December 1, 2024
Jeffrey M. Ross
Suzanne M. Fontanesi
One Body Catholic Worker
515 Collins Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21229
Archbishop William E. Lori
Archbishop of Baltimore
Catholic Center
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Re: Gaza
Dear Archbishop Lori:
“How many today are
ashamed to testify for the innocent!” These are the words of Saint Oscar Romero
testifying to the killing of innocent El Salvadorans in a homily delivered, as
Archbishop of San Salvador, eight days before he himself was killed.
Innocent Palestinians are being maimed and killed in Gaza by the thousands, aided and abetted by the United States government through the uninterrupted provision of offensive weapons used by Israel in its onslaught on Gaza. We call on you, as Archbishop of Baltimore and principal teacher of our Catholic faith, to testify for the innocent in Gaza and to instruct all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore to do the same.
This is not even close. The manner in which Israel has conducted its war in Gaza indisputably contradicts jus in bello principles of discrimination and proportionality integral to the Church’s teaching on the legitimate use of force in self-defense. What we are witnessing is fast approaching, if it has not already reached, the level of brutality condemned by the Second Vatican Council in absolute terms: “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.” (Gaudium et Spes ¶80).
The manner in which Israel has conducted its war in Gaza merits condemnation. You have not done so. As principal teacher of the Catholic faith, you must do so. This is not a matter of saving the “soul of America.” Whatever moral meaning some might attach to that term, America’s complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza is soulless.
What you must be concerned with are the souls of the flock you have been called to shepherd. These same souls are citizens of the United States and, as such, bear responsibility for the actions of its government contributing to the maiming and killing of innocents in Gaza. We have been given much as United States citizens, and much in this moment is expected of us by God in return. If you continue to leave us ashamed or otherwise unmoved to testify for the innocent in Gaza, you invite divine judgment on us all, even as, it seems, the judgment of history is already in.
We call on you to teach what you must surely know to be true: 1) the manner in which Israel is conducting its war in Gaza violates Church teaching on the legitimate use of force in self-defense; 2) the United States government is complicit in that violation of Church teaching; 3) Catholic citizens of the United States bear unique responsibility in this moment and must testify for the innocent of Gaza; and 4) testimony on behalf of the innocent in Gaza entails, at a minimum, publicly supporting the suspension of sales of offensive weapons to Israel.
Suzanne M. Fontanesi, CRNP
One Body Catholic Worker
West Baltimore
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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