I respect the passion that drove Henry Pollard to make his plea to John Paul Two (Letters, March 20), however I feel that the modern Catholic Church should have spoken out months ago when this attack on Iraq was first being publicly discussed. In my opinion, John Paul Two and the United States Bishops have said too little too late. Had the Bishops not been busy trying to cover up and excuse the heinous acts perpetrated by the perverse wolves in sheep’s clothing disguised as priests, then they could have voiced strong opposition to an unjust and immoral attack, and may even have been taken seriously. John Paul Two, Vatican officials, and the U.S. Bishops should have publicly called for every Catholic around the world to protest in numbers against this unfair and unwarranted attack when what Bush and his cohorts were planning first became evident.
Henry Pollard said that if Jesus “were with us today” He would have been at John Paul Two’s side on Pollard’s proposed mission to Iraq. Respectfully Mr. Pollard, Jesus Christ is with us today, as He always has been and always will be, until the end of time. However, man’s free will continues to get in the way of God’s will when people like George Bush decide to attack other nations in a pre-emptive or ‘preventative’ strike, all under the guise of “defending ourselves”. Or is it now for the ‘liberation’ of the Iraqi’s? Or is it for a regime change? The true reason is most likely none of these.
As a Traditional Roman Catholic Apostolic, I feel that John Paul Two would have better shown us that he is really the vicar of Christ by reminding all Catholics and all Christians world-wide that Jesus Christ tried to show us many times that pre-emptive self-defense is not God’s will. He also taught us not to fear that which can kill the body, but to fear that which can kill the soul. Pre-emptive and unprovoked attacks on others based upon an assumption of what may or may not happen in the future will lead us down the road to moral and spiritual destruction. It is a tragedy that Mr. Bush, who calls himself a Christian, does not appear to even be aware of what Jesus Christ tried to teach us and what He showed us with the Crucifixion. Unfortunately for us all, George Bush seems to think he is God and is personally going to rid the world of evil in any way he sees fit and at any cost.
Alethea Guthrie