anti-terrorist activities.
On September
11 we were awakened as a nation to the terror of billowing smoke,
burning buildings and the cries of innocent children. Our pain and grief
opened us to the terror experienced by displaced families in
Afghanistan, sick and hungry children in Iraq, the permanently maimed in
Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the prospect
of millions starving or dying from AIDS in Africa, peasants in war-torn
Colombia, school children in Northern Ireland, people riding buses in
Israel, Palestinians living in the occupied territories, poor and
marginalized communities in our own country - and the list goes on. War
destroys the human heart and desecrates the sacred earth that is our
common home.
There must be
another way.
Indeed, in
the past year, we have come to recognize again, "that wars are poor
chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." (Martin Luther King,
Jr.) Either we continue on a course of action that threatens to lead the
world deeper into war, or we begin to develop a new vision of peace and
forge a more hopeful path into a common future. We applaud all who work
sincerely and honestly toward peaceful solutions, especially family
members of September 11th victims who have formed the
organization Peaceful Tomorrows (www.peacefultomorrows.org).
Our call at this moment is to wait on God, to return to our deepest
center, our Ground Zero, where all beings dwell in the God who is Love.
We are called
by our faith in a God of life and by the gravity of this moment in
history to read the signs of these times and to act in a manner
explicitly informed by the Gospel. As Catholic religious congregations
and organizations serving Catholic constituencies, we believe that there
is no greater expression or symbol of non-violent love than the way of
the cross that Jesus proclaimed.
In the words
of Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-violence is the greatest force at the
disposal of humankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of
destruction." We invite political and religious leaders to set
aside once and for all the words and weapons of war, and to embark on a
path of non-violence that will lead to lasting world peace.
Ours is a God
who promises life, who inspires hope, a hope that takes root in each of
our hearts and encourages us to offer the best of our prayers and our
labors, our compassion and our solidarity by committing ourselves to the
poor, defending the victims of war, struggling alongside those who are
excluded from the benefits of the global economy. September 11 revealed
the mystery and depth of evil and violence of which human beings are
capable; but it also revealed the mystery and real goodness and
generosity of human beings. Those who died on September 11, and those
who have died since in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iraq, and countless
other places on our planet, lay claim to our lives. Their dreams and
hopes for life must not be extinguished, but rather, by our actions of
solidarity and commitment to justice and peace, they can illuminate the
path before us and generate hope. Life, not death, will have the last
word.
[Endorsements
……]
Endorsements
should be sent by the end of the day on Thursday,
September 5th to theendofwar@yahoo.com
Some
possible actions in pursuit of this vision:
