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Catholic News Service
Published July 28, 2006

Washington — The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy called on Congress to "do all you can to end this terrible cycle of violence" in the Middle East.

In a July 20 letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., said the bishops "stand ready to work with those who work for a just and lasting peace in the land that three faiths call holy."

(Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) TYRE, LEBANON - JULY 27: A man walks through the rubble of a destroyed apartment building on July 27, 2006 in Tyre, Lebanon. Sixteen people were injured in the incident after two buildings were destroyed in an air strike by the Israeli military on July 26.

In the Detroit area, parishioners at local Maronite Rite Catholic churches "continue to pray for peace and for the protection of innocents," Fr. John Paul Kimes, associate pastor of St. Sharbel (Maronite) Church in Warren, said Tuesday.

Cardinal Adam Maida last Friday called on the priests and people of the archdiocese to keep "both our neighbors and their families and friends overseas in our thoughts and prayers for an end to the violence."

"With so many Christian, Muslim and Jewish friends here in metro Detroit who have family members caught in the crossfire in the Middle East, we are especially mindful of the effects of this recent eruption of violence," the cardinal said.

Although Israel has said it is trying to avoid bombing Christian villages in Lebanon, Fr. Kimes said many Maronites live in villages where the population is not mostly Christian.

"Many of our parishioners are from the south of Lebanon, and their villages have been hit by the Israeli bombardment," he said.

Parishioners from villages in northern Lebanon, on the other hand, have reported their villages have been unaffected so far, although many Hezbollah-supporting Shi'ites are said to be taking refuge in northern villages, Fr. Kimes continued.

Militants Hamas and Hezbollah are both listed as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement): The largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement. In January 2006, won the general legislative elections. Refuses to recognize the state of Israel, which has led to crippling economic sanctions. Sponsors an extensive social service network. Terrorist wing carries out suicide bombings and attacks. Hezbollah (Party of God): Based in Lebanon with worldwide cells. Created by Iran in 1982 to drive out Israeli forces. Radical Shi'ite group aims for Iranian-style Islamic republic. Dedicated to eliminating Israel, is anti-U.S. and anti-Israel. Involved in suicide bombings, hijacked 1985 TWA Flight 847. Source: U.S. State Department, published sources

As to what needs to be done to end the conflict, Fr. Kimes said, "We continue to echo what Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has said: Number one, Hezbollah must be disarmed; two, the Lebanese government must take control of all Lebanese territory; and three, all foreign forces must withdraw."

He noted that U.N. Resolution 1559 calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, but it has not been enforced.

Besides St. Sharbel, the Detroit-area Maronite parish also includes St. Maron Church on Detroit's east side and St. Rafka Mission in Livonia.

A local Latin Rite priest with Lebanese roots, Fr. Norman Thomas, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Detroit, said he believes it is important to pray not only for peace, but also for justice.

"It's like you hear protestors chanting, 'No justice! No peace!' Things have to change for there to be peace," said Fr. Thomas, whose father was born in Lebanon.

Fr. Thomas called Israel's response to Hezbollah attacks "unproportionate."

"What people are amazed at is the severity of the Israeli attack. They've destroyed so much infrastructure," he lamented Tuesday.

Fr. Thomas said the U.S. government has been very supportive of Israel through the years, and should now use its influence to bring about peace. "This country has to exert much, much more pressure to resolve this," he added.

Bishop Wenski's letter followed a July 18 statement in which he said, "Violence, from whatever side, for whatever purpose, cannot bring a lasting or just peace," and came three days before a similar, but even more strongly worded, statement from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Photo credit should read HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images Tyre, LEBANON: Lebanese people react after an Israeli airstrike which targeted a flat in their building in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, 27 July 2006. Israel's security cabinet decided to step up its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon by a majority decision Thursday, army radio reported as the meeting continued in Tel Aviv.

"The horrific cycle of violence in the Middle East is destroying the lives of innocent people on all sides of the conflict," Bishop Wenski said in the letter to Congress. "It is also destroying the hopes for negotiations and accommodations that could lead to a just peace that offers genuine security to Israelis, a viable state for Palestinians and real independence for the Lebanese people."

He urged the members of Congress to read recent statements by Pope Benedict XVI, the USCCB and the leaders of Christian communities in the Holy Land regarding the conflicts.

"The Catholic community is deeply and urgently concerned about the human costs, the moral implications and future consequences of these unfolding events," he said.

In his earlier statement, Bishop Wenski said "rocket barrages and suicide bombings against innocent Israeli civilians and cross-border attacks and abductions" by extremist Palestinians, as well as Israel's "sweeping counterattacks on civilian areas, civilian infrastructure, blockades and other acts of war in Gaza and Lebanon" are actions "we cannot support."

The statement, "Break the Cycle of Violence in the Holy Land," was issued in response to escalating attacks on Israel in July by Palestine's Hamas faction and Lebanon's Hezbollah faction and Israel's retaliation for those attacks.

As of July 24, the fighting had left more than three dozen Israelis and more than 370 Lebanese dead; hundreds of thousands have been displaced in Lebanon.

Israeli soldiers began fighting Hezbollah militants inside Lebanon's borders July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel began attacking Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in June after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas. Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in those attacks.

"The extreme armed factions of Hamas and Hezbollah, and their supporters, including Syria and Iran, bear grave responsibilities," Bishop Wenski said. "These attacks provoked Israeli military responses that are understandable in terms of the right to defense, but are disproportionate and indiscriminate in some instances."

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images HAIFA, ISRAEL - JULY 27: The funeral procession of Israeli paratrooper Yiftach Shrayer, 21, makes it's way to his burial flanked by hundreds of mourners and fellow soldiers in Haifa cemetary on July 27, 2006 in Haifa, Israel. Shrayer was killed along with seven comrades in the battle for Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil in South Lebanon July 26.

Bishop Wenski said, "As committed friends of the Palestinian people, we understand the harsh realities of occupation and the yearning for a viable state of their own," but the attacks on Israel "violate the principle of civilian immunity and undermine the possibility of a negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

He added, "It is long past time for all Palestinian leaders, including Hamas, to reject violence and terror and to act in ways that will lead to the establishment of a viable state for the Palestinian people." Likewise, Bishop Wenski said, "It is also long past time for all state and nonstate actors in the region, including Hezbollah, to renounce violence, recognize Israel and respect its security."

The bishop also faulted Israel's counterattacks as "counterproductive because they deepen hostilities and widen the circle of violence. Israel must act with restraint. Otherwise we fear that Israel could isolate itself, undermine its long-term security interests and play into the hands of extremists who seek a wider confrontation and an unending battle with Israel."

In Lebanon, Bishop Wenski said, "the current conflict puts at risk the progress that has been made to free Lebanon from outside domination and from being used as a pawn in a larger struggle. Our (bishops') conference is deeply disturbed by the provocative acts of Hezbollah against Israel that precipitated the current crisis and provoked the disproportionate Israeli military responses."

Bishop Wenski called upon the United States to "exert greater leadership with all parties to the conflicts and to work more intensively and multilaterally to end the provocations and violence, to secure a cease-fire, to restrain Israel, to move toward negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to bring about security for Israel and a viable state for the Palestinians, and to ensure the independence of Lebanon."

In a statement issued July 23, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious called for "an immediate and unconditional cease-fire" by the Israeli army and Hezbollah militants.

— Michigan Catholic reporter Robert Delaney contributed to this story.