Office for Social Ministry e-link  ---  Diocese of San Diego  -  858-490-8323

 

Dear OSM e-link Subscriber,

Welcome back.  Our OSM e-link membership now numbers 150.  Let's keep it growing! 

 

Thursday, April 3, 2003

OSM e-link  -  Bulletin # 2

 

Table of Contents:

 

- Comments from Kent Peters, Linda Arreola and Jo Brower

 

- Key Upcoming Gatherings (please join us if at all possible)

            Catholic Lobby Day in Sacramento (four spots remaining) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003

            Immigration Lobby Day in Sacramento on Sunday, May 18 and 19, 2003

           

- Updates on events promoted by the Office for Social Ministry

             Women's Resource Committee Annual Auction on Sunday, March 23, 2003

                

- Advocacy Alerts

            Contacting of U.S. Representatives in Support of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban

      

- Web and e-mail-based resources and opportunities

             Link to a Prayer for Peace from Bishop Brom and Bishop Jammo

             Link to New Resource Guide on Cognative Disibility from the U.S. Bishops

            

- Article/Statement for April 2, 2003

              Why Not Torture Terrorists, by Cy Kellett of the Southern Cross

 

 

Remarks from Kent Peters, Linda Arreola and Jo Brower

 

With the nation's focus on the war in Iraq it is easy to lose sight of the work that needs to be done at home.  In the coming weeks, Congress will be making major decisions affecting the life and dignity of us all.  The House will be voting on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban soon.  The Senate will be looking at passing a budget that may cut programs like Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance fund and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families; affecting the lives of many low income families.  California is dealing with a budget deficit that will no doubt mean cuts in services and programs.  And in the midst of all this we are preparing for the holiest time of the year.  It is the hope and glory of the Resurrection that gives us the strength to make present the Kingdom of God.  So let us dedicate our prayers, fasting and works of charity to the building of the culture of life, the victory of life over death.

San Diego, pray for us.

Our Lady of Refuge, pray for us.

Key Culture-of-Life Gatherings

 

Catholic Lobby Day in Sacramento:   There are four spots still available for this trip to Sacramento.  Our diocesan group, with Catholics from all over California, will make this trip on Tuesday, April 29, departing from the San Diego Airport in the early a.m., returning to the airport early evening. 

 

Join the staff of the Office for Social Ministry and more than 1300 Catholics in Sacramento to learn more about issues, to celebrate our faith, and to lobby our own state legislators.  To register by phone, call 858-490-8323. 

 

Cost for the day, including airfare to Sacramento, transportation between the airport and the Capitol, and lunch is only $99.  Mass will be celebrated in the afternoon.

 

Issues for Lobby Day...

 

Issues chosen for legislative visits will likely include but not be limited to: protection of SSI Medi-CAl funding, protection of Healthy Families insurance for low-income families, use of alcohol tax for emergency medical care, elimination of funding for multiple abortions, ban on death penalty for mentally retarded persons, required parental consent for school excuses and absences, education funding, issuing of California drivers licenses to working undocumented persons, among other issues.  Individual Assembly and Senate district groupings will be encouraged to develop additional issues of concern for discussion during legislative visits. 

 

Call 858-490-8323 to register.

 

 

State-wide Leadership Retreat and Immigration Lobby Day in Sacramento 

 

The Office for Social Ministry and the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights invite you to be a part of this important two-day event.

 

Sunday, May 18th and Monday, May 19th, 2003

 

Come, join us as we gather on the 18th to learn, share, and prepare for Immigrant Lobby Day 2003 on the 19th!  Be part of thousands to visit legislators in Sacramento as we bring our message of hope!

Lodging, meals, and transportation by bus are included with a $40 donation; we will also provide you with translation, prayer, friendship and solidatity.

Departure from San Diego is at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, and we will return to San Diego on Monday evening at about 11:30 p.m.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail Linda Arreola at larreola@diocese-sdiego.org or call 858-490-8327.

We hope to see hear from you soon!

 

 

Short Reports on Past Events Promoted by e-link

 

Women's Resource Committee Annual Auction on Sunday, March 23, 2003

 

More than 480 Women's Resource Committee supporters attended the annual benefit auction, and over $42,000 was raised to widen the distribution of the Women's Resource Guide and to assist other communities in creating thier own guides.  The Catholic community was well represented at the auction.  In fact, Michaelene Jenkins, Executive Director, estimated that at least half of those in attendence were from Catholic parishes.  Good Work!  To see the Women's Resource Guide online go to: http://www.wrg.org.

 

 

Web and E-mail-based Resources and Opportunities

 

1)  A new resource and idea book entitled, Adults with Cognitive Disabilities/Mental Retardation: Approaches to Adult Faith Formation can be found at: http://www.usccb.org/laity/faithformation.htm   Parish disability facilitators will definitively want to visit the site and download this resource for future reference. 

 

2)  In a sign of unity, Robert H. Brom, Bishop of Diocese of San Diego, and Sarhad Jammo, Eparchial Bishop of St. Peter the Apostle, delivered a statement and prayer on the war in Iraq on March 21, 2003.  To read and download this prayer for use at home or in other Catholic settings, go to: http://www.diocese-sdiego.org/set.asp?link=PressReleases.asp&in=News  Please pray for a swift resolution to this conflict. 

 

E-link Advocacy

 

Partial Birth Abortion Ban, HR 760

 

Contact your U.S. Representative in support of HR 760, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.

 

To determine who your U.S. Representative is, go to http://www.vote-smart.org and insert your 9 digit zip-code where indicated.  This Vote-Smart resource will provide information on all levels of representation, from the President of the U.S. to local California Assembly members.  At the present time, a personal phone call in support of HR 760 made to either your Representative's Washington DC office or his or her local office is what we recommend.  This simple call, indicating your support for the ban and a request that your Representative respond in writing, is all that is needed. Thanks for your support. 

 

Background Information on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban:

 

This legislation would ban a particularly brutal and inhumane abortion method in which the child is removed from the womb feet-first and delivered except for the head. The abortionist thrusts scissors into the base of the child's skull, inserts a catheter through the opening, and suctions out the child's brain. This procedure is never medically necessary. Many recognize partial-birth abortion for what it is: infanticide. In a recent survey, Planned Parenthood's Alan Guttmacher Institute reported that from 1996 to 2000 the number of partial-birth abortions (what they call "D & X" abortions), increased threefold from about 650 in 1996 to about 2,200 in 2,000. These figures are low. In 1997, Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said that in the majority of cases the procedure is performed on health mothers with healthy babies and he estimated then that 4-5,000 were performed annually.  The U.S. Senate has already passed the ban and is waiting on the U.S. House.  President Bush has promised to sign this legislation when passed. 

 

 

 

Article/Statement for Bulletin #2:

 

This past Sunday on Fox Cable News, Neil Cavuto, after detailing the tactics used by Iraqis troops: surrendering soldiers attacking with hidden weapons, soldiers dressing as civilians, placing guns in the hands of civilians, including women and children, firing upon fleeing citizens, holding families of Iraqis' soldiers hostage to insure loyalty, using car bombs against U.S. troops, torturing and perhaps executing captured soldiers, filming and displaying captured soldiers, etc., asked a retired general commentator a rhetorical question that went something like this, "Isn't it about time we start getting nasty with the enemy?"  Translated this means, "It's just not fair. Shouldn't we also be able to utilize tactics that violate the rules of war?"   The general answered immediately in the negative (thank God), saying that maintaining the moral high ground was absolutely necessary, for what would we have to live for if we were to become what we are trying to remedy?

 

The following article by Cy Kellett, editor of the Southern Cross, focuses its attention the use of torture, but what Cy says about torture equally applies to any tactical violation of the rules of war.  We are grateful for the profound and practical wisdom of our diocesan editor. 

 

 

By Cyril Jones-Kellett

Kahlid Sheik Mohamed, we are told, was the planner of the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

As of Feb. 28, 2003, he is a prisoner of the United States.

With the capture of Mohamed, talk of torture, which had been budding for months, has come to bloom.

Alan Dershowitz, the famed Harvard Law professor, has been advocating that American jurisprudence now include torture warrants. Police or security agencies could ask a judge's permission to torture those who might have information about imminent national security threats.

In his syndicated column, Pat Buchanan poses this question regarding the captured 9/11 leader: "If it is moral to go to war and kill thousands to prevent potential acts of terror on U.S. soil, why cannot we inflict pain on one man, if that would stop imminent acts of terror on U.S. soil?"

Unsettled times unsettle everything. It seemed we had decided about torture. With the advance of international law, and with the forming of a general cultural consensus against it, torture as a tool of state seemed on the road to extinction.

Article five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, says simply "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." In 1994, the United States became signatory to the International Convention Against Torture which forbids, with no exceptions, "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person."

But now it seems we are not so decidedly against torture.

Those who argue in favor of torture appeal to our conscience: it is wrong to allow the deaths of innocents when the torture of terrorists could prevent such deaths. We now find ourselves living in a world in which thousands of our neighbors can be killed in an instant. Results matter, and torture produces results.

These proponents of torture present a morally serious question about the legitimate defense of innocents. But they seem to leave some important things out of the formulation of their question. Consider that:

1) Torture is not effective - Most of those who do interrogations as part of their jobs report that torture induces victims to give any answer that will get the pain to stop. Testimony gleaned in this manner is notoriously unreliable. Other methods of interrogation, some of which are very unpleasant but stop short of torture (prolonged sleep deprivation, for example) are far more effective in getting a captive to share secrets.

2) Torture has irrevocable costs - In a recent column about torture, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen quotes a victim of Nazi torture who said, "Whoever has been tortured, stays tortured." This is true also for the torturer. When we ask people to torture others on our behalf, we ask a lot. Both the one tortured and the one who tortures will live with scars for the rest of their lives.

3) Torture corrodes what it purports to defend - Take just one example, Chile. Under General Pinochet, the fight against Marxists was waged using torture as a tool for the defense of the state. Pinochet's argument was the same as the one we hear now - terrorists were attacking the state and they could only be fully rooted out using torture. What happened to Chile is that the state itself became a terrorist. The entire society became trapped in an atmosphere of fear and vengeance. A culture of lies and secretiveness grew up to shield those who did the torturing and to hide (often dispose of) those who were tortured. Do we want to do this to the FBI or to our military? Warriors and law enforcement officers live in specialized cultures in which honor plays an important role. It is impossible for the honor of those cultures to flourish if we let the corrosive influence of torture become institutionalized.

4) Torture is an evil means - Torture, like murder, is always evil because it violates in a grave manner what God has made inviolable. Unlike anything else in nature, the human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Torture desecrates that divine image, and insults God. The desire to prevent bad things (the deaths of innocents) does not confer a license to do evil things. We are forbidden to murder, to commit abortion, to commit suicide, to torture, to rape and to mutilate all for the same reason: the human person is of so great a value that to violate the person is akin to violating God. "Whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, that you do unto Me."

It is tempting, because we are at war, to say that "the rules have changed," and in many ways they have. But divine law is not just a matter of "rules." God's law is the root of all good things; we abandon it at the risk of losing far more than the war on terror. Torture, which always contradicts divine law, cannot be accepted.

The Southern Cross