Bishops deplore 'partisan stalemate' on Iraq

FROM PATRICIA ZAPOR IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
THE AMERICAN Catholic bishops have urged the US government to bring the fourand-a-half-year war in Iraq to an end.
Citing an alarming political and partisan stalemate in Washington, a draft statement discussed by the US bishops on Monday again laid out a moral framework for a transition in Iraq.
Noting that the bishops have called for bipartisan action for almost two years, the draft said the current situation in Iraq "remains unacceptable and unsustainable".
"Our country needs a new direction to reduce the war's deadly toll and to bring our people together to deal with the conflict's moral and human dimensions," said the draft. "Our nation needs a new bipartisan approach to Iraq policy based on honest and civil dialogue."
On the opening day of their autumn general meeting in Baltimore the bishops agreed to take up the statement, which would be issued in the name of Bishop William Slcylstad of Spokane, Washington, the bishops' conference president. A final version of the statement was to be reworked to incorporate suggestions from the floor of the bishops' autumn general meeting in Baltimore and released later this week.
The statement focuses on minimising the loss of human life, immunity for noncombatants, the need to consider what elements of responsible transition are attainable, the consequences of rapid withdrawal from Iraq and the financial and global consequences of continued war and occupation.
The statement also calls for more sustained efforts to collaborate with other nations, including Syria and Iran, as "critically important for bringing some measure of stability to Iraq".
"Iraq's future stability is related to the stability of the region." it says. "This is why US leadership to advance a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians is critical.The "dire situation of refugees, internally displaced persons, Christians and other vulnerable minorities" has been neglected, the statement says.
"A staggering two million refugees have fled Iraq; another two million Iraqis are internally displaced:' it continues. "The US should immediately make more substantial commitments to Iraqi refugees by expanding admissions, eliminating roadblocks to resettlement and supporting countries in the region burdened with war-related refugee populations." in a brief discussion of the statement on the floor of the bishops' meeting Bishop Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo, Texas, suggested adding a reference to the ongoing war in Afghanistan and including a call for bishops to be more proactive both as a conference and individually in pressing the government about how to handle Iraq.
"I believe Congress is searching for leadership" on Iraq, Bishop Pfeifer said, as evidenced by an off-the-reconi meeting in October of members of Congress and representatives of the bishops' conference.
He also proposed calling for a national day of prayer and penance, perhaps a Saturday in Advent, focused on Iraq.
At a workshop on Iraq Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, chairman of the bishops' international policy committee, told about 30 bishops that the US Church's goals for transition in Iraq are more modest than they were two years ago.
"We focus now on a morally and politically demanding, but carefully limited goal of responsible transition aimed at addressing the humanitarian crisis in Iraq; the refugee crisis in the region; human rights, especially religious freedom; and the need to rebuild the country," he said.