Last Updated: Wednesday - 01/05/2011

Church leaders take flak for letter on military strikes

OTTAWA — The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken issue with a newspaper editorial criticizing an open letter sent to all members of Parliament by Canadian Church leaders.

The editorial in the Ottawa Citizen Oct. 16, entitled, "Put up again thy pen," said Church leaders had put up a "political, not a religious, argument" in their letter and that they "seem to adopt classic left-wing positions as a substitute for being religious at all."

The editorial also stated "If the churches think the Christian position is to let bad guys slaughter us, let them say so."

However, Bede Hubbard, associate general secretary of the CCCB, said in a letter of reply, published in the newspaper Oct. 21, that the Church leaders' statement did not condemn the military action.

Instead, he said, it "indicated how the signers thought the present approach to deter terrorism could be rendered more effective and less problematic."

The letter reflected two principles in Christian teaching, Hubbard stated: "First, the natural law, whereby an individual and a community have the right to self-defence. Second, responsibility for one's actions."

In their letter to MPs, the Church leaders said they fear that military attacks on Afghanistan will "severely undermine" efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and fail to reduce the incidence of terrorism in the future.

"The essential non-military character of the struggle against terrorism must be restored," they said.

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