Priest asks caution and reflection

Rev. Canice Connors, OFM, minister provincial of the Immaculate Conception Province of Franciscans in Rensselaer, recently voiced those thoughts on the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Father Connors is also president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which represents the heads of religious orders. Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief agency of American Catholics, chose him this summer to represent that group as part of an official peace delegation to the Middle East.

Conflicts

Since then, he has been in frequent communication with the Catholic chancellor of the Patriarchate of Palestine and the Holy Land, Rev. Raed Abusahlia. In their communications since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, Father Connors has been hearing "a lot of concern expressed from Palestinian sources that Israel will use this event to justify further action against" Palestinians.

According to Father Connors, the political factions involved in the conflict between Palestine and Israel in many ways parallel those that exist in Afghanistan with Osama bin-Laden and the Taliban group.

Methods and madness

"In preparing our response to the recent terrorist attacks here, we [have named] a political entity [Afghanistan], as being a terrorist state, whereas it is harboring a terrorist cell," the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, he continued.

He is concerned that the U.S. response does not "eventuate a continuous cycle of violence," and urged Americans to "discern to what degree some of our policies and practices elicited this rageful violence, without in any way excusing the perpetrators."

Role of Church

Finally, he believes that Americans must become a people that can "take on a new virtue [by becoming] a country that plays a more prophetic role in world events.

"Impoverished people in these countries see Americans as rich consumers who waste and use their wealth for self-benefit and not for the rest of the world. They are very angry, particularly Christians I met in Palestine. They feel that America has abandoned them, that through our direct intervention in the conflict with Israel, Americans are in collusion with Israel's terrorist activities against them."

Remnant

Father Connors believes that Americans must support a new peace process.

"How do we approach the question, 'Why do people hate us?' It is often difficult to look at ourselves, our actions and the impact that we have on the world at large," he said. "In the days to come, I think that we Americans will reflect together, because that is what we do as a nation. Through that reflection process, I am hopeful that we will be able to find a special kind of wisdom, as we always have in our past, one that will help us deal with the issue of terrorism."

(09-27-01) [[In-content Ad]]