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Integrating Our Faith with Today's Great Issues

Fr. Creedon's Sept. 22 homily included references to several resources, provided below. These were also mentioned in his Theology on Tap presentation.

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This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on September 22, 2002

Once a month I join a group of priests to reflect on the scriptures. A wily pastor, reflecting on the parable about the laborers in the vineyard, asked why didn't the land owner just pay the first hired first and then they would have gone off not knowing the last received the same.

God is Generous Beyond Our Expectations

Someone else shared a story with me about being on a plane. Into the first class section arrived an elderly woman barely able to move. The attendant was helping her negotiate all her bags to the coach section of the plane. The attendant had mercy because there was an empty seat in the first class cabin and had her sit there. The woman was overcome and surprised by this generous action. Two businessmen were in the back row of the first class cabin complaining out loud that they had to use their frequent flyer mileage for their first class seats. They were irritated because the attendant was generous.

God is generous beyond our expectations. We proclaim the generosity of God on this Catechetical Sunday. Our catechists will be called forward to commit themselves to sharing the good news of our salvation and God's grace with a new generation of believers, our children.

I was on a plane myself coming back from the Dominican Republic via Philadelphia when a young woman got on beside me. She had nice red hair. Her grandparents probably came from Kerry. Not wearing my collar I was asked what I did. I proudly said I was a Catholic priest and pastor of the great parish of St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington. With a bit of humor, irony and perhaps a bit of arrogance she let me know I was speaking to a recovering Catholic. I pondered that a bit and asked if that meant she would be coming back to church or that she had left us. She said, "The latter; I have found a biblical church that I find to be more Christian". Each to their own. At least she found a church. I was inclined to say that recovering alcoholics are still alcoholics but held my fire. It was as though Catholicism was some sort of an addiction that she got over.

Passing On The Faith and Spreading It

In that light we know people who have walked in other directions. One of the calls we have on this Catechetical Sunday is to keep the faith. How do we find a way of passing it on effectively to our children and grandchildren? How do we keep the tradition alive given all the reasons that people have for leaving the church?

To keep the faith is not enough, we also need to spread our faith. It was a good experience for me as pastor of St. Charles to visit the upper room a couple weeks ago to see the room filled with about 40 people who are coming to join the church through the RCIA program. They were considering becoming Catholic despite all of our church's difficulties. Many want to join us to find the Lord. Beyond keeping the faith, we are called to go beyond ourselves and spread the word. Let us invite others to join us.

Too often we think of catechism on Catechetical Sunday in terms of children as though spreading and keeping the word had just to do with keeping children in line. The best thing we can do for our children is to provide them a community that evangelizes. We need to put catechesis within the context of evangelization.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a bigger book now. It's a document for adults. The pastoral on evangelization urges us to reflect on our tradition, the Gospel and the principles of faith, and apply them to our adult world. Try bringing your faith to the office. That doesn't mean just putting up a crucifix. It means sharing who you are as a Catholic Christian by the way you think and the way you act in ordinary life and your professional work. We also need to take our tradition of faith to the public place where we make our decisions about economics, social issues and even political questions. We need to integrate our faith with the great issues of our day.

The Catechism and Iraq

One particular issue that is on everyone's mind now is the debate on a preemptive strike and the use of military force against Iraq. Our Bishops have raised timorous but essential questions. In a letter to President Bush, the President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, raised important questions. The September 19th issue of The Arlington Herald printed an article on the US Bishops' opposition to a preemptive strike against Iraq. Unfortunately although their statement was on the back page not the front page, it raised pertinent questions.

I found a more strongly worded document in The London Times where the Catholic Primate of England, the Archbishop of Westminster, has taken a prophetic stance. He begins his reflection with a key section of The Catechism of Catholic Church that urges us, "because of the evils and injustices that accompany war, to pray and do all we can to not be drawn into armed conflict. All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war."

He proceeds to reflect on the ethical conditions for involvement in war of self-defense. We are now amplifying self-defense to preemptive strike. Will the Department of Defense be re-named the Department of Offense?

He goes on to say, "The Catechism sets out a number of rigorous conditions for an act of self-defense, in this case a possible preemptive strike, to be regarded as legitimate". As quoted from The Catechism, "the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated." It notes, "that the power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition." He then proceeds to raise some fundamental questions about the direction we seem to be heading.

He concludes, "There are occasions when a short term response to an imminent threat serves an important preventative purpose. However the problems of our planet cannot be solved by unilateral military action alone. Moreover In a globalized world, the wisdom of specific actions or policies with international impact must ultimately be judged by the extent to which they improve the lot of all mankind, especially the poorest, and enhance the prospects for world peace." At present he judges "there are genuine reasons to doubt military action against Iraq would pass that test".

In the light of all of that, I wrote my own letter to local representatives in the House and Senate. I share this letter with you along with Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor's entire article, the letter from head of the American Catholic Church, and The Arlington Herald article. All of these have been copied and provided for you in a packet of information, which is in the vestibule. They will also be available on the St. Charles Web Site.

You can form your reaction and your opinion. Why not become part of that dialogue, that discussion, and that debate. These issues are too important to leave to the politicians. Security, peace, and justice are at stake and our catechism isn't just a little book for children but it's a guideline for all of us in the conduct in our lives.

Probably no people recognize this more clearly than the military themselves who have lived and died with these restraints on the use of force.

Let's keep the faith, let us jealously guard our ethical traditions, let us integrate our faith with our public decisions and let us spread the word.

Fr. Creedon's Letter to Virginia's Senators and Representative

September 22, 2002

Senator John Warner
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Warner,

I am writing to advise you of my strong opposition to a pre-emptive, unilateral war against Iraq. I take this position for a number of reasons.

1. The President has not provided an adequate justification for pre-emptive war. No evidence has been presented by the President's team demonstrating Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attack nor has evidence even been presented that irrefutably demonstrates the current existence of significant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq today.

2. Current strategies to control Saddam Hussein seem to be working. While I am, of course, aware of past episodes of repression by Saddam Hussein against his own people and aggression against his neighbors, it is worth noting that the examples consistently presented by the administration as justification for military action occurred before the sanctions were put in place over a decade ago. This is a strong argument for continuing the strategy of containment and deterrent that appears to be successful to date. If one presumes weapons of mass destruction do exist, I believe alternative mechanisms for disarming Iraq of non-conventional weapons and otherwise requiring Iraq to live up to its international obligations should continue to be pursued. Such mechanisms include the resumption of rigorous and meaningful inspections - which the Iraqi regime has recently accepted, effective enforcement of the military embargo, maintenance of political sanctions and significantly more carefully-focused economic sanctions which would not further threaten the lives of innocent citizens.

3. This proposed strategy will not improve the chances for lasting peace in the Middle East. To the contrary, this pre-emptive military strategy will compromise the war on terrorism and will greatly increase tensions in a currently volatile region. If the President wishes to neutralize the influence of Saddam Hussein, he must begin to address the escalating violence in the region and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. As Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Vatican representative to the United Nations in Geneva, recently reported at a forum in Palermo, Sicily, "The less one faces the great social injustices and imbalances, the greater the risk of strengthening that climate of insecurity that helped foment the very terrorism this war seeks to eliminate."

The bottom line for me is that the justification proposed to date by President Bush and his war team do not meet the strict conditions in Catholic teaching regarding the criteria for just war including just cause, right authority, probability of success, proportionality and noncombatant immunity. Rather, it appears clear that the administration is acting on a pre-determined, clearly unilateral strategy to effect a "regime change" in Iraq through military action.

I urge you to vote against a resolution for war. If you are unable to vote against a war resolution, I implore you to insist on the requirement of UN Security Council authorization as an essential, minimal element to any war resolution in keeping with the UN Charter.

This is not the time for bellicose calls for war that will only lead to increased global aggression and terrorism. Pope John Paul II has called us to "dissipate the clouds of suspicion and incomprehension" in conflict-torn regions. However, he notes that "shadows are not dissipated with weapons; they are thrown back by igniting beacons of light." I pray you will have the courage to rise above the deafening din to seek this path of light for a moral and lasting solution to the long-standing situation in Iraq and the Middle East.

I look forward to hearing back from you on this critical issue.

Sincerely,

Rev. Gerard Creedon
Pastor, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church
Chair, Arlington Diocese Peace and Justice Commission
Chair, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

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  or  2002 Homilies 
 
Revised/reviewed October 2, 2002