TO THE EDITOR:
It was refreshing to find Stephen Kent's commentary "Ending a war that has no victors" in the pages of The Rhode Island Catholic (September 23, 2012).
The article makes the important point that after ten years of war in Afghanistan, the death of the 2,000th American there barely raised an eyebrow here at home. "It was just a number, like the Dow Jones crossing 13,000. The 2,000th life is just as precious as the first one lost a decade ago. The lack of outrage is disturbing."
He's right, of course, but it doesn't end there. A recent book by John Tirman of M.I.T., The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars, documents that, conservatively, at least six million civilians have been killed and tens of millions have been displaced in our most recent wars -- all of them poor, the majority children.
Tirman writes, "One of the most remarkable aspects of American wars is how little we discuss the victims who are not Americans. The costs of war to the populations and common soldiers of the 'enemy' are rarely found in the narratives and dissections of conflict, and this habit is a durable feature of how we remember war. As a nation that has long thought of itself as built on Christian ethics, even as an exceptionally compassionate people, this coldness is a puzzle. It is in fact more than a puzzle, for ignorance or indifference has consequences for the victims of American wars and for America itself."
In America these dead and destitute, the victims of wars the Vatican has deemed unjust and immoral, remain invisible and voiceless. It is also disturbing that in our churches we not only refuse to pray for our enemies as Jesus commanded, but we cannot even find it in our hearts to pray for these millions of civilians who could hardly be counted as enemies at all, these innocents whose blood is on our hands. It is difficult to imagine that Jesus (or for that matter even St. Augustine, author of the Just War Theory) would have remained silent.
It is true that discussion of the morality of war is unpopular. Teaching the Christian Pacifist and the Just/Unjust War traditions can be disquieting and even controversial, but are Catholic preachers and educators allowed to pick and choose which elements of the Gospel and the Catechism to teach and which to ignore? Isn't it obvious, with millions of civilians killed, maimed and made refugees, that modern warfare cannot meet the Just War criteria of proportionality and non-combatant immunity? Some might suggest that when the Church leaders and educators address war and peace issues they are being "too political," but isn't it a fact that choosing to remain silent is itself a "political" statement? Qui tacet consentire. Our silence on these issues is most certainly interpreted as consent, as approval of the status quo, approval of modern warfare along with its consequences. Shouldn't the community that bears his name attempt to be as counter-cultural, prophetic and courageous in the face of controversy as Christ himself?
It is worth noting in that during the soon to begin “Year of Faith” we Catholics are being asked to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the "faithful revolution," the Second Vatican Council, when the Magisterium of the Church instructed us all to undertake a re-evaluation of war “with an entirely new attitude.” The Council specifically excommunicated the deliberate killing of civilians (Gaudium et Spes 80); sixty years of experience with total war confirms that referring to civilian deaths as "collateral damage" does not diminish the fact that military planners in fact know in advance that vast numbers of the innocent will die. The council fathers called on the Church to be an authentically prophetic voice in the world today by speaking to the "signs of the times." How, then, can we remain silent and continue to avoid the Church's own Christian Pacifist and Just/Unjust War traditions?
We are called to pray for every American killed or disable in these wars, and for their families and others who must care of them. But must pray, too, for the millions of innocents who have lost their families, homes, livelihoods, and lives. And as Jesus commanded, we are to pray for enemies.
Joseph E Sirois
Seekonk, MA
