late news" "
“Thank goodness, it’s over. That was the first reaction. But then a doubt: is it really the end of the war, of terrorism, of violence?”. SIR and Italian diocesan weeklies are posing this question in commenting on the toppling of the statue of a dictator which is always a suggestive sight and an eloquent sign in history. The fall of gods, the fall of idols. What we saw yesterday, 9 April, reminds us of the collapse of the Communist idols, Ceaucescu, Stalin and the collective fall of the Berlin Wall. But there are many unanswered questions about the political future of Iraq, its reconstruction, the role of the UNO, the relations between European states. Questions that no one is currently able to give a reliable answer”. “What interests us and what seems to us clear says one diocesan commentator is that this war was not fought against a people, but against a dictator and a regime, and, what is more, that this war was not a Christian crusade, nor even a Western crusade against Islam and against the East or at any rate against the underdeveloped world in general. In short it was not a clash of civilizations. The fact remains, however, that, while admitting that the risks run were limited and that some results may be positive for the Iraqi people, the condemnation of war as a system for the resolution of political problems has lost none of its validity. Our position has not shifted from the great teaching of John Paul II, who is not an isolated prophet. His voice in recent days has been united with that of John XXIII who, precisely forty years ago (11 April 1963), proposed to the world, in a persuasive and credible manner, the way of peace with his encyclical Pacem in terris. To forget this teaching, even at a time of military victory, would be the worst possible defeat”.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1197 N.ro relativo : 27 Data pubblicazione : 11/04/2003
