Dennis
Bishop calls participation in war with Iraq 'matter of mortal sin' By Catholic News Service
CANTON, Ohio (CNS) -- An Ohio bishop has told Catholics in his Eastern-rite diocese that "any direct participation and support of this war against the people of Iraq is objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin."
Romanian Catholic Bishop John M. Botean of the Diocese of St. George in Canton made the comments in a March 7 Lenten letter to the priests of his diocese. He asked them to disseminate the letter to their parishioners.
"Humanly speaking, I would much prefer to keep silent," the bishop wrote. "It would be far, far easier for me and my family simply to let events unfold as they will, without commentary or warning on my part.
"But what kind of shepherd would I be if I, seeing the approach of the wolf, ran away from the sheep (John 10:12-14)? My silence would be cowardly and, indeed, sinful. I believe that Christ, whose flock you are, expects more than silence from me on behalf of the souls committed to my protection and guidance."
The pope and many other church leaders have argued that although the situation in Iraq demands action war is not the solution, particularly a pre-emptive war that lacks the backing of the global community. Among other arguments against war, the Vatican has said an attack on Iraq fails to meet the criteria of just-war teachings.
The United States continued to threaten to use military force to disarm Iraq, with or without U.N. consent. The Vatican continued to warn that a unilateral U.S. military strike would be immoral and would severely damage the peacekeeping role of the United Nations.
Bishop Botean began his letter by noting that Lent is "traditionally a time when we take stock of ourselves, our lives and the direction in which we are headed" and also a time for a deep "examination of conscience" as well as fasting and praying.
Lent is a time "during which we must pull our heads out of the sand and take a good hard look at the world around us and how we are living in it," he wrote. Today, "the most critical challenge to our faith" is the fact that the U.S. government is planning "a war against the people of Iraq," he said.
For Romanian Catholics as believers and U.S. citizens, he said, the possibility of war poses the question of whether "the killing of human beings in this war constitutes murder."
"Since war is about the mass infliction of death and suffering on the children of God, Christians can enter into it and fight in it only if the war in question strictly meets all the criteria of the just-war theory. ... Vague, loose, freewheeling, conniving, relaxed interpretations of Catholic just-war theory and its application are morally illegitimate," he said.
War against Iraq is "beyond a reasonable doubt ... morally incompatible with the person and way of Jesus Christ" because it "does not meet even the minimal standards of the Catholic just-war theory," Bishop Botean said. Thus, "any killing associated with it is unjust and, in consequence, unequivocally murder ... direct participation is intrinsically and gravely evil and therefore absolutely forbidden."
When a conflict arises between church teaching and secular morality, people "must obey God rather than man" (Act 5:29), he wrote. The church "warns, 'Blind obedience (to immoral laws) does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out,'" he added.
Bishop Botean said that he was speaking to his people on this matter not "as a theologian or as a private Christian voicing his opinion."
"Nor by any means am I speaking to you as a political partisan. I am speaking to you solely as your bishop with the authority and responsibility I, though a sinner, have been given as a successor to the apostles on your behalf," he said.
He added that he was speaking from "the deepest chambers of my conscience as your bishop."
END
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