| > back | Bishop's Statements Appropriate Response to September 11, 2001 As your shepherd in Christ and fellow citizen, I invite you to prayerfully pause with me, to step back for a moment from the past week’s rush of horrific events. It is important for us to linger awhile with the prince of peace, seeking the light of divine Wisdom our faith affords. Let us commend our dead to God’s mercy and pray for the consolation of their families and friends. May the injured in body and spirit be restored to health. And let us thank God for the rescue workers and generous volunteers whose heroic efforts have sustained our trust in human goodness. Again and again we have heard that these terrorist attacks have forever changed our nation. As Catholics and Americans, how ought we respond to this new reality? Jesus warned that an attack on the soul is more dangerous than physical injury (Matthew 10:28). Our national community has been severely wounded by hate-filled people. We must resist their hate. They have succeeded in their attack on our neighbors and institutions. But we must not let their hate enter our spirit. Certainly our nation must pursue, locate and bring to justice those responsible. We must dismantle terrorist networks and help correct the injustices that underlie the seemingly endless cycles of hate and violence. Understandably our shock and sadness are giving way to a righteous anger that cries for retribution. We want to appease our wrath by striking at those who have so cruelly injured us. What could be more natural? But here we must pause for a moment. Revenge is a poison we prepare for others but consume ourselves. It distorts the spirit. We saw on September 11 the depths of evil into which hate can lead. We must not respond in kind. If we give way to vengeance then the terrorists have injured not only the American body, they have reached our soul. That would be their ultimate victory. Threats against and attacks on our Arab and Islamic neighbors sadly exemplify a misplaced desire for retribution. This is never justified and must always be opposed. As citizens of a democracy we are responsible for the policies our nation pursues. We cannot hand over the obligations of conscience to others. The United States has immense wealth, power and freedom to act. How ought we respond to these attacks? There is a terrible and dangerous irony in our tragic circumstance. Unable to reach those responsible for our nation’s policies, the terrorists have randomly killed ordinary Americans and, at the World Trade Center, citizens of other nations. The well known difficulties of finding and reaching terrorists now tempt us to acts which will harm innocent people. There is talk of war. The loss of innocent life, euphemistically called collateral damage, is an inevitable part of modern warfare. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Catholic moral tradition prohibit attacks on innocent life. Our goal must be to find strategies that secure our nation and the world from terrorism without injury to the innocent. Failing this we risk inflaming the cycle of violence and distorting our own spirit. In all we must resist the culture of violence that seemingly threatens to engulf our world. I pray that the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the community of the Spirit will be our haven and the wellspring for all we do in the difficult days that lie ahead. |
