plans for a war with Iraq, senior British church leaders have expressed their concern about such an invasion.
In a statement monitored by BosNewsLife Friday, February 21, the leaders of the United Kingdom’s Catholic and Anglican churches cast doubt on the moral case for launching military action against Iraq.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, and his Anglican counterpart, Dr Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury – as saying that war brings "a sense of failure".
They call for United Nations weapons inspections to be given more time and urge the Iraqi Government to show "its total compliance with UN resolutions on weapons of mass destruction," the BBC reported about what is seen as an extraordinary move by the churches hierarchy.
INACTION
"Inaction, passivity, appeasement or indifference" cannot be embraced and instead urge for all sides to give UN weapons inspectors more time, the archbishops said in the statement.
"It is vital therefore that all sides in this crisis engage, through the United Nations fully and urgently – in a process, including continued weapons inspections, that could and should render the trauma and tragedy of war unnecessary."
The latest church appeal was expected to come as a set-back for Prime Minister Tony Blair who so far failed to rally a majority of British public opinion behind his support for the US policy towards Iraq.
Speaking about last weeks demonstration Blair said last week that "even if a million people" participated in the event "they were less than the victims" of the wars started by Saddam Hussein. "Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity. It is leaving him there that is in truth inhumane," Blair said.
DOUBTS
However the archbishops stressed that "the events of recent days show that doubts still persist about the moral legitimacy, as well as the unpredictable humanitarian and political consequences, of a war with Iraq."
BBC analysts said that they appear to distance themselves from calls for a change of regime in Iraq, calling instead for a more focused response from Baghdad. Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell reportedly told Sky News he thought the Archbishops had given a "balanced statement."
Churches in other European countries such as former Communist Hungary have also expressed their concern about a possible war. Last week tens of thousands of peace activists took to the streets while Hungarian Christians gathered for special prayer services.
