Bishops meeting to look at Africa and aftermath of Sept. 11

Social justice news
November 2001

Major appeal planned for Afghanistan refugees
Amnesty International calls for U.S. restraint
Renewed Mideast violence called intolerable
Refugee camp offers glimpse of growing crisis
Bishops' meeting to look at Africa and aftermath of September 11
Earth Summit's declaration of interdependence

Bishops meeting to look at Africa and aftermath of Sept. 11
The U.S. bishops will be meeting in Washington on November 12 - 15. On the agenda will be a new statement on Africa but USCCB sources say the bishops will "almost certainly" also be discussing a statement reviewing events in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and the World Trade Center in New York. The bishops will be debating a statement that will comment on the American bombing campaign against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan but will also include a broad review of global events since the September 11 attack.

The statement on Africa will review the "deepening engagement" between the U.S. and African churches and "people and nations" in Africa. Updates at the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops will include new statements from the bishops immediately as they are approved.

Members of Pax Christi USA and Voices in the Wilderness are also encouraging the U.S. bishops to take up the issue of Iraqi sanctions at the November meeting. According to Pax Christi USA, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, along with twenty-eight fellow bishops, will be calling for the conference, as a body, to make a clear and explicit condemnation of the sanctions against Iraq and to call for the immediate suspension of these sanctions. Pax Christi USA is encouraging Catholics to contact their local bishops to encourage them to call for an end to Iraqi sanctions, which by some estimates may have claimed as many as 1.5 million lives in Iraq since the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Pax Christi USA will also be hosting a prayer vigil at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington during the time that the bishops are meeting on Sunday afternoon, November. 11 and on Monday, November 12 starting at 8 a.m.

For information about Pax Christi USA peace actions in your area, contact Johnny Zokovich.
For more information about the Iraqi sanctions and the upcoming bishops' meeting, contact Bishop Dumbleton's office at 313-898-3328 or email tjgdet@juno.com.

Back to page top