Open Letter to my fellow Catholics in
the U.S.A.
from Robert Thompson
OpEdNews.Com
Dear Friends,
This is, according to the teachings of our
Lord, brought down to us by the Church, a proper manner in which to
address fellow members of the Body of Christ. When
asked to define my religious affiliation, I reply quite happily that I
am a committed practicing Catholic Christian, and I make no excuses
for being such.
Here in France, it is exceptional for the
Church to make any pronouncements of political matters, and the last
time that this happened was when the Spokesman of our Bishops'
Conference, jointly with the Chairman of the Protestant Federation,
the Chairman of the national Muslim representative body and the Chief
Rabbi, clearly condemned all forms of discrimination based on race,
ethnicity or religion. This was in reply to populist
statements made by the Front National (the
neo-fascist party, the nearest thing which we have to your
neo-conservatives) which were highly discriminatory. I
feel it perhaps helpful to add here that the whole idea of
"right" and "left" in politics comes from the
lay-out of our Assemble'e Nationale (the lower
house of our parliament) where the Chairman looks down from his
"perch" on the members sitting in a semi-circle before and
below him. Furthest to the left are the Communists, then
(in order) the Greens, the Socialists, the Union de la De'mocratie
Française (U.D.F.), the U.M.P. (the party currently in
government, which supports Mr Chirac) and finally the Front
National. I am a card-carrying member of the centrist
U.D.F., and dislike the dogmatic approach often adopted by the
Socialists (democratic left) and the U.M.P. (democratic right), but
many Catholics belong to each of these parties, as also do some to the
Greens. I do not in any way consider that they
are acting against our commonly held beliefs, but I obviously
would prefer them to join me in the U.D.F. The Communists
are close to becoming a totally spent force, but I worry at any
support given to the Front National which regularly
shows its enmity towards, and hatred of, essential Christian
tenets. In any case, an essential element in our politics
is that all the democratic parties leave their elected legislators
free to vote according to their consciences when matters of morality
come to be considered, which we consider to be normal and correct.
We look across the Atlantic
and see what, if it were not so serious, could be taken for a
tragi-comic "Hollywood B movie". In the White
House, or on his Ranch, we see the archetypal Connecticut Yankee Dude,
who was once the Governor of Texas, with a full supporting cast.
There we find the traditional characters, the hanging judge, Mr
Ashcroft, the sly businessman, Mr Cheney, the slick salesman (and
former close friend of Saddam Hussein), Mr Rumsfeld, and the old
soldier who seems to have been tricked into serving them all, Mr
Powell, with the tentacles of the Mafia-like neo-conservatives winding
round, and thereby controlling, all of them.
You may well ask "What has this to do
with our being Catholics, and why is he writing to us?", and this
is a fair question, which I will attempt, in so far as I am able, to
answer.
We have been horrified by the total
disregard for the sanctity of human life, shown by this extraordinary
crew. Firstly, when he was still Governor of his adopted
state, Mr Bush was an enthusiastic proponent of the application of the
death penalty, considered in most democratic nations to be barbarous,
especially when it follows trials which fall short of the minimum
standards of what we consider to be fair and just.
Secondly, this same man supports the policies of such extremists as Mr.
Ariel Sharon, who openly boasts of his having ordered the murders of
persons who are merely suspected of certain criminal activities.
He also gives his strong approval to Mr. Sharon's policy of
expropriation of Palestinian lands belonging to our fellow Christians
as well as to their Muslim colleagues. Were you not
shocked at the siege endured by the Franciscans and the Orthodox
clergy in Bethlehem? I was, and this mainly Christian area
is steadily being carved up into uneconomic parcels of land which are
being taken away from their owners. The claim that such a
wall is necessary to separate Israel from the rest of Palestine to
keep out terrorists does not bear close examination, since the
Israelis could have built such a wall on "their" side of the
Green Line rather than well inside the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Mr Bush continues to give
support, by way of your money, substantial quantities of arms and
constant backing in the United Nations, to this murderer,
who not only admits his crimes but boasts about them.
This makes it all the more surprising that
this man, who ordered the chaotic invasion of Iraq, thereby causing
thousands more deaths of innocent human beings (including among
your own armed forces), should suddenly wish to make political capital
out of abortion. I am against abortion, as I oppose
all unnecessary killing of any human being, but I do not see the
pathetic women who resort to it as being necessarily totally evil, I
consider them to be among the victims of a whole society which has
gone far too far along the road of materialism and has lost touch
with basic humanity. For this reason, I believe that
persuasion is a better policy than legislation in the fight to
save lives. As a Lawyer for over half a century, I can see
no moral difference between abortion, capital punishment and waging an
unjustified war against a half-starved people as in Iraq.
This brings me necessarily to the invasion
of Iraq, which was roundly condemned by the Pope since before it
started, although I agree that Saddam Hussein was a monster.
Unlike Afghanistan, which was invaded because it refused to hand over
the vicious terrorists who had, among other things, perpetrated the
attacks on your country on 11th September 2001, there was no excuse
for the invasion of Iraq. If the U.S.A. are to wage war
against, and invade, all cruel re'gimes, why have they not invaded
China or Saudi Arabia to take two obvious examples. The
answer is simple. In the case of China, it is too
powerful, and is likely before long to challenge the present status of
the U.S.A. as the world's only super-power. In the case of
Saudi Arabia, it is impossible to say what would result from any
liberation of this highly repressive state, including
"interruptions" in its oil exports. On the other
hand, as a result of the sanctions which had no effect on the ruling
clique but impoverished and starved the people, Iraq was
clearly unable to withstand an invasion. However, it would
have been better to leave any such invasion until clear plans had been
prepared for the future of the country and to keep out the terrorists
whom Saddam Hussein had most effectively prevented from entering the
country. Please remember that Mr Oussama bin Laden criticized
the Iraqi re'gime for being godless and socialist, but, as soon
as it was invaded, he claimed that this showed that Mr Bush was
continuing his "Crusade" against Islam.
As a Catholic, I could not in good
conscience vote for Mr. Bush or the tarnished team which backs and
controls him, since not only do they have the blood of innocents on
their hands, but also they show no shame or repentance for their
crimes against humanity, and I totally fail to understand how any
genuine believing Catholic can contemplate voting for them.
I remain open, of course, to considering
any point which any one of you might wish to put forward in favor of
Mr, Bush and his team, but their record on human rights and respect
for human life is so bad that I cannot imagine any argument which
could persuade me.
It is appropriate to end this missive by
wishing to all of you the peace of Christ, as we do in the Mass,
and a great future for your country,
Yours in Christ,
Robert
Robert Thompson Robert.Thompson (at) wanadoo.fr is a retire attorney,
living in France. who writes the occasional blog Thoughts
from France
