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Tomorrow has to be made. |
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- We will remember for a long time
this 11th September when a terrorist attack struck the United
States, an unprecedented event in the history of this century.
There had been the fall of the Berlin wall on 9th November, a
remarkable threshold in the future of the peoples, it was giving
hope that many things were going to become possible.
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From now on there will be the 11th September
2001, a day of terror and devastation when America was stricken
at its heart. Humanity is going to topple over. Nothing will
be the same. Some terrorists have used the strength of the most
powerful country of the world to turn it against itself. The
emotion was intense. The condemnation was unanimous or almost.
Like you I was watching on the TV these apocalyptic images, I
felt full of compassion for the victims, their families and the
American people. |
How can we not feel close to and support a people plunged into
such a drama? From everywhere, it was moving to see this proximity
of the human beings and of the peoples, beyond religious, political
and cultural frontiers. The three minutes of silence followed
by so many men and women where they were, were making them enter
into a mysterious communion with the whole human family.
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- Facing the unbelievable acts of
terrorism directed against the first power of the world but revealing
in the same time its vulnerability, I heard these words that
sound so terrible for me. A sound of fear: war, repost, reprisals,
and attack, revenge
. words that I already heard during
the Golf war.
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- Terrorism is the enemy, it can be
anywhere, and it has no face. To declare war to the terrorism
with enormous military means is a risk of calling for a new and
big crusade with a spirit of revenge.
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In part, terrorists are a product of
our societies. We are preparing men who are today murderers,
men who do not accept the domination of new masters of the world.
They are rightly accused of being fanatic and of killing in the
name of God. However are we not taking the risk of reposting
in the name of God? As if God was still the God of the armies?
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- At the moment when I am writing,
I don't know what this war will be, but I am afraid, as always,
that we use the means used by the terrorists, that is violence.
Then we stay trapped in an infernal cycle with a spirit of revenge
and domination. We have been trained in this culture of domination
and violence, which is so contrary to the Gospel. The Gospel
teaches us that taking over somebody is always a defeat. The
disciples of Jesus were never asked to dominate the others, whoever
they are.
- To yield to war is a regression.
It is a sign that violence is still a breach into which one is
plunging. To resolve into war is already a failure.
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The Moslems, that I meet, understand
that. They fear, despite of the denials, the confusion between
terrorism and Islam. They know that for many they will become
suspects.
The Palestinians of occupied territories have all the reasons
to be worried. To the international opinion the war against terrorism
will legitimate the actions of the Israeli army. For each suicide
attack, the repression could be disproportionate and merciless. |
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- For the countries that are suspected
to harbor the terrorists, surely they can fear the worst. Once
more the ordinary people will suffer from the war.
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- If we stay enclosed into the cycle
of the violence, with the will to retaliate, we move away from
peace. War is always a source of new injustices. Peace obtained
by the arms cannot last long because it is not based on justice.
It is justice between the peoples that creates peace.
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The dramatic event of 11th September
could open the opportunity to build the coming century in another
way, with a spirit of justice and peace and not in a spirit of
retaliation and domination. Not easy! |
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- We should keep hope that another
world is possible, with the Martin Luther King's dream that he
had during his long march for freedom in United States: the dream
of equality between all the humans.
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