This is the first time this article has been translated into English. Originally published Sunday, September 22, 2002, by ACIPRENSA in Spanish by Jose Manuel Vidal, titled, "Witness to Exorcism in Madrid".
“Hic est dies” – Today is the day, says the exorcist while holding a crucifix.
“No.” growls a hoarse male voice from the throat of a pretty twenty-year-old girl.
“Exi nunc, Zebulon” – Come out now, Zebulon, repeats the priest.
“No.”
“Why don’t you want to leave?”
“To be a sign.”
“A sign of what?”
“That Satan lives.”
The tension mounts in the darkened chapel. Satan is fighting with God. And I have a front-row seat for this battle for the first time in my life. “This must be the reason why he invited me to witness the exorcism. Satan wants publicity”, I think in the midst of shock. My mind is spinning wildly. We are at the climax of a ritual that until now had not entered into my scheme of thinking. And this is considering that in seminary the priests always managed to pique my childish fear of the Evil One, who is always ready to seize hold of souls. After Second Vatican Council, the teachings about Satan’s existence became a “shameful part of Church doctrine” and, like many other Catholics, I came to discredit it.
The exorcist, Jose Antonio Fortea, pastor of Our Lady of Zulema, is exhausted. And he is only 33 years old. But he has fought Satan for more than an hour, crucifix at the ready. Marta (not her real name), the possessed girl, is as strong as she was at the beginning despite grunting, moaning, twisting and shaking her body like a top. Having unusual strength for a 20 year-old girl, she is slender and has delicate features. It is 12:30 p.m. on an ordinary day and I have witnessed an exorcism for an hour and a half.
Two days before, I received a special call on my mobile phone. It was not special for being from a priest (I receive many), but special for being from a Catholic exorcist (there are two in Spain) and because they keep their distance from journalists. He invites me to witness an exorcism. It stopped me in my tracks. To witness an exorcism by a Vatican-authorized priest is a real treat for a journalist specializing in religion. Despite having more than 20 years’ experience in the profession, I had only managed once to interview Father Gabriel Amorth, the official exorcist of Rome. When I met him, he dedicated a copy of his book with these words: “To José Manuel, with gratitude and with the advice that you should never fear the devil.”
I must confess that it was out of fear that I decided to return Father Fortea’s call and ask him to permit a fellow specialist in religion from the EFE news-service to accompany me. He accepted. Nervously, we went by car to the diocese of Alcalá de Henares on the day of the appointment. It was a sunny and splendid day. We arrived at the parish with great anticipation. It was a matter of being psychologically prepared. On the road, we nervously told jokes. The exorcist had told us to meet him at his parish, which has a modern red brick church situated in a grove of pine trees. The church’s interior was simple and clean. It has a great cross situated in the middle of a high altarpiece. On one side is a holy water font bearing the inscription, “Holy water keeps Satan at bay.”
At 10:30 a.m., the exorcist leaves the church to meet us. He is tall and thin. He wears eyeglasses and has a well-groomed beard. He is an imposing figure. Perhaps it is because of his profession of casting out demons. His pallor and prominent forehead are made all the more prominent by the immaculate black cassock that he wears. He invites us on a walk to give us the background on the case.
Seven demons
“I am not a showman nor do I want publicity. You are here because I need you in order to free the girl. You will have to be very careful. You must not convey any evidence that would tend to identify the girl or her mother. I would prefer that you refrain from naming me, but I accept the sacrifice for the sake of greater credibility. God knows what it will cost me and the problems it will cause. But don’t be frightened. Nothing will happen to you.” He insists on the seriousness of the matter. He points out that in the Old Testament, the word “Satan” appears eighteen times. And in the New Testament, the word “devil” appears thirty-five times and the word “demon” appears twenty-one times. Jesus himself undertook many exorcisms or what the Gospels call “casting out demons.” Father Fortea recalls too that Pope John Paul II has conducted at least three known exorcisms and notes that the belief in the devil is one of the few traits common to practically all religions. “It is an ecumenical issue, par excellence.” He takes the opportunity to give a short overview of various religions, historical periods, and diverse theories. I remain incredulous. I get the feeling that he is trying to convince us by seeking justification in history.
In order to bring him down to earth, we ask him for details of the case. He tells us there is a girl involved who has been possessed by seven demons. He had already expelled six, but the last one is fighting back. “Its name is Zebulon, an almost mute but very intelligent demon.” His name is in the Bible. The chief demon always remains at the end. I have had sixteen sessions and still have not been able to expel him, while normally only two or three sessions are needed.” He does not wish to give any more details about the possessed girl. He will only say that she will be accompanied by her mother, “a true saint”, and that she became possessed at the age of sixteen after a schoolmate had placed a spell on her. “During one of the first sessions, I asked how she had become possessed and I was given a name I did not recognize. Her mother told me that it was a classmate who had invoked Satan to place a death spell on her. And so, she became gravely ill and reached the point of death. Once she got better, odd things began to happen.”
Ever since then, the mother began to detect strange things about her daughter: furniture that moved and objects that broke by themselves and, above all, the girl’s avoidance of all religious objects especially at Sunday Mass. Finally, one night the mother got up when she heard strange noises and, when she opened the door to her daughter’s room, saw her levitating above the bed.
Since she does not want to lose her only child, she seeks help. She speaks with her parish priest, who sends her to two famous psychiatrists. But both of them diagnose the girl as perfectly normal. No scientific explanation could be found for the constant headaches that afflict the girl. It was then that Maria (not her real name), at sixty years of age, seeks an exorcist. She goes to almost every diocese of Spain. Not one bishop wants to hear about the case. She is ready to move with her daughter to Italy to see Father Amorth, when she is told that a Spanish exorcist had just appeared on television concerning of his book about exorcism, entitled Demoniacum.
At that moment, we see a taxi arrive. “It’s them”, says Fr. Fortea. Maria, the mother, is small and frail. She has a look of great pain. “I believe in God and I know that, sooner or later, He will free my daughter from the clutches of Zebulon. I have been on this Calvary for five years. No one in my family knows about it; not even my brothers”, she confesses. Maria is a widow and, every time she goes from her house to an appointment with the exorcist (practically once a week), she has to come up with excuses. “They wouldn’t understand, and I don’t want my daughter to be marked for life.”
The rite of exorcism
At her mother’s side, Marta smiles timidly. She is delicate and has large brown and slightly sad eyes. Her face is marked by a sad adolescence. Her hair is black and swept back into a pony-tail. Her full lips, untouched by makeup, are contracted in apparent pain. She is wearing jeans, a short-sleeved high-necked blue blouse, and a pair of black shoes. She is pretty. Her eyes are attractive but project fear, a great deal of fear, rather than shyness. She seems like a normal girl, who tells us that she is studying mathematics at the university. I think to myself, “She can’t be possessed.”
Beneath the church, Father Fortea opens the chapel where he says daily Mass and then locks it from the inside. The chapel is small and inviting. The exorcist asks for help in bringing a large heavy mattress, covered in green plastic, to the foot of the altar. The window-less rectangular chapel is about twenty-five yards square. At its head is an enormous altar covered by white linen. There are six candles burning before a great cross of the Trinity, which is barely lit by a flickering halogen lamp. Behind it is a painting of a triumphant Christ as well as the tabernacle. To the side, is the Madonna with the Child Jesus in her arms.
Upon entering the chapel, the mother and daughter prepare for the rite of exorcism. Marta puts on a pair of white socks, while her mother places a rosary, a six-inch crucifix, and a picture of Our Lady of Fatima to the side of the mattress. In my mind, I try to record the smallest details. I continue to think that I am on a movie set. Marta lies down face-up on the mattress, gazing at the crucifix. Maria kneels at her side, in a position that she will not leave for the next two-and-a-half hours. Father Frotea prays for a while on his knees, removes his cassock, takes a drink of water, and positions himself at the end of the mattress furthest from the altar.
I feel that the ritual is about to begin and sit expectantly on a pew. The exorcist extends his right hand and places it just over the girl’s face without touching her. Then, he closes his eyes, bows his head and whispers a prayer several times. It is then that the first unsettling shriek breaks the silence of the chapel, penetrating my soul and making my flesh crawl. It is not human. A profound and overwhelming howl comes out of Marta’s throat. But it cannot be her and is not her voice. It is hoarse and masculine. Father Fortea continues to pray while the howling goes on. Little by little the girl’s body begins to tremble violently. She begins moving slowly from side to side at first, and shakes violently thereafter.
“Be gone, Zebulon.”
Confronted by the exorcist’s chanting, the girl constantly twists and turns. Suddenly, her squeals become a loud, furious, and terrifying bellow. The exorcist has just placed the crucifix upon her abdomen while sprinkling the girl with holy water. She kicks with such fury that the crucifix falls off, while her mother picks it up and replaces it again and again. She also brings a rosary to the girl, who furiously casts it away. She seems to be quiet for a moment but then immediately begins to roar. She has not even taken a breath. When the girl hears Father Fortea invoke the name of St. George, she grunts and then turns her eyes up into their sockets, arches her body, and rises completely off the mattress. I can’t believe it.
“Kiss the crucifix”, says the exorcist.
“No.”
“Jesus is your king.”
“Assee dee dee dee dah.”
“Slave of Satan, you are in darkness.”
“Assee dee dee dee dah.”
“You are doing good work. Because of you, many people will believe in God”.
“No.”
“In the name of Christ I order you, be gone Zebulon. Eternal damnation awaits. There is no salvation for you.”
While Father Fortea continues to exhort Zebulon, the girl’s hands have been transformed into talons. The exorcist accelerates his prayers and exhortations, “Today is the day. Be gone, Zebulon. Leave this child in the name of God.” The girl shakes uncontrollably. Her screams are frightening. In a hoarse voice, comes the cry “Assassins!” When Father Fortea asks Zebulon why he will not leave her, the demon responds “So that people will believe in Satan.”
Worn out after an hour and a half of combat, the exorcist rises and leaves the chapel. This cannot be fakery or a put-on. It takes guts to do this. It is a good thing that cases of possession are quite rare, says Father Fortea. He has done them for five years and has had only four in Spain. However, while he was studying for his thesis, he attended thirteen others. It is obvious that he has had practice; he commands and insists, and mercilessly tortures the demon in a soft but firm voice. He does it in the name of God and always where it hurts the most. And this is even though he knows what it is like to be assailed by Satan. Once, during an exorcism, the devil made him feel the pain of having a knife thrust into his arm.
Fortea leaves the chapel and my heart begins to pound, wondering what can happen without the exorcist’s tranquil presence. But nothing happens. But then Maria, the mother, takes over the ritual and begins to repeat the same or similar phrases used by the priest. Calmly, but decisively, she seems not to speak to her daughter but to the Evil One who possesses her.
“In the name of Christ, I order you to leave.”
“No.”
“Open your eyes and look upon the Virgin”, Maria commands while placing a print bearing the image of Our Lady of Fatima within the girl’s sight. The only response is a grunt. She then takes up the crucifix.
“He is your Creator, do you see him?”
“Yes,” says the other-worldly voice amid constant grunts and howls.
“Look at Him, Zebulon, don’t fight it. You know that the day and hour are upon you. Your day and hour have come.”
“Noooo.”
“Why do you resist?”
“I’m fed up. I have already told you many times.”
“Tell these gentlemen why you won’t leave.”
“Ugggh.”
“Speak clearly.”
“I don’t want to.”
“In the name of Christ, say why.”
“So that they will believe in Satan.”
“Come, St. George, come. Come, St. George. Leave her, St. George.”
The possessed girl pauses for a moment, smiles and through her the demon says scornfully, “Leave, St. George.”
Having caught the woman off-guard, the demon would soon afterward catch the priest in a small error. But Maria is not easily vanquished. She is truly a Mater Dolorosa at the foot of her possessed daughter’s cross. Even I am now moved to drop to my knees and tearfully beg God (though I do not dare to intervene more directly), before anything else, to free Marta. My colleague does the same. It had been a long time since I had prayed with such fervor.
The exorcist then returns, bringing a small box filled with consecrated Hosts from the tabernacle, and stands before the girl.
“Look upon the King of Kings,” he says, “Kneel before Him.”
“No.”
“Disobedient and rebellious servant, kneel”, repeats Fr. Fortea while he holds the consecrated Host.
“Assassin, leave me.”
“St. George, make him kneel.”
At the mention of St. George, the possessed girl sprang to her knees while Fr. Fortea forced her to receive Holy Communion in her mouth. He returned to torturing the demon that inhabited Marta. After giving her Communion, he grasped a Bible and read from Revelation, “…and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever”, making the demon repeat each word.
“Repeat after me: it would have been better for me to have followed the Light.”
“It would have been better for me to have followed the Light,” repeated the demon while grinding his teeth and dragging out each word.
So it went for a long while. The exorcist seems like a teacher instructing a stubborn child who reluctantly repeats, between grunts and howls, phrases such as “Lord, you are my King. I am your creature. Nothing is beyond your power. You are the Alpha and the Omega.”
“No more. I’m exhausted,” the demon moans.
But Fr. Fortea emboldens his assault, brings up a stool and sits before the girl while holding a crucifix. “Hic est dies,” he repeats. For a moment, I think he is going to do it.
“The longer you take to leave, the more people will believe in God. You are proclaiming God. Come close, sit up and kiss the crucified Christ. Give him a kiss of respect and homage.”
Like a zombie, Marta sits up and draws closer to the cross. Showing the whites of her eyes, she sputters at the mouth but she kisses the cross. Fortea then gently takes her by the arm, gets her up, and makes her walk through the chapel and kiss the tabernacle and image of the Madonna.
“God is here. Repeat seven times: Iesus, lux mundi.” The girl repeats the words, but when she finishes she casts a burning stare at him and says, “Assassin, leave me alone. I can’t take it any more.” But the exorcist goes on.
An hour has now passed. Fortea takes a break. “Your turn,” he says to the mother and leaves the chapel. So Maria inclines herself toward Marta and begins to hector Zebulon.
“You must leave this girl. By the blood of Christ, leave her now. The angels are with her. Three archangels are coming now. The Virgin will crush your head…”
Zebulon continues to groan and writhe but does not seem willing to leave. After a while, Fr. Fortea returns.
“Do you not fear God’s punishment?”
“I know what it is!,” he howls.
Alone with the demoniac
Fr. Fortea glances at the mother, “He won’t go. Let’s leave him for today.” He stands up and leaves. The howling ends abruptly. I see a note of disappointment in Maria’s face. I get the impression that she hoped it would be today. She has been on her knees for almost three hours, but there is no sign of fatigue in face – only defeated expectations. She takes up the crucifix and the print of the Madonna and leaves the chapel. My companion and I are now alone with the demoniac. A few seconds seem like an eternity. We are glued to the bench, hardly breathing. Suddenly, she turns toward us, opens her eyes (only the whites of which we had seen for three hours) and fixes a gaze on us that I will never forget as long as I live. Her eyes are from beyond this world. I have never seen anything like this, ever. In an instant, the gaze is now Marta’s, who smiles at us, calmly gets up, and sits on the pew to remove and carefully fold her socks. I note that she has not broken a sweat, despite three hours of continuous movement. She puts on her earrings and smiles at us again.
“How are you?,” I ask.
“Tired.”
“Do you know what has happened?”
“No, I don’t remember.” While she is talking to us, she lovingly kisses the print and the crucifix that she had so recently seemed to despise.
“Does your throat hurt?”
“No.”
Her voice is as gentle now as when she arrived. No one could say that from that same throat had emerged such howls for three hours.
“Do you know why you are here?”
“Yes, I know. I know that I have…”
She does not finish her sentence. We respect her silence. The five of us leave the chapel and sit down in an adjacent room. Marta is calm. She is again the timid little girl of before. “Every night,” says Maria, “before going to bed, I take the crucifix that never leaves my side, and bless my room, ‘In the name of God, evil spirits leave this room. She always asks me, before going to bed, ‘Mama, have you blessed the room?’” But even so, she is frightened. For example, once her daughter’s hands turned into talons upon touching the cross, and her fingers once became like horns ready to plunge into her eyes. “These are threats that, fortunately, she never carries out.”
Before taking her leave, Marta utters a plea, “The bishops and people should know about this. There should be more exorcists.” Embracing her daughter, they get into Fr. Fortea’s car and depart. Marta turns and looks back at us. Her eyes seem to cry out with the anguish of a slave in shackles. Fr. Fortea promises to call me when the girl is finally freed.
I pray for Marta and her mother. What I witnessed was not fakery.
Zebulon
“He does not talk much, but he is quite intelligent.” This is how Fr. Fortea describes Zebulon, his enemy for more than seven months. In the beginning, Fr. Fortea simply thought that this was the name of the tenth son of Jacob and his wife Leah. Later, after having investigated a little more, he realized that he was dealing with one of the most powerful demons of hell.
He has appeared only three times in history. The first was during the 15th century in Loudon, France. Nearly all of the nuns in a convent there were possessed and tormented ceaselessly by an army of demons. Their chief was Zebulon. The second time was during the 1950s during an exorcism done by Father Candide, the master Italian exorcist who taught Fr. Amorth. He had now reappeared.
II. So that they will know that Satan lives
The editorial found on Hispanidad.com for Monday, September 30th, is long but I assure you that it is worthwhile. It is a description, in first person, of an exorcism ritual celebrated in a chapel located in Alcala de Henares district of Madrid whose purpose was to liberate a young woman possessed by a demon. During the two-and-a-half hour session, both Javier Paredes (Opinion Editor of Hispanidad.com) and Luis Losada (the reporter) were present. A previous session, reported by the Religion editor of “El Mundo” newspaper, Jose Manuel Vidal, and the lead for the same area of the EFE news agency, caused a great controversy. The session was reported in “El Mundo”, and Vidal wrapped it up by saying that it was not “fakery.” The immediate reaction on the part of many (for example, on the part of “El Mundo” readers) has been the same: How can a serious newspaper tell such things? That is, it seems that no one has bothered to adopt a more scientific attitude and examine the events. In this case, as in any other discovery or human story, there are three possible attitudes: someone duped the witnesses to the exorcism, the witnesses are lying, or demons really do exist and take possession of another spirit since human beings are nothing but a combination of body and spirit.
Nevertheless, many have decided without scientific proof that the report is untrue. This is because they are not ready to accept the existence of spirits despite the evidence. What about the evidence, they conclude. And on top of everything they get angry and insult the witnesses. What is going on?
I urge you to read the testimony provided by Luis Losada, seconded by Javier Paredes, without any prejudgment. On your conclusions about the story may depend everything or nothing, but it will certainly put your composure to the test. So …
I return to one of the sessions of exorcism conducted by Fr. Fortea. I write excitedly. Zebulon’s howls, the prayers of the priest and the mother of the demoniac, still haunt my conscience. I believe that “They shall not prevail”, but am afraid. I would go back if I could and would not have come to this session. My soul is disturbed by the brutal encounter with the demon. Zebulon has occupied Marta’s body “so that they will know” that Satan lives. This is one of the answers that Zebulon gave to the exorcist when asked why he would not depart from her body. This is why the girl’s mother, Maria, has asked me when we parted to tell the whole world so that her daughter can be liberated as soon as possible.
“Father, may we report on the things we have seen?”
“You may report what you like. The things of the Light do not fear the Light, but the things of darkness seek darkness.”
Without a doubt, there must be a reason for my being at this exorcism which, over time, I will uncover. Meanwhile, I can only discern my own rather base motivations. Journalistic or sick curiosity, naiveté, and ignorance caused me to accept the offer of my friend and colleague Javier Paredes of Radio Intereconomia to come with him to the exorcism. Lacking any psychological preparation, I grab a taxi to take me to the parish in Madrid where Fr. Fortea will celebrate the sixteenth chapter in Marta’s exorcism.
Marta is a young, apparently sweet girl, who comes to the session with a commixture of fear and expectation that the “nightmare” will go away. When “everything” has concluded, she will tell us that she is tired even though she has no recollection of what we have gone thro
Pope John Paul II calls War a Defeat for Humanity: Neoconservative Iraq Just War Theories Rejected
by Mark and Louise Zwick
The most consistent and frequent promoter of peace and human rights for the last two decades has been Pope John Paul II.
From Iraqi War I to Iraqi War II, he has echoed the voice of Paul VI, crying out before the United Nations in 1965: War No More, War Never Again!
John Paul II stated before the 2003 war that this war would be a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified.
In the weeks and months before the U.S. attacked Iraq, not only the Holy Father, but also one Cardinal and Archbishop after another at the Vatican spoke out against a "preemptive" or "preventive" strike. They declared that the just war theory could not justify such a war. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said that such a "war of aggression" is a crime against peace. Archbishop Renato Martino, who used the same words in calling the possible military intervention a "crime against peace that cries out vengeance before God," also criticized the pressure that the most powerful nations exerted on the less powerful ones on the U.N. Security Council to support the war. The Pope spoke out almost every day against war and in support of diplomatic efforts for peace.
John Paul II sent his personal representative, Cardinal Pio Laghi, a friend of the Bush family, to remonstrate with the U.S. President before the war began. Pio Laghi said such a war would be illegal and unjust. The message was clear: God is not on your side if you invade Iraq.
After the United States began its attacks against Iraq, FOX News actually reported the immediate comments of the Holy Father, made in an address at the Vatican to members of an Italian religious television channel, Telespace: "When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society," John Paul said. "Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man."
Americans were largely unaware of the depth and importance of the opposition of Church leaders to an attack on Iraq, since for the most part the mainstream media did not carry the stories. In the same way, many Americans were unaware that Pope John Paul II spoke against the first Gulf War 56 times. Media in the United States omitted this from the commentaries on the war. Many have also been unaware of the number of Iraqis killed in that war (not to mention the war which recently "ended"). In February 2003 Business Week published an interview with Beth Osborne Daponte, a professional demographer who worked for the Census Bureau. The first Bush administration tried to fire her because her published estimates of the number of Iraqi deaths conflicted with what Dick Cheney was saying at the time. She was defended by social science professionals and was able to keep her job. Her estimates: 13,000 civilians were killed directly by American and allied forces, and about 70,000 civilians died subsequently from war-related damage to medical facilities and supplies, the electric power grid, and the water system.
In the past few years, Catholic neoconservatives have been attempting to develop a new philosophy of just war which would include preemptive strikes against other nations, what might be called a "preventive war." George Weigel has published major articles defending this position since 1995. First Things magazine published his articles and editorially agreed with this point of view. The present Bush administration has used these writings to defend the strike against Iraq. Shortly before the war began, through the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, President Bush sent Michael Novak to go to Rome to try to justify the war to the Pope and Vatican officials. Catholic News Service reported that the two-hour symposium was attended by some 150 invited guests, including lower-level Vatican officials, professors from church universities in Rome and diplomats accredited to the Vatican. Since with one voice Rome had already rejected the argument for a preventive war, Novak took the approach that a war on Iraq would not be a preventive war, but a continuation of a "just war," Iraqi War I, and actually a moral obligation. He argued that a was also a matter of self-defense, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was an un-scrupulous character, and therefore it was only a matter of time before he took up with Al Qaida and gave them such weapons.
Novak did not succeed in convincing Church leaders-in fact, some commentators reflected that his efforts might have had the opposite effect. Novak's credibility in this argument was perhaps under-mined by his employment at the American Enterprise Institute, heavily funded by oil companies, some of whom began advertising in the Houston Chronicle for em-ployees to work in Iraq even before the war began. Administration officials denied for months that the goal of the war on Iraq was related to oil. On June 4, 2003, however, The Guardian reported the words of the U.S. deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz (one of the major architects of the war). Wolfowitz had earlier commented that the urgent reason given for the war, weapons of mass destruction, was only a "bureaucratic excuse" for war. Now, at an Asian security summit in Singapore he has declared openly that the real reason for the war was oil: "Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defense minister said: "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil."
John Paul II has sought to distance the Catholic Church from George Bush's idea of the manifest Christian destiny of the United States, and especially to avoid the appearance of a clash of Christian civilization against Islam. Zenit reported that in his Easter Sunday message this year John Paul II "implored for the world's deliverance from the peril of the tragic clash between cultures and religions." The Pope also sent his message to terrorists: "Let there be an end to the chain of hatred and terrorism which threatens the orderly development of the human family." As he had done in his invitation to religious leaders from many faiths to Assisi at the beginning of 2002, he reached out again to leaders of other religions: "May faith and love of God make the followers of every religion courageous builders of under-standing and forgiveness, patient weavers of a fruitful inter-religious dialogue, capable of inaugurating a new era of justice and peace."
Catholic World News quoted the Latin-rite Bishop of Baghdad, Bishop Jean-Benjamin Sleimaan as saying in the Italian daily La Repubblica that the Pope's high-profile opposition to a war on Iraq has helped to avoid a sort of Manichaeism that would set up an opposition between the West and the East, in which Christianity is linked to the West and Islam to the East.
While the Iraqi War II turned out to be "short," violations of "just war" principles abounded. Bombing included such targets as an open market and a hotel where the world's journalists were staying. While most television and newspaper reports in the United States minimized coverage of deaths and injuries to the Iraqi people, reports of many civilian casualties did come out. CBS news reported on April 7 stories of civilians pouring into hospitals in Baghdad, threatening to over-whelm medical staff, and the damage inflicted by bombs which targeted homes: "The old, the young, men and women alike, no one has been spared. One hospital reported receiving 175 wounded by midday. A crater is all that remains of four families and their homes-obliterated by a massive bomb that dropped from the sky without warning in the middle afternoon." The Canadian press carried a Red Cross report of "incredible" levels of civilian casualties from Nasiriyah, of a truckload of dismembered women and children arriving at the hospital in Hilla from that village, their deaths the result of "bombs, projectiles."
As talk escalated about a U. S. attack on Iraq, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, began stating unequivocally that "The concept of a 'preventive war' does not appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church." His comments had been published as early as September 2002 and were repeated several times as war seemed imminent.
Cardinal Ratzinger recommended that the three religions who share a heritage from Abraham return to the Ten Commandments to counteract the violence of terrorism and war: "The Decalogue is not the private property of Christians or Jews. It is a lofty expression of moral reason that, as such, is also found in the wisdom of other cultures. To refer again to the Decalogue might be essential precisely to restore reason."
Preparation of a new shorter, simpler version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church will soon begin and, according to reports and interviews with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it will probably include revisions to clarify the section on just war, as the official version has done against capital punishment in a civilized society. Cardinal Ratzinger will head up the Commission to write the new catechism. In an interview with Zenit on May 2, 2003, the Cardinal restated the position of the Holy Father on the Iraq war (II) and on the question of the possibility of a just war in today's world.: "There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a "just war."
In almost every one of his addresses to groups large or small and in each visit to other countries, such as his recent visit to Spain, John Paul II has cried out for peace.
At the Ash Wednesday Mass this year the Pope reemphasized the theme that peace comes with justice: "There will be no peace on earth while the oppression of peoples, injustices and economic imbalances, which still exist, endure." He insisted that changes in structures, economic and otherwise, must come from conversion of hearts: "But for the desired structural changes to take place, external initiatives and interventions are not enough; what is needed above all is a joint conversion of hearts to love."
In his Easter message the Holy Father drew attention not only to the Iraq War, but to "the forgotten wars and protracted hostilities that are causing deaths and injuries amid silence and neglect on the part of considerable sectors of public opinion." The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano carried the Pope's Easter message of peace with a headline in very large letters, Pace (peace), taking up a quarter of a page. He has asked Catholics to pray and do penance and ask Christ for peace, a peace "founded on the solid pillars of love and justice, truth and freedom."
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, July-August 2003
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