A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq, 2001-2007

By Andrew M. Greeley

This collection of weekly essays shows a Catholic consciousness responding to events as they happened. They are a reminder of what is most precious in American heritage and people must recover their deepest values.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570757321
• ISBN13: 9781570757327
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Orbis Books
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

CAN A ROMAN CATHOLIC BE A REPUBLICAN? CAN A CATHOLIC "SUPPORT" OUR OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? FATHER GREELE

This compilation of newspaper columns over six years presents urgent reading for this year of national electoral decisions, and provides each Roman Catholic in the USA substantial theological nourishment for our present Lenten lectio divina, and for action thereafter. Can we be Catholic and vote Republican? Can we be both Catholic and "support" in any way the continued bloody occupation of Iraq, condemned now by two of our Popes, including Our present Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, especially in the light of the climactic passages to his monumental Apostolic Exhortation The Sacrament of Charity: Sacramentum Caritatis? Is what ways are our militarist, imperialist policies around the world "stupid, unjust and criminal?" The Reverend Father Andrew Greeley with increasing urgency and moral standing presents the clear and courageous case for Catholic moral theology within our presently morally compromised context. These essays begin with a certain nebulous and cautious approach, recognizing his readership, but by 2005 and become increasingly clear, courageous, prophetic and concrete about the moral, theological, sociological and historical reasons for rejecting absolutely our present national policy in Iraq. The Introduction to these essays explicitly examines the reasons for invading Iraq and our immoral conduct of the disasterous occupation of Iraq in the light of the traditional "just war" criteria, which are well defined in the United States Catholic Bishops Conference document The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response (A Pastoral Letter on War and Peace, No. 863). Father Greeley concisely and correctly finds no reason by these lenient criteria neither for the invasion, and no morality for our endless occupation of Iraq. He finds no justifiable reason for supporting any further (and much less from the beginning) this immoral and unjust and criminal military involvement. The Introduction concludes with his grateful dedication to his Cardinal who has supported him in his prophetic, courageous and orthodox witness. It is very hard to draw a few representative samples from this rich work by the Reverend Father Greeley, a work which courageously gives voice to our unvoiced US Catholic Church, silenced as Father Greeley reveals by other pressing and persecuting concerns, perhaps intended to provoke silence. We must the more gratefully receive these truths spoken without fear by Father Greeley, reflecting the policies running right up to the Vatican itself. On whether prior US soldiers killed warrants continued warfare and occupation, Father Greeley wrote September 2, 2005: "Bush's contention that because some men and women have died, others must continue to die demonstrates just how morally bankrupt the war is and he himself is (p. 136)." On the falsity of the reasons for going to war, Father Greeley writes November 4, 2005, as in several places, this: "The Bush administration, led by the vice president, systematically deceived the

Honest compilation of essays

Father Greeley issues a collection of his essays going back to the tragic events of September, 2001. Some of his writings are prescient, some spot-on and some prove to be wrong, but he has the courage to include them all in this easily readable book. Would that all pundits issue complete collections of their political writings, and stand by their convictions as Dr Greeley does.