Newspaper Page Text
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Soulhern Cross
Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah
http://www.diosav.org
Vol. 81, No. 33 Thursday, September 27, 2001
$.50 per issue
Religious leaders meet Bush, urge guidance of moral principles
By Patricia Zaror
Washington (CNS)
T wo dozen religious leaders
from a spectrum of faiths,
including two cardinals, met with
President Bush September 20 to
pray and to advise him about the
U.S. response to the September 11
terrorist attacks.
In a statement issued shortly after
the White House meeting, the reli
gious leaders said the country has
“both a moral right and a grave
obligation as a nation to protect the
sanctity of life and the common
good.”
“We should respond not in the
spirit of aggression, but as victims
of aggression who must act to pre
vent further atrocities of terrorism,”
the statement said.
Speaking to reporters after the
meeting, Cardinal Bernard F. Law
of Boston said the group prayed
with the president, offered advice
about how the United States should
answer the terrorist attacks, and
then sang a verse of “America the
Beautiful.”
Cardinal Law said that in all his
years of working on ecumenical
issues, he’d never seen such a
sense of unity or found it so easy to
draft a statement that could be sup
ported by leaders of so many dif
ferent faiths. “Each of us may fur
ther develop different parts” of the
statement, he said.
The statement said the participants
found it reassuring that in a time of
crisis the president would invite a
broad group of religious leaders to
pray with and counsel him.
Their statement offered prayers
for the president, the survivors of
those who were killed, and those
who endangered and gave their
lives to rescue others.
(Continued on page 3)
Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law (top, left) and New York Cardinal Edward M.
Egan (top, third from right) join Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and first lady Laura Bush (bottom from left) in
applauding New York Governor George Pataki (bottom, right) and New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani (left of Pataki) during the address of President George
W. Bush to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol September 20.
In Kazakstan, pope condemns terrorism, begs
God to prevent war
By John Thavis
Astana, Kazakstan (CNS)
F rom the steppes of Central Asia,
a region where the United
States and Islamic militants appea
red headed for confrontation, Pope
John Paul II begged God to prevent
war and condemned acts of terror
ism carried out in the name of reli
gion.
Visiting the former Soviet repub
lic of Kazakstan September 22-25,
the pope reached out to the Muslim
majority and asked them to join
Christians in building a “civiliza
tion of love” that rejects violence
and hatred.
With apprehension growing over
possible armed conflict in the wake
of terrorist attacks in the United
States, the pope told his audience in
Kazakstan: “I beg God to keep the
world in peace.”
“From this place, I invite both
Christians and Muslims to raise an
intense prayer to the one, almighty
God whose children we all are, that
the supreme good of peace may
reign in the world,” he said, switch
ing from Russian to English at the
end of an outdoor Mass September
23 in the Kazak capital, Astana.
Referring to the suicide hijack
ings that left more than 6,000 dead
in the United States, the pope said:
“We must not let what has hap
pened lead to a deepening of divi
sions. Religions must never be used
as a reason for conflict.”
On the six-hour plane trip from
Rome to Astana September 22, the
pope read and re-read a text of U.S.
President George W. Bush's speech
to Congress two days earlier, Vati
can spokesman Joaquin Navarro-
Valls said.
With Afghanistan just 200 miles
south of Kazakstan, the pope’s
thoughts were clearly on the mili
tary showdown that appeared to be
developing in the region. The
United States accused Afghanistan
of harboring Islamic militants sus
pected of orchestrating the attacks
and was sending troops, ships and
planes to the area.
Pope John Paul II prays at a mon
ument to the victims of totalitari
anism in Astana, capital of
Kazakstan, September 22.
Father William Quinlan’s
RCIA Summer Institute
Catholic Schools Benefit
62-year priesthood
m W
held
Concert
♦
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