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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CAN A ROMAN CATHOLIC BE A REPUBLICAN? CAN A CATHOLIC "SUPPORT" OUR OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? FATHER GREELEY CLEARLY DEFINES THE TERMS,
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This review is from: A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007 (Paperback)
This compilation of newspaper columns over six years presents urgent reading for this year of national electoral decisions, and provides each Roman Catholic in the USA substantial theological nourishment for our present Lenten lectio divina, and for action thereafter.
Can we be Catholic and vote Republican? Can we be both Catholic and "support" in any way the continued bloody occupation of Iraq, condemned now by two of our Popes, including Our present Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, especially in the light of the climactic passages to his monumental Apostolic Exhortation The Sacrament of Charity: Sacramentum Caritatis? Is what ways are our militarist, imperialist policies around the world "stupid, unjust and criminal?" The Reverend Father Andrew Greeley with increasing urgency and moral standing presents the clear and courageous case for Catholic moral theology within our presently morally compromised context. These essays begin with a certain nebulous and cautious approach, recognizing his readership, but by 2005 and become increasingly clear, courageous, prophetic and concrete about the moral, theological, sociological and historical reasons for rejecting absolutely our present national policy in Iraq. The Introduction to these essays explicitly examines the reasons for invading Iraq and our immoral conduct of the disasterous occupation of Iraq in the light of the traditional "just war" criteria, which are well defined in the United States Catholic Bishops Conference document The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response (A Pastoral Letter on War and Peace, No. 863). Father Greeley concisely and correctly finds no reason by these lenient criteria neither for the invasion, and no morality for our endless occupation of Iraq. He finds no justifiable reason for supporting any further (and much less from the beginning) this immoral and unjust and criminal military involvement. The Introduction concludes with his grateful dedication to his Cardinal who has supported him in his prophetic, courageous and orthodox witness. It is very hard to draw a few representative samples from this rich work by the Reverend Father Greeley, a work which courageously gives voice to our unvoiced US Catholic Church, silenced as Father Greeley reveals by other pressing and persecuting concerns, perhaps intended to provoke silence. We must the more gratefully receive these truths spoken without fear by Father Greeley, reflecting the policies running right up to the Vatican itself. On whether prior US soldiers killed warrants continued warfare and occupation, Father Greeley wrote September 2, 2005: "Bush's contention that because some men and women have died, others must continue to die demonstrates just how morally bankrupt the war is and he himself is (p. 136)." On the falsity of the reasons for going to war, Father Greeley writes November 4, 2005, as in several places, this: "The Bush administration, led by the vice president, systematically deceived the American people about the war and continues to do so. There were never any nuclear weapons, never any raw uranium, never any Iraqi involvement in the World Trade Center attack. The Iraqi war was never part of a 'war on terrorism' (p. 138)." Regarding comparative economic policies, Father Greeley wrote in November 18, 2005: "The Republican administration and the Republican Congress are presiding over a major shift in wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich. Thus, they are trying to take $70 billion from food stamps, Medicaire, education (loans and scholarships for college students) and veterans and give the money to the rich as increased tax deductions. Pension money and health-care money is being taken away from workers and retired owrkers to provide profits for badly run organizations (like United Airlines and General Motors) and their exhorbitantly compensated executives (p. 142)." This GOP economic shift directly violates the statement on economic morality by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Economic justice for all: Pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy (Publication /Office of Publishing and Promotion Services, United States Catholic Conference) and also violates the recent Apostolic Exhortation mentioned above which finds our Eucharistic compulsion to alter unjust economic systems and notes with horror how a very small percentage of the military budget could relieve the suffering of so many poor. Several earlier papal encyclicals and documents support this finding as well. This collection of writings by the Reverend Father Greeley grows more earnest and more reasoned, with each year, as his serious commitment and personal conviction on this issue grows and deepens, and his conversion to peace takes root.It is difficult to leave out any citation in this important work of applied Roman Catholic moral theology. One would like to type out at least the entire page 169, from July 28, 2006, but must be content with sharing this further and concluding passage for us prayerfully to consider, and so to act: "Is the blood on the hands of those Americans who support the war? Again, one must leave them to heaven. But in the objective order it is difficult to see why they are not responsible for the mass murders. They permitted their leaders to deceive them about the war, often enthusiastically. How can they watch the continuing murders i Iraq and not feel guilty? How would you feel if the street were drenched with the blood of your son and daughter, if your father were in the hospital with his legs blown off? We cannot permit ourselves to grieve for the Iraqi pain because then we would weep bitter and guilty tears every day."
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest compilation of essays,
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This review is from: A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007 (Paperback)
Father Greeley issues a collection of his essays going back to the tragic events of September, 2001. Some of his writings are prescient, some spot-on and some prove to be wrong, but he has the courage to include them all in this easily readable book. Would that all pundits issue complete collections of their political writings, and stand by their convictions as Dr Greeley does.
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