Catholics Respond to War with Vigils, Prayer Services

By Willy Thorn
Catholic News Service
(From the issue of 3/27/03)

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. Catholic leaders, organizations and parishes responded to the U.S. led war on Iraq with protests, vigils, round-tables, marches, sit-ins and teach-ins, even a bicycle race.

Masses for peace -- some presided over by bishops, archbishops and cardinals -- were held in Arlington, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minn., and the Washington metro area. Prayer services were held in Detroit, San Francisco and Richmond.

Bishop Paul S. Loverde celebrated Mass March 20 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington and March 21 at St. William of York Church in Stafford.

Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., asked the priests in his archdiocese to schedule special liturgies for peace, and to "open your church to allow people of all faiths an opportunity to pray." The request for special Masses and prayers was echoed around the nation.

In Salt Lake City between 2,000 and 3,000 protesters marched two miles from a downtown government building to the state capitol. Activists in San Francisco threatened to shut down that city's business district, home to several corporations they said were profiting from the war and planned postwar rebuilding efforts. Coalitions in Washington held marches and a bicycle race. There was a teach-in at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Md., where 20 percent of students come from military families.

Over the March 15-16 weekend, some 6,850 candlelight vigils took place in 140 countries; they included one attended by nearly 500 people in Portland, Ore. On March 20 Jesuit-run Marquette University in Milwaukee held a candlelight vigil.

In Philadelphia, two University of Pennsylvania groups -- Amnesty International and Penn for Peace -- organized a series of workshops on the war on terrorism and responses to a war on Iraq. Co-sponsoring them was the Northwest branch of the School of the Americas Watch, an organization that aims to shut down an Army-run school for military leaders at Fort Benning, Ga. Opponents of the school say some of its graduates have been linked to atrocities in the Third World.

Across the state in Erie, more than a dozen activists, including Benedictine Sisters and Pax Christi USA members, were arrested for blocking the entrance to a federal building.

In Detroit, 27 people were arrested, including at least one Sister of Mercy, after several hundred people marched to the federal courthouse.

In the nation's capital, Catholic groups organized a prayer vigil and afterward 11 Catholic activists were among 27 arrested for demonstrating without a permit, after they climbed a barricade near the White House and knelt in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, recently closed to pedestrians for security reasons.

Pax Christi USA's policy director, Jean Stokan, said the arrests and the vigil and rally, attended by between 50 and 100 participants, were planned with Catholics for a Peaceful End to Terrorism. Also in attendance were members of the Sisters of Mercy, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Medical Mission Sisters and Network, a Catholic social justice lobby group.

Mercy Sister Tina Geiger, who was among the participants, noted that her order was founded in the 1800s to "work for the economically poor, especially women and children," the groups most affected by war.

"We're here to raise our voices in opposition to the war," Franciscan Father Joseph Nangle said in an interview with Catholic News Service at the vigil. "Some say that's unpatriotic ... but when the decisions are immoral ... then it's incumbent on us, as people of faith and people of good will to say, 'No, it's still not right.'"

He added, "The best way to support the troops is to bring them home."

That sentiment was echoed by Eric LeCompte, chairman of Pax Christi USA National Council.
"The policies of this administration stand in stark contrast to the values we hold as Catholics," he said. "Neither Jesus nor our consciences will allow us to stand idly by."

In Virginia, the Diocese of Arlington created a resource packet -- including prayers, papal texts and the "ABCs of nonviolence" -- for parish and school use.

Amid the abundance of anti-war actions, many Catholics expressed support for the war but most of all stressed the need to back the troops.

In Baltimore, when members of St. Vincent de Paul Parish hung a huge banner on the church proclaiming "War is not the answer," several long-time members quit the parish in disgust.
In the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, La., St. Bridget Church in Schriever set up a display with photos of its 61 deployed members.

In other places relief efforts were under way to help victims of the war. In the Diocese of Nashville, St. Christopher's in Dickson was profiled in Time magazine for its quilt-making operation. Parishioner Judith Meeker organized more than 1,600 students to make and send quilts to orphanages, the homeless, day-care centers and trauma centers in Kabul, Afghanistan; Baghdad, Iraq; and Bethlehem, West Bank.

In some dioceses, priests who are military chaplains in the Reserves have been called up for service, thinning out already low numbers of priests.

In the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, All Saints Parish in Rossford enlisted U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, to lead a workshop on Middle East tensions.

She outlined the last century of Middle East history, surprising the 80 in attendance with the date the League of Nations approved establishment of a homeland for Jewish people in Palestinian territory: Sept. 11, 1922.

"Discontent from the unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict fuels terrorists," she said. "The fervor of the enemy" will not abate, she noted, adding that she fears the U.S. may have inadvertently done what Osama bin Laden never could -- unite Islamic fundamentalists.

"We can take the ground (in Iraq) tomorrow, but we can't bring the peace," she said. "War won't end the terrorists."

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