The United States Catholic bishops have informed President George Bush that a “pre-emptive unilateral use of military force to over throw the government of Iraq cannot be justified.” By justification, the Catholic bishops mean moral justification. The bishops, as guardians of Jesus’ moral truths, are declaring that another Persian Gulf War is not morally justified and therefore immoral! By logic, the Catholic bishops are stating that the first Gulf War was also not morally justified.
The first Persian Gulf War took place in 1991. Over 200 thousand Iraqis died and almost 200 American souls. The Gulf War cost the taxpayers of the U.S. almost 25 billion dollars. The Gulf War resulted in the Sept. 11 counter attack in which another 3000 Americans perished. Two friends of mine from the seminary were almost among them.
The Gulf War was initiated by President George H.W. Bush, a graduate of Yale University and a disciple of President Richard Nixon. The barbaric, immoral Gulf War was started by Mr. Bush and his political strategist, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, to raise popularity poll numbers going into the 1992 election. The republicans were very concerned that Mr. Bush would lose as he did to Bill Clinton.
The Catholic bishops’ instruction regarding the immorality of the proposed attack on Iraq is also an implicit command to the Catholic military personnel. The bishop’s command as shepherds of immortal souls and guardians of Christian doctrine is that Catholic military personnel cannot be directly involved with an Iraq attack because it is immoral. The American bishops should have issued this instructional command before the first Gulf War. One catholic Gulf War soldier who would have been protected from the participation in the immoral violence of the Gulf War is Timothy McVeigh, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber.
Peace comes to the world by prayer and never by violence. The most powerful prayer to bring peace and stop wars is the Rosary. May all the students of Cabrini College pray the Rosary each day as Mother Cabrini did, an American saint.
Joseph E. Vallely, M.A
