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IRAQ-PROTEST Sep-26-2005 (690 words) With photos. xxxn
March said to signal more unified faith-based voice in opposing war
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With all major faith groups represented, the Sept. 24 protest march in Washington against the war in Iraq marked a new step in the effort to bring a more unified religious voice to the anti-war movement, according to a representative of Pax Christi USA.
Michael Jones, director of communications for the Catholic peace movement based in Erie, Pa., said at least 500 Pax Christi members and thousands of other Catholics participated in the demonstration, which drew an estimated 100,000 people for a march past the White House to the National Mall.
Other Catholic participants included members of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Catholic Worker movement, as well as individual Catholics such as 1976 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, whose vigil outside President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, drew national attention during the summer.
"We believe our presence was required," Jones said, adding that his organization's opposition to the war in Iraq is built upon the late Pope John Paul II's statement that war is "always a defeat for humanity."
"We wanted to say that it is still a defeat three years later, and it will still be a defeat three years from now," Jones told Catholic News Service in a Sept. 26 telephone interview.
He said "the faith-based contingent was huge" at the Sept. 24 demonstration and that an evening interfaith service Sept. 25 under two tents on the grounds of the Washington Monument had "the spirit of tent revivals" of the past.
Maguire spoke at the interfaith service, representing Pax Christi USA, Jones said.
Officials from Jewish, Muslim, Quaker, Buddhist, Mennonite and mainline Protestant houses of worship also spoke or led prayers during the service, which was organized by Clergy and Laity Concerned About Iraq and United for Peace and Justice.
On Sept. 26, Sheehan was the first of several dozen protesters arrested in front of the White House for failing to move on when ordered to by police. Other Catholics arrested included Jesuit Father Simon Harak and Marie Dennis, vice chairwoman of Pax Christi International.
Although the march's primary focus was against the war in Iraq, materials publicizing the Sept. 24 demonstration also linked it to "all the other fronts of the U.S. government's war for empire, including the struggle of working and poor people in the United States."
The "demands for the demonstration" included U.S. withdrawal from Puerto Rico and the Philippines; an end to "threats against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and North Korea"; no military recruiting in schools or communities; and defense of civil rights against "the racist, anti-immigrant and anti-labor offensive at home."
As the demonstrators were gathering, leaders of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Sisters and Lay Missioners issued a joint statement Sept. 23 reiterating "with even greater vigor" their opposition to the war in Iraq, which they first formally opposed in February 2003.
"The cost of war in terms of human life and suffering for the people of Iraq, for our own service people and their families, and for others involved in the conflict has been unconscionable," they said. "The burden of war has been carried by the poor and vulnerable as military expenditures steal funds from social programs in the U.S. and around the world."
The war also has caused tremendous ecological damage and has increased "the threat of terrorist attacks throughout the world," the Maryknoll leaders said.
"We the people can help by beseeching Congress that monies allocated to Iraq arrive there, that we cease the establishment of permanent bases, and that troops are withdrawn quickly yet in a manner conducive to the well-being of the people of Iraq," they added.
The Maryknoll leaders called for quick withdrawal of all U.S. "military troops, bases and secret prisons" and for U.S.-financed reconstruction in Iraq, "repairing damage caused by the invasion, occupation and years of U.S.-led sanctions."
"Reconstruction projects should not provide another windfall for U.S. firms," they said. "Contracts should provide jobs for Iraqi workers and companies."
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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