[Announce] Fourth Anniversary of the War on Iraq

[Robert Waldrop]

Re: Fourth Anniversary of the War on 
IraqRemembering the Fourth Anniversary of the War 
on Iraq

Below is an announcement from Bishop John Michael 
Botean regarding a liturgy he and other Romanian 
Catholics will celebrate on March 19,2007, in 
Canton, Ohio, on behalf of all the victims of the 
way in Iraq.  For those who are not familiar with 
Eastern Catholic liturgy and Lenten practices, 
here is a link with an explanation. 
http://www.byzantines.net/liturgy/presanctified.htm .

Included with that announcement is an email from 
Fr. Emmanuel McCarthy, with more information about 
the importance of this event and other similar 
events to be organized.  I don't include 
attachments generally with emails I send to this 
and other groups, but the two poster pdf's he 
refers to are now online at our website at 
http://www.justpeace.org/PresanctifiedLiturgy.pdf 
and 
http://www.justpeace.org/PresanctifiedLiturgyHQP.pdf , 
the latter link is to a high quality version for 
use with printers that can do the finer detail.

It seems to me that for those of us who can't go 
to Canton, Ohio for this event, it would be 
appropriate to celebrate masses or vespers that 
evening.  This is also the Feast of St. Joseph.

I also encourage everyone to remember and observe 
the Lenten ember days, which are the Wednesday, 
Friday, and Saturday following the First Sunday of 
Lent, which is next Sunday.  See 
www.justpeace.org/ember.htm .  Note also that the 
anniversary of the Martyrdom of Romero is March 
24th.

Romero of El Salvador, pray for us and all who are 
at risk of war and oppression!

Bob Waldrop, Romero House, Oklahoma City

Presanctified Liturgy For All the Victims of the 
War in Iraq
On the Fourth Anniversary of the Invasion
March 19, 2007
St. George's Romanian Catholic Cathedral
Canton, Ohio
7:00 PM
In recognition of and witness to a truth of the 
Gospel of Jesus Chris--namely, that the enemy of a 
tribe, of a nation, of an ethnic group or of a 
person is not the enemy of God, but rather is an 
infinitely valued and loved son or daughter of the 
"Father of all" (Ep 4:6) who is to be valued and 
loved as Christ-God values and loves him or 
her--Bishop John Michael Botean will celebrate a 
Presanctified Liturgy at the time and place noted 
above for the eternal peace and salvation of all 
who have been killed in the war in Iraq, whether 
they be from the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, 
Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, 
Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El 
Salvador, England, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, 
Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, 
Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, 
Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, 
Slovakia, Spain, Turkey or Uzbekistan. This 
Liturgy will also include special prayers for the 
uncountable number of known and never-to-be-known 
sons and daughters of mothers and fathers inside 
and outside Iraq who have been maimed--directly or 
indirectly--in body, soul, mind or spirit by this 
war and who must carry this yoke of misery for all 
the days of their lives.

All are welcome and wholeheartedly encouraged to 
come in the Spirit of peace and pray in peace for 
the peace of all--living and dead--to the "God of 
peace" (1Thes 5:23) in whom "violence and cruelty 
can have no part."

"It is thus understood that nonviolence, for 
Christians, is not mere tactical behavior but a 
person's way of being, the attitude of one who is 
convinced of God's love and power, who is not 
afraid to confront evil with the weapons of love 
and truth alone." -- Pope Benedict XVI, On the 
Revolution of Love, January 18, 2007

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Emmanuel Charles McCarthy" 
<emmanuel222 at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:29 PM
Subject: Fourth Anniversary of the War on Iraq

Friends

Attached is a graphic of a  poster or flyer or 
advertisement or email
attachment or bulletin insert etc. for what Bishop 
John Michael Botean
is going to be presiding at on March 19, 2007 at 
St.George's Cathedral
in Canton, Ohio. It would be good if we could have 
as many people who
are so interested in this matter at the Cathedral 
that evening. But,
it is equally important to make what John Botean 
is  planning to do in
Canton (and as I understand it, what he will be 
asking all his
Romanian parishes in the U.S. to do) quickly 
visible on a larger
scale, so that other bishops, priests, ministers, 
lay people,
parishes, dioceses, etc might be able to choose 
similarly in their
area. That means making people aware of this 
spiritual-moral option as
soon as and as widely as possible and in whatever 
way that is
possible, e.g.,newspapers (NCR or local Catholic 
or secular papers,
Catholic News Service, etc), email, posters, 
flyers or bulletin
inserts for Churches, Pax Christi--local and 
national--CPF, FOR,
Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical communication 
avenues, etc. And,
of course it means telling all, that they are 
welcome to come to
Canton regardless of how far away they are or 
whatever their place in
the Church may be. However, what people don't know 
about, they cannot
act on or choose. So, do let folks know.

I think this is an authentic nonviolent conversion 
effort in the very
best sense of the word. The poster-flyer-email 
attachment pretty much
states it, "To pray for all the victims of the 
Iraq War." It difficult
to pray for people and simultaneously feel 
indifferent to their
continuing misery and the cause of it.

Some elbow grease is needed to get the idea out 
there and/or get folks
to Canton. We have over a month, which is more 
than enough time to
plan a prayer service of some kind on March 19, 
even for an entire
parish or diocese. But again, the idea first has 
to be made known and
available to people for their consideration and 
their choice for or
against it. This is most definitely not something 
exclusively for
peace movement people. This is what the Church 
should be doing for and
with all its members, regardless of their 
politics.


You might even think of sending, via email, the 
information on what Bishop
Botean is doing to folks, bishops, priests, 
ministers, etc in other
countries. This is a catholic matter--the one 
family of the Father, from different locals on
the planet, being maimed and killed--although it 
is a Catholic
matter in its first step. All people in the world 
should pray on March 19
for the victims of this war, since even those not 
directly involved can
know--if they elect to exercise their God-given 
empathic
capabilities--the pain, the misery that those, on 
all sides, directly
suffering this war's horrors are undergoing. 
However first, we must
suggest to them the idea of so doing.

John Carmody ( jjcarmody1 at verizon.net or 
1-302-235-2925 ) will try to
help you out in any way that you might need in 
relation to advertising
of any kind. The enclosed attachments, however, 
pretty much says what
needs to be said--except for the location, if it 
is not to be St.
George's Cathedral. The two attachments have the 
same content.The
difference between them is that the High Quality 
Print [HPQ] version
of the file is for quality printing on desktop 
printers and proofers
and the Press Quality [PQ] version is for 
high-quality prepress printing, such as would be 
used by a commercial printer.

In Christ-God,

Charlie


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www.centerforchristiannonviolence.org




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