Pax Christi Metro DC/Baltimore

Good afternoon sisters and brothers. My name is Alan Smigielski and I’m here with a number of others from Pax Christi Metro DC. We are the local chapter of Pax Christi, the international Catholic Peace movement.

As followers of the nonviolent Jesus, where else could we be but here today, standing with TASSC and saying “no” to torture? For Jesus himself was a victim of torture and the death penalty. How could anyone claim to be a follower of Jesus – not a “fan” of Jesus, for he has many “fans” and admirers – but a follower of Jesus and not categorically condemn this outrageous assault on the dignity of the human person. For as Jesus tells us in Matthew’s gospel, “Whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did to me” (Mt 25:40) and “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” (Mt 7:12)

It was perhaps once the case that we Christians who just happened to be Americans, could pretend that maybe we lived in a more enlightened, a more humane society here in the United States. Torture was, we assured ourselves, something from the medieval past; the practice of petty dictators and tin-plated despots. Certainly not the official policy of the “leader of the free world” or the “shining city on a hill” as idealized by our Puritan forbearer in faith, John Winthrop. But we can’t live in that illusory world of triumphalist ideology and propaganda anymore. The abomination of OUR American gulags at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and the unknown number of CIA “black sites” around the world have caused the scales to drop from our eyes. Torture is not something “they” do. It’s something WE do. Yes, US, dear friends. And by our silence we are complicit in these crimes against humanity. As followers of Jesus we know that Jesus wept for the arrogance of Jerusalem, saying “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.” (Lk 19:42). Surely Jesus weeps for Washington, DC today.

Let us then break the silence together, dear friends. The silence of our government representatives; the silence of our churches which have chosen power and money over the Gospel of Jesus; the silence of our friends and neighbors who shrug and wallow in lives of self-indulgence and over consumption.

Let us, then, be like the prophet Jonah of old who called upon the people and king of the corrupt and prideful city of Ninevah to repent of their evil ways before God. God, who is mercy upon mercy, compassion and peace beyond all understanding.

The king of THIS Ninevah may not be here today in his grand White House. Yet we find ourselves at his doorstep. He too claims to be a follower of the nonviolent Jesus, the leader of a “Christian nation.” But if he and this nation were truly living in the Spirit of the nonviolent Jesus there would be no need for us to gather here today.

So let us, like the people and king of Ninevah, put on sackcloth and ashes and repent before our merciful and loving God. For we are like the “stiff necked” people of Exodus (Ex 32:9) who have fashioned and worshiped our own golden calves of militarism and nationalism and forsaken the God of Peace (Phil 4:10).

Forgive us loving God, for torture in our name and for not speaking out.

Forgive us merciful God, for the imperial wars of aggression waged in our name and for the untold suffering we continue to inflict on the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forgive us just God, for our indifference, our silence and our apathy in the face of these and so many other evils carried out in our name.

May God’s peace, which is beyond all understanding be upon us all and may we continue to be blessed by the wonderful work of all at TASSC.