POPE FRANCIS : WAR IS ALWAYS A DEFEAT FOR HUMANITY

Vatican City, 7 September 2013 (VIS) – More than a hundred thousand people gathered in St- Peter's Square this evening in response to Pope Francis' appeal during last Sunday's Angelus in which he convoked for today, 7 September, a day of fasting and prayer for peace, in the light of the dramatic circumstances which have engulfed Syria. Since then, this initiative has been welcomed and applauded not only by Catholics and other Christian confessions, but also by those belonging to other religions, from Buddhists to Jews and Muslims, and even those who do not belong to any religion. This week has seen extensive mobilisation on the part of parishes and associations, Caritas and the Community of St. Egidio, prayer groups and religious orders such as the Descalced Carmelites of the Holy Land, mayors and presidents of autonomous regions, organisations for peace, co-operation and development, unions, and so on. Many prominent figures have joined in with the initiative, such as the architect Renzo Piano, the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and the Grand Mufti of Syria, spiritual leader of the Sunnis, who invoked peace this afternoon in the Ummayad Mosque, Damascus, with the nation's religious leaders. A prayer for peace was raised this afternoon in Catholic churches around the world, from Australia to Egypt.

The Square was crowded with people since the morning; among them there were many who wished to confess, from 5.45 onwards, to one of the fifty priests in the Constantine Wing and below the colonnade; Francis wanted confessors to be present on this day as “true peace is born of the human heart reconciled with God and with one's brothers”. At 18.30, the words uttered by the Pope last Sunday were repeated as an introduction to the Vigil which began at 7 p.m. with a greeting from the Pope and the singing of the “Veni Creator”, followed by the enthroning of the image of the Virgin as “Salus Populi Romani”, carried by four Swiss Guards.

The Pope began by praying the Rosary; each mystery was accompanied by the reading of a poem by St. Therese of Lisieux about the child Jesus, and at the end he invoked Maria: “Queen of Peace, pray for us”. He then pronounced the following homily:

“'And God saw that it was good'. The biblical account of the beginning of the history of the world and of humanity speaks to us of a God who looks at creation, in a sense contemplating it, and declares: 'it is good'. This, dear brothers and sisters, allows us to enter into God’s heart and, precisely from within him, to receive his message. We can ask ourselves: what does this message mean? What does it say to me, to you, to all of us?

“It says to us simply that this, our world, in the heart and mind of God, is the 'house of harmony and peace', and that it is the space in which everyone is able to find their proper place and feel 'at home', because it is 'good'. All of creation forms a harmonious and good unity, but above all humanity, made in the image and likeness of God, is one family, in which relationships are marked by a true fraternity not only in words: the other person is a brother or sister to love, and our relationship with God, who is love, fidelity and goodness, mirrors every human relationship and brings harmony to the whole of creation. God’s world is a world where everyone feels responsible for the other, for the good of the other. This evening, in reflection, fasting and prayer, each of us deep down should ask ourselves: Is this really the world that I desire? Is this really the world that we all carry in our hearts? Is the world that we want really a world of harmony and peace, in ourselves, in our relations with others, in families, in cities, in and between nations? And does not true freedom mean choosing ways in this world that lead to the good of all and are guided by love?

“But then we wonder: Is this the world in which we are living? Creation retains its beauty which fills us with awe and it remains a good work. But there is also 'violence, division, disagreement, war'. This occurs when man, the summit of creation, stops contemplating beauty and goodness, and withdraws into his own selfishness.

“When man thinks only of himself, of his own interests and places himself in the centre, when he permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power, when he puts himself in God’s place, then all relationships are broken and everything is ruined; then the door opens to violence, indifference, and conflict. This is precisely what the passage in the Book of Genesis seeks to teach us in the story of the Fall: man enters into conflict with himself, he realizes that he is naked and he hides himself because he is afraid, he is afraid of God’s glance; he accuses the woman, she who is flesh of his flesh; he breaks harmony with creation, he begins to raise his hand against his brother to kill him. Can we say that from harmony he passes to 'disharmony'? Can we say this: that from harmony he passes to 'disharmony'? No, there is no such thing as 'disharmony'; there is either harmony or we fall into chaos, where there is violence, argument, conflict, fear.

“It is exactly in this chaos that God asks man’s conscience: “Where is Abel your brother?” and Cain responds: 'I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?'. We too are asked this question, it would be good for us to ask ourselves as well: Am I really my brother’s keeper? Yes, you are your brother’s keeper! To be human means to care for one another! But when harmony is broken, a metamorphosis occurs: the brother who is to be cared for and loved becomes an adversary to fight, to kill. What violence occurs at that moment, how many conflicts, how many wars have marked our history! We need only look at the suffering of so many brothers and sisters. This is not a question of coincidence, but the truth: we bring about the rebirth of Cain in every act of violence and in every war. All of us! And even today we continue this history of conflict between brothers, even today we raise our hands against our brother. Even today, we let ourselves be guided by idols, by selfishness, by our own interests, and this attitude persists. We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!

“After the chaos of the Flood, when it stopped raining, a rainbow appeared and the dove returned with an olive branch. I think also of the olive tree which representatives of various religions planted in Plaza de Mayo, in Buenos Aires, in 2000, asking that there be no more chaos, asking that there be no more war, asking for peace.

“And at this point I ask myself: Is it possible to walk the path of pace? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace? Invoking the help of God, under the maternal gaze of the Salus Populi Romani, Queen of Peace, I say: Yes, it is possible for everyone! From every corner of the world tonight, I would like to hear us cry out: Yes, it is possible for everyone! Or even better, I would like for each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it! My Christian faith urges me to look to the Cross. How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken. This evening, I ask the Lord that we Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions, and every man and woman of good will, cry out forcefully: violence and war are never the way to peace! Let everyone be moved to look into the depths of his or her conscience and listen to that word which says: Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation. Look upon your brother’s sorrow – I think of the children, look upon these - look upon your brother's sorrow, and do not add to it, stay your hand, rebuild the harmony that has been shattered; and all this not by conflict but by encounter! May the noise of weapons cease! War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity. Let the words of Pope Paul VI resound again: 'No more one against the other, no more, never! ... war never again, never again war!'. 'Peace expresses itself only in peace, a peace which is not separate from the demands of justice but which is fostered by personal sacrifice, clemency, mercy and love'. Forgiveness, dialogue, reconciliation – these are the words of peace, in beloved Syria, in the Middle East, in all the world! Let us pray for reconciliation and peace, let us work for reconciliation and peace, and let us all become, in every place, men and women of reconciliation and peace! Amen”.

Following the Pope's words, a moment of silence was observed during the preparation of the altar for the exposition of the Holy Sacrament. The adoration was accompanied by a biblical reading on the theme of peace, followed by the Pope's prayer on this subject and a responsorial invocation as a plea for peace. At the end of each of those moments, five pairs of people, representing Syria, Egypt, the Holy Land, the United States and Russia, placed incense in the censer to the right of the altar. This offering was accompanied by a series of invocations on the common theme of peace, including: “Lord of life, bring to us your peace, to where the fate of nations is decided” and “Stop, with your creative power, all violence against human life”.

The adoration was followed by the reading - “in the longest form planned for the celebration of a vigil” - of the Gospel of St. John. Then, from around 10.15 to 10.40 p.m., there was a long period of silence for personal prayer.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, Pope Francis imparted his Eucharistic blessing to those present. Today, the Pope wrote to his nine million followers on Twitter, “Pray for peace”.

Anticipatory self-defense and pendulum of world order -By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Has the global population as yet been able responding to the decade-old calls of Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein of setting aside the strong feelings they hold on many issues and consider themselves as members of biological species? Are we, the members of the unique biological species called ‘human’ are more actively moving towards the directions, where on every day, we sense the threat of bloodshed in the name of self-defense or even war thus pushing the very fate of this beautiful planet into mere destructions? While the majority of the human population is vehemently against war, have we been able seeing the hegemonic power in the world, rather renouncing war? Eminent writer Noam Chomsky rightly said, “By now, the world’s hegemonic power accords itself the right to wage war at will, under a doctrine of anticipatory self-defense, with unstated bounds. International laws, treaties and rules of world order are sternly imposed on others with much self-righteous posturing, but dismissed as irrelevant for the United States – a long-standing practice, driven to new depths by Reagan and Bush II administration.”

Here, what I would like to say is, the attitude or political tendencies of Clinton or today’s Obama is no exception, if not even worst, where playing double-standard has become a regular phenomenon for the major players of today’s global politics. Would it not be more appropriate and appreciable if the holders of the status called super-power would apply themselves the same standards they do to others, if not more stringent one? Western intellectual culture, rather culture followed by the politicians is “All for us and nothing for other people”, which is the outcome of their “Masters of Mankind” tendency. When they deal with the leading topic of today’s world – terror, their notion is rather straight-forward, where terror against them is the ultimate evil and their hegemony or terror is entirely appropriate. Take into consideration the Washington’s war against Nicaragua in 1980, where “soft-targets” on civilians were allowed to be attacked and murdered during military offensives, for, what Washington interpreted as “pouring democracy at the end”, at the cost of ocean of civilian blood. Democracy itself has different interpretation in the codes of US elites. To them, burning the Islamic Holy book Quran by Pastor Terry Jones is treated as part of freedom of expression or democracy, while doing the same with Bible would be blasphemous. Many analysts believe that, politicians in US are suffering from bankruptcy of moral clarity or idealism. In the case of Quran burning by Terry Jones and his pall, if the US administration would have moved quickly in stopping him from burning the Holy Scripture, the subsequent unrest in the Muslim world and death of people could be easily avoided.

In March 2002, President George W Bush declared the creation of ‘Millennium Challenge Corporation’ with the objective of boosting funding to combat poverty in the developing world. The project had promised US$ 10 billion budget, when the MCC was created. But just in three years, in 2005, the administration of President Bush greatly reduced the budget, causing in resignation of the head of MCC, as it failed to get any of the projects moving. It happened, not only because of heavy slice on the promised budget, but visibly the government not disbursing almost anything into the fund of Millennium Challenge Corporation. The Bush administration even rejected the call from British Prime Minister Tony Blair to double aid to Africa and expressed willingness to join other industrial countries in cutting unplayable African debts only if aid was correspondingly reduced, moves that amount to a death sentence for more than six million Africans a year who die of preventable and treatable causes.

In 2005, administration of President George W Bush suffered from severe dilemma on the issue of extraditing the most dangerous Latin American terrorist named Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to face charges of bombing a Cuban airline killing seventy-three people. The charges brought against Luis Posada were substantiated with specific evidences. But there was a ‘major issue’ for Bush administration, which stopped them in accepting the Venezuelan call for extraditing Posada. The fact is, after Posada escaped Venezuelan prison, he was reportedly hired by covert operatives of United States to direct the resupply operation for the Nicaraguan contras from El Salvador. While refusing to extradite Luis Posada, the US Senate and Congress passed a bill barring US aid to any nation, which would refuse any requests of extradition from Washington. In this case, the US Senate and Congress upheld the doctrine saying “those who harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves”.

What we see in today’s United States, is a state patronized propaganda war or spread of hatred against Muslims and Islam as a whole. With the fact that US have a large number of Muslim populations, it would be really unjust and unkind to label every Muslim as jihadists while the Islam as a rogue religion. On the other hand, no one utters a word about terrorism by Christian extremists in many countries in the world. It should be mentioned here that, the very recent bomb blast at Oslo [for the first time in their history] was by a fanatic Christian. There are also Christian terrorism in Europe and America. In a 2005 Congressional hearing about radicalization in US prisons, Sheila Jackson Lee stated that investigators needed to analyze Christian militants in America because they might try to "bring down the country”.

Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts by groups or individuals who claim the Christian motivations or goals for their actions. As with other forms of religious terrorism, Christian terrorists have relied on idiosyncratic or literal interpretations of the tenets of faith – in this case, the Bible. Such groups have used Old Testament and New Testament scriptures to justify violence and killing or to seek to bring about the "end times" described in the New Testament, while others have hoped to bring about a Christian theocracy. Beginning after the Civil War, members of the Protestant-led, Ku Klux Klan organization began engaging in arson, beatings, cross burning, destruction of property, lynching, murder, rape, tar-and-feathering, and whipping against African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and other social or ethnic minorities.

They were explicitly Christian terrorist in ideology, basing their beliefs on a "religious foundation" in Christianity. The goals of the KKK included, from an early time on, intent to, "reestablish Protestant Christian values in America by any means possible," and believe that "Jesus was the first Klansman." Their cross-burnings were conducted not only to intimidate targets, but to demonstrate their respect and reverence for Jesus Christ, and the lighting ritual was steeped in Christian symbolism, including the saying of prayers and singing of Christian hymns. Many modern Klan organizations, such as the Knights Party, USA, continue to focus on the Christian supremacist message, asserting that there is a "war" on to destroy "western Christian civilization."

During the twentieth century, members of extremist groups such as the Army of God began executing attacks against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States. A number of terrorist attacks were attributed to individuals and groups with ties to the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements, including the Lambs of Christ. Groups called Concerned Christians were deported from Israel on suspicion of planning to attack holy sites in Jerusalem at the end of 1999, believing that their deaths would "lead them to heaven." The motive for anti-abortionist Scott Roeder murdering Wichita doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009 was a belief that abortion is criminal and immoral, and that this belief went "hand in hand" with his religious beliefs. The Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996, as well as subsequent attacks on an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, were made by Eric Robert Rudolph; Michael Barkun, a professor at Syracuse University, considers Rudolph to likely fit the definition of a Christian terrorist, whereas James A. Aho, a professor at Idaho State University, argues instead that Rudolph was inspired only in part by religious considerations.

Hutaree was a Christian militia group based in Adrian, Michigan. In 2010, after an FBI agent infiltrated the group, nine of its members were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy to use of improvised explosive devices, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Terrorism scholar Aref M. Al-Khattar has listed The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, Defensive Action, The Freemen Community, and what Al-Khattar called "the Christian militia that supported Timothy McVeigh", as groups that "can be placed under the category of far-right-wing terrorism" that "has a religious [Christian] component".

There are currently a number of Islam hating groups and individuals in US, who are funding a project called “Killing a Muslim through a fellow Muslim”. Concept of this project is to provide finance to a Muslim, who would agree to kill a fellow Muslim. Such plans also include bombing mosques and Muslim dominated residential areas. No doubt, such ventures would sound extremely “glamorous” and “attractive” to a section of people in US, but, if someone will deeply scrutinize the ultimate motive of these people, will come to realize that, their sole intention is to destabilize the social harmony in United States as well turn America as the number one enemy of the Muslim world. Importantly enough, major segment of the Christian population in US as well as the entire Jewish community are always combating any such heinous activities such as “Killing a Muslim through a fellow Muslim”. It is only operated by a hand-picked number of so-called Christians, who also are Catholics. Dubious foreign funds are flowing into their hands for implementation of such plans. Those funders of these projects are using these “agents inside US” in continuing subversive activities, which would ultimately go against the interest of America.

Despite the fact of US administration’s double standard or their policy of anticipatory self-defense, it should be taken into consideration that the civilians in United States are not that much affected by any such fear. In fact, they too are victim of questioned policy of the politicians. Most importantly, it is high time for Washington to re-assess their policies, when their own economy is in trouble. They have no options left but to accept a plain fact that, economic strength is gradually slipping out of their grips. China, Japan, South Korea and India are already turning into the dominant players in today’s world economy. On the other hand, a number of Asian nations are no less influential militarily and in nuclear technology. The uni-polar world order is once again switching to bi-polar, if not multi-polar axis.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is the editor of Weekly Blitz