A Pastoral Message: Living With Faith and Hope After September 11
Background
"At this time of crisis and danger, we must speak a word of hope. It is our conviction that the current crisis can also open up new opportunities for peace. Our shared faith in the One God gives us hope and reminds us that God is on the side of peace. Hatred will not have the final word. We are one human family, and people ultimately want the same things for their own families--peace, security, dignity, opportunity. The unique role of the United States in the region and in the world gives our nation a special responsibility to pursue peace. The United States must make peace in the Middle East an urgent priority. Achieving Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace will have positive reverberations in the region and around the world. Our nation and the world will be much safer if peace takes hold in the Middle East."
Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Peace: From Crisis to Hope: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Religious Leaders Call on the United States to Make Peace a Priority
Action
- Write to your legislators about the need for a peaceful resolution to conflict.
- Invite a CRS Global Fellow to speak at your parish
- Support CRS’ work in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza
Links
Catholic Campaign for Peace in the Holy Land
USCCB: Help for the Holy Land
CRS: Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza
National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East
Repeated Social Teaching
Respect for and development of human life requires peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquility of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity… Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death. Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2304, 2306.
