Anti-War Campus Catholics Rip Bush Speech

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush will deliver the commencement address at a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania.

What should have been a safe bet hasn't turned out that way.

Students and faculty at St. Vincent College have protested Bush's upcoming appearance because of his Iraq war policy.

In an open letter, St. Vincent faculty said Iraq is not a just war as defined by Catholic doctrine. The letter accuses the president of launching a "preemptive, unprovoked war" in Iraq and stifling debate at home through "fear-mongering and threats."

Read more: http://www.whiotv.com/politics/13301820/detail.html

[itcfish]

1. Catholic Church

Were big anti-Vietnam War protesters. I hope they speak up against this war.

[CBHagman]

15. Catholics have been speaking out against the Iraq war.

There has been quite a bit of news coverage of Catholic opposition to the Iraq war and various other conflicts. Here's one from March 2003 (Note the date):

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/05/sprj.irq.bush.vatican/

A Vatican envoy who met with President Bush Wednesday said he "clearly and forcefully" conveyed a message from Pope John Paul II that a war against Iraq would be a "disaster."

"You might start, and you don't know how to end it," said Cardinal Pio Laghi said after his half-hour meeting at the White House. "It will be a war that will destroy human life. Those people that are suffering already in Iraq, they will be in a really bad situation."

Back before the first Gulf War, Franciscan friars participated in antiwar demonstrations in Lafayette Park.

And here's what the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick, said about the fighting in Lebanon in the summer of 2006:

http://www.cathstan.org/news/08-17-06/1.shtml

The cardinal said he had echoed Pope Benedict's repeated calls for a cease-fire, and he prayed that the U.N. brokered cease-fire agreement would hold and help lead to peace in the region. "We need to protect Israel, and we need to protect Lebanon," the cardinal said.

Washington's retired archbishop spoke of attending meetings in Beirut and seeing smoke rising from buildings that had just been bombed, and he spoke to young people who weeks earlier had fled their villages in southern Lebanon and who now were cut off from their family members by the fighting and worried about their safety.

"The worse part of this war," he said, "is that more children have been killed than soldiers."

[formercia]

2. It's good to see the real Catholics speak out.

People who live their religion.

[kath]

3. and who are able to remember the larger peace and social justice issues

(and remember that pesky ol' Sermon on the Mount that the fundies totally ignore) and haven't been sucked into being single-issue voters because of abortion.

[formercia]

4. Jesus was a man of Peace.

The Xtofascists seem to forget that important point.

[heliarc]

7. King David wasn't.

I think that a lot of Christians in the US seem to downplay the importance of Jesus Christ's teachings in favor of the more military passages of the Bible.

[formercia]

8. The Moonie refrain

Moon is the True Parent and only Messiah.

[tabasco]

19. Then those people are not Christians, they are Davidists.

If Jesus does indeed return, he will no doubt point that out to them.

[heliarc]

20. Jesus, I hope so! nt

[pberq]

5. In the tradition of Dorothy Day

http://www.catholicworker.com/ddaybio.htm

. . .What got Day into the most trouble was pacifism. A nonviolent way of life, as she saw it, was at the heart of the Gospel. She took as seriously as the early Church the command of Jesus to Maurin: "Put away your sword, for whoever lives by the sword shall perish by the sword."

. . .

One of the rituals of life for the New York Catholic Worker community beginning in the late 1950s was the refusal to participate in the state's annual civil defense drill. Such preparation for attack seemed to Day part of an attempt to promote nuclear war as survivable and winnable and to justify spending billions on the military. When the sirens sounded June 15, 1955, Day was among a small group of people sitting in front of City Hall. "In the name of Jesus, who is God, who is Love, we will not obey this order to pretend, to evacuate, to hide. We will not be drilled into fear. We do not have faith in God if we depend upon the Atom Bomb," a Catholic Worker leaflet explained. Day described her civil disobedience as an act of penance for America's use of nuclear weapons on Japanese cities.

The first year the dissidents were reprimanded. The next year Day and others were sent to jail for five days. Arrested again the next year, the judge jailed her for thirty days. In 1958, a different judge suspended sentence. In 1959, Day was back in prison, but only for five days. Then came 1960, when instead of a handful of people coming to City Hall Park, 500 turned up. The police arrested only a few, Day conspicuously not among those singled out. In 1961 the crowd swelled to 2,000. This time 40 were arrested, but again Day was exempted. It proved to be the last year of dress rehearsals for nuclear war in New York.

[hedgehog]

6. But, but, pedophile priests! Pope Benedict was in the Hitler youth!

A nun said something mean to me 23 years ago!

Sorry, just trying to cut to the chase, since these postings turn up whenever the Catholic Church is mentioned!

[formercia]

9. Bet my Mother Superior could beat her at knuckle-busting.

You didn't want to cross that Lady.

[Kolesar]

11. As you seek, so shall you find

You won't find me sidetracking or hijacking *any* thread into an intentionally divisive direction.

You're the one who brought up pedophiles and Hitler Youth

[greyghost]

10. SVC Class of 1980 here...

I'm very proud of these kids, and the faculty.:toast: :kick:

[Sunny_Sunshine]

12. But why haven't they uninvited him

Clair McCaskil (senator from Missouri) has been uninvited to speak at her daughters graduation at either a catholic high school or college in St. Louis because of her pro choice views. I realize the right doesn't care about looking like hypocrites, so I'm just saying.

[brentspeak]

17. s/del

[CatholicEdHead]

13. This tradition is holding on despite efforts from all sides to play down

Most of the GOP Catholic outreach follows an "Orthodox" Catholicism. Follow the church 100% or else (church here means politically right only worried about abortion and gay marriage). This tradition is also often attacked as a "Marxist" influence in the church.


I am glad there is still a vocal anti-war tradition holding on. St Vincent is a Benedictine school, so they have leverage to get around complete Vatican control.

[Kolesar]

14. Benedict was attacking revolutionary theology a few days ago

Or so I heard on NPR. He said that they were substituting Marxism for God.

[many a good man]

18. Do you mean LIBERATION theology?

http://www.liberationtheology.org/

[Kolesar]

21. Yes, that's it

I am just recalling the radio report from memory. I am not really well read in that type of activism. Seem to have a good message to me

[CountAllVotes]

16. we are everywhere

thank god for that huh?

:kick: