Sheila Provencher, from Jesuit Volunteer Corps. (Twin Cities '94-'95), is a Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) member currently serving in Iraq. Below is her letter and a reflection concerning the recent military actions in Iraq/Fallujah.
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Dear Family,
Thank you for all of the messages you have sent and all your
prayers. Here in CPT Iraq, we are starting a new effort to gather
all of our prayers together. Every Tuesday we will practice a Day
of Prayer and Fasting, with specific themes, intentions, and
suggested action steps. I will send more info on that in a new
email.
This has been a difficult week. Although I cannot get out to our
contacts in Fallujah, I can see the reaction of our neighbors here
in Baghdad. Many express sorrow for the loss of young US soldiers.
All express horror at the terrible bombing and other violent methods
used to fight the insurgency. I do not know what images you receive
in North America, but my Iraqi friend saw TV images of "many" dead
women and children in Fallujah's streets. They had been there for
days. Can you imagine how some of the Marines felt when they
entered the city and saw what their bombs had done? Torture rooms
for hostages they discovered, yes, and weapons caches, but they also
had to face the results of their own violence. Also disturbing are
the numbers--in the hundreds--of US soldiers sent to the Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center in Germany. Only seriously wounded soldiers
are flown to Landstuhl. Is this getting publicity in the US? I do
not know--only you can help with that.
I wrote the following reflection one week ago during the bombing of
Fallujah, so as you can see it is dated.
Here is a spot of light--as I write, we are in the third day of Eid
al Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan. The park across the
street is full of families, and I can hear the voices of children.
I send their laughter to you.
With peace,
Sheila
[Read Sheila's Reflection: Listen]
Friday, November 19, 2004
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Letter in support for hearing Howard Dean speak at Loyola
TO: Matt C. Abott, MichNews.Com
CC: Peter Facione, PhD (Provost, Loyola University)
FR: Jay Cuasay, MAPS (C I A: Communications Interfaith Activism)
RE: Letter in support for hearing Howard Dean speak at Loyola
I read your article in the Michigan News [1] about an upcoming speech to be given by Howard Dean at Loyola University. The close of the article asked people to write an email to Peter Facione, the Provost, expressing “concerns” presumably for having a politician speak who did not conform to the USCCB’s document “Catholics in Political Life.”
I am writing this email to express my concern for narrowness and rigidity in Catholic thinking.
In a recent Commonweal, the editors published two open letters. One letter to Senator Kerry[2] asks him to better clarify the intersection between his role as politician and his own Catholicism. The second letter, addressed to the U.S. bishops[3] cautions them against the simplicity of “black and white” moralism for the complexity of social issues.
In that light, I applaud Loyola’s invitation to Howard Dean from the point of view that listening not only to a politician, but a physician on women’s health issues might be of value. To hear a defense of marriage through an articulation of civil unions and civil rights premised on human dignity, might also enlarge the circle of understanding. More importantly, it may rekindle in us a language of human respect and decency so absent from the language of self-righteousness and moral superiority.
The approach you advocate through your quote of the USCCB document tends to present a model of social (in)action based on denial that there is lack of catholic consensus on these issues and a lack of social policy beyond turning our backs away from disagreement. Such activity seems counterproductive to the lessons affirmed by Vatican II which calls us into the world and into dialogue.
Progressive Catholics believe that we bring our values into the social arena to help build up the common good. We do not shrink away into catacombs where we minister to ourselves, but are called to minister in the world and be hospitable to the stranger and outsider, who may very well break into our hearts as one of us in need.
SOURCES
CC: Peter Facione, PhD (Provost, Loyola University)
FR: Jay Cuasay, MAPS (C I A: Communications Interfaith Activism)
RE: Letter in support for hearing Howard Dean speak at Loyola
I read your article in the Michigan News [1] about an upcoming speech to be given by Howard Dean at Loyola University. The close of the article asked people to write an email to Peter Facione, the Provost, expressing “concerns” presumably for having a politician speak who did not conform to the USCCB’s document “Catholics in Political Life.”
I am writing this email to express my concern for narrowness and rigidity in Catholic thinking.
In a recent Commonweal, the editors published two open letters. One letter to Senator Kerry[2] asks him to better clarify the intersection between his role as politician and his own Catholicism. The second letter, addressed to the U.S. bishops[3] cautions them against the simplicity of “black and white” moralism for the complexity of social issues.
In that light, I applaud Loyola’s invitation to Howard Dean from the point of view that listening not only to a politician, but a physician on women’s health issues might be of value. To hear a defense of marriage through an articulation of civil unions and civil rights premised on human dignity, might also enlarge the circle of understanding. More importantly, it may rekindle in us a language of human respect and decency so absent from the language of self-righteousness and moral superiority.
The approach you advocate through your quote of the USCCB document tends to present a model of social (in)action based on denial that there is lack of catholic consensus on these issues and a lack of social policy beyond turning our backs away from disagreement. Such activity seems counterproductive to the lessons affirmed by Vatican II which calls us into the world and into dialogue.
Progressive Catholics believe that we bring our values into the social arena to help build up the common good. We do not shrink away into catacombs where we minister to ourselves, but are called to minister in the world and be hospitable to the stranger and outsider, who may very well break into our hearts as one of us in need.
SOURCES
- Howard Dean to Speak at a Catholic University (Matt C. Abott)
http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_4947.shtml - Dear Senator Kerry (Open Letter from Commonweal Editors to Senator Kerry)
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php?id_article=897 - ...Dear Bishops (Open Letter from Commonweal Editors to US Bishops)
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php?id_article=898
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