Unilateral military intervention is not the right response to the Iraqi crisis” “
A possible US attack on Iraq continues to arouse the concern of the bishops of various episcopal conferences and ecclesial movements Netherlands. A “preventive and unilateral military intervention” in Iraq is incompatible with the “just use of force”, say the bishops of the Netherlands in an official communiqué released in recent days, in response to recent developments in the US-Iraq crisis. At this moment, according to the Dutch bishops, “on the basis of the facts now at our disposal” a war against Iraq “would only be justifiable as a last resort”. This argument will continue to hold good “so long as no convincing proof is forthcoming of an inevitable and serious threat posed by the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”. “A serious and real threat both for the Iraqi people and for peace in the region and elsewhere”, the bishops declare, “is that constituted by the regime of Saddam Hussein”, but “unilateral military intervention is not the right response to remove it at the present time”. Other “non-military” means such as weapons inspections need to be pursued, together with other solutions that do not inflict further hardship on the population and that “compel the Iraqi regime to accept the resolutions of the UNO”. Of the same view is also the president of Pax Christi in Holland, Adrien van Luyn, bishop of Rotterdam, who argues that “a war is the last possible resort only if all the other means to avoid it have been tried. And the possibilities of reaching a peaceful solution have not yet all been exhausted”. Italy. “Even if indispensable, it is not the authorization of the UNO alone that justifies a preventive war, which remains “unacceptable”: that is the position of the Italian bishops on a possible war in Iraq. The position was recently spelt out by Msgr. Giuseppe Betori, general secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). In the course of a press conference, at which the final communiqué of the permanent Council of the Italian bishops (Rome, 20-22 January) was presented, Betori explained that “the authorization of the UNO is one of the indispensable conditions that make up the scenario of plausibility of a war, but it is not the only one. So long as the war remains preventive in aim, and the conflict in question is not a concrete response to a situation of attack, it is not the mere authorization of the UNO that may justify such a war, which would be “in any case unacceptable”. Meanwhile, preparations are going ahead in Italy for a national demonstration against the war in Iraq, to be held in Rome on 15 February 2003. Pax Christi too has lent its support to the protest: it will march with placards on which will be reproduced the face of an Iraqi child with the caption: I’m not a terrorist. Austria. Pressures for a peaceful solution of the Iraqi crisis are also growing in Austria. Appealing against a possible war against Iraq and violence in the Holy Land, the diocesan papers of Linz, Innsbruck and Feldkirch have promoted the action “Fast and prayer for peace”. The campaign is supported by various exponents of the Catholic Church and by Austrian Church organization such as Catholic Action (KAÖ), Pax Christi and ICO (“Initiative of the Christian Orient”). “By prayer and fasting we place ourselves in the hands of God, who traced in Christ the disarming road of love for our neighbour, for our enemy”, declared Bishop Maximilian Aichern of Linz to the Kathpress Catholic press agency. “Let us oppose the logic of violence with the peaceful power of prayer and fasting”, urged the Bishop of Voralberg, Klaus Küng. Also in the view of Evangelic pastor Hansjörg Eichmeyer, “a war against Iraq is not ethically justifiable”. According to Christian Friesl, president of Austrian Catholic Action, it is impossible to speak of a “just war” against Iraq. The ecumenical council of the Churches in Austria has also addressed an appeal to the Austrian federal government, urging a “peaceful solution of the Iraqi conflict”.
