{"id":6712,"date":"2006-07-24T08:29:50","date_gmt":"2006-07-24T08:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/07\/the-usccb-on-the-middle-east.html"},"modified":"2006-07-24T08:29:50","modified_gmt":"2006-07-24T08:29:50","slug":"the-usccb-on-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/07\/the-usccb-on-the-middle-east.html","title":{"rendered":"The USCCB on the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the statement from the USCCB committee on international policy, chaired by Bishop Wenski of Orlando.<\/a><\/p>\n

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* The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops condemns the terror and provocative acts of Hamas and Hezbollah that precipitated the crises, including cross-border attacks, abductions and the continuing indefensible rocket and missile attacks on Israeli citizens, both Jews and Arabs. These radical armed groups (and their supporters in Syria and Iran) both bear the responsibility for initiating the current cycle of violence.<\/p>\n

* Israel clearly has a right to defend itself, but as Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, said, Israel\u2019s right to self-defense \u201cdoes not exempt it from respecting the norms of international law, especially as regards the protection of civilian populations.\u201d Israel\u2019s response has been in some instances militarily disproportionate and indiscriminate. In light of traditional Catholic teaching, massive counterattacks on civilian areas and infrastructure, blockades and other acts of war should not be supported. Punishment of entire peoples for the indefensible acts of militant armed factions contradicts traditional just war norms. A humanitarian crisis is growing in Gaza and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

* Only genuine dialogue and negotiations can bring a lasting and just peace to the region. As Bishop Wenski stated in his appeal to political leaders, it is \u201cclear that violence, from whatever side, for whatever purpose, cannot bring a lasting or just peace in the Land we call Holy.\u201d The recurrent cycle of terrorist attacks, deliberate provocations and disproportionate military responses undermines the brave and wise people on all sides who seek a just, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

1
* Regarding Lebanon, the rocket attacks and the bombings of innocent civilians are morally indefensible. Unjustifiable and indiscriminate attacks, and excessive military responses, endanger innocent lives and undermine Lebanon\u2019s struggle to free itself from outside domination and from serving once again as a bloody pawn in the broader Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

* The United States must exercise greater leadership to end the current cycle of violence, condemn all attacks on civilians, secure an effective and immediate ceasefire, open humanitarian corridors, oppose disproportionate and indiscriminate actions, and move toward negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to advance a two-state solution, and ensure the independence of Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the statement from the USCCB committee on international policy, chaired by Bishop Wenski of Orlando. * The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops condemns the terror and provocative acts of Hamas and Hezbollah that precipitated the crises, including cross-border attacks, abductions and the continuing indefensible rocket and missile attacks on Israeli citizens, both Jews…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe USCCB on the Middle East - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/07\/the-usccb-on-the-middle-east.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The USCCB on the Middle East - 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}