Fr. Chris Ponnet's Declaration of Peace Pledge
Yes! I join with the majority of US citizens, the people of
Iraq, and people around the world in calling for a comprehensive end to the US
war in Iraq.
Today I join in solidarity with many people around the
world in saying again NO MORE WAR NOT IN MY NAME!
- Today as Director of Pax Christi Los Angeles, I join David
Robinson and others who were arrested in Washington DC last Friday in prayer,
fasting and civil disobedience. I renew my vow of nonviolence today which is
central to Pax Christi ministry.
- Today, I walk in honor of my father who served in World War II, my
brother who served in Vietnam and my nephew who recently returned from Iraq,
along with those who serve in jails as conscientious objectors of policy of wars
and violence.
- Today as a Catholic theologian, I stand to demand religious and
political persons Mr. Bush from using St Augustine's Just War Principles to
support preemptive war and as we Americans remain in shame as the only users of
nuclear weapons of mass destruction. I act in obedience to the US Bishops
Challenge of Peace and Pope John Paul II GOSPEL OF LIFE encyclical and Pope
Benedict's opposition to war. I join the Pope who today is meeting with Muslim
leaders said: "Christians and Muslims must learn to work together ... in order
to guard against all forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of
violence."
- Today as a citizen of the United States I demand Congress to
return us to a country that honors international and constitutional law for our
citizens privacy and support the Iraqi freedom by bringing the troops home now.
- Today as a chaplain I move forward in honor of the veterans who
are homeless and addicted who come to our hospitals with spiritual and emotional
wounds that this administration does not seem willing to honor with appropriate
funding.
- Today, as a child of the God who created all people and saw that
all was good. I say NO to war violence, murder, abortion, executions, health
care cuts from prenatal to HIV medicine for immigrants, and YES to all life from
womb to national death.
- We move forward today at this Hollywood recruitment center which
recruits disproportionately the poor and people of color. During these high Holy
Days with the Jewish community---let us begin anew and recruit young people for
creative things not war things. During these days of Ramadan—let us fast from
words and actions of hatred and war and be about dialog and peace. And as we
Christians approach the feast of St. Francis of Assisi—I pray:
|
Lord, make me an
instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy; O
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as
to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to
love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that
we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal
life. |
SIGNED: Fr. Chris Ponnet
Pastor St. Camillus Center for Pastoral
Care
1911 Zonal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033 •
1-323-225-4461 x221
cponnet@stcamillus.ftml.net
For more information on the declaration go to
www.declarationofpeace.org, or our interfaith group
www.icujp.org, or my home
website
www.circlesofhope.org