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May 8 , 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 9 • Oakland, CA
U.S. cannot remain silent on Darfur, bishops say
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- As thousands of Americans gathered at “Save Darfur”
rallies across the country April 30, the nation’s Catholic bishops
joined with other religious and political leaders in calling for greater
U.S. efforts to end the genocidal campaign against the non-Arab population
of Sudan’s Darfur region.
“Sunday’s ‘Save Darfur’ rally should remind our
leaders that our nation cannot remain silent in the face of killings,
rape and wanton destruction,” said Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando,
Fla., chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy.
“Our country can and must do more, much more, to defend and protect
innocent civilians in Darfur. Anything less would be unworthy of us as
a people committed to human life and dignity,” he added.
At the chief “Save Darfur” rally, held on the National Mall
in the nation’s capital, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington
reminded an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 participants that people of the
world are all brothers and sisters.
“Now is the time to save Darfur. Let us make sure we get our message
through,” he said.
“What happens to the people of Darfur happens to us,” he added.
“It’s time now to say, ‘No more.’”
In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, the government offered to accept a
mediated agreement that could end three years of strife in the region,
but two of Darfur’s three main rebel groups rejected it. As the
April 30 midnight deadline for negotiations passed, the mediation group
agreed to extend the deadline another 48 hours.
Many of the signs being waved in the crowd on the Mall indicated the presence
of a large number of Jews, including some who had survived the Holocaust.
Larry Couch, legislative policy coordinator for the Washington archdiocesan
Office of Justice and Service, said that he was “most struck by
the turnout of Jews” and also with the Armenian speakers who related
the events of Darfur with the genocide of their own people by the Ottoman
Turks in 1915.
Theodore Rectenwald, African affairs policy adviser for the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, attended the rally with his wife. He called the genocide
in Sudan “an intolerable humanitarian crisis that we as people who
care about human life and human dignity can’t just sit by and do
nothing.”
Couch and Rectenwald said they would encourage Catholics to join in the
Million Voices for Darfur postcard campaign calling on the U.S. government
to take more action to end the violence in Darfur. The campaign is organized
through the Internet at www.savedarfur.org.
The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 160 faith-based groups,
including Catholics, has called for a U.N. takeover of the African peacekeeping
troops, who have been unsuccessful in ending the conflict.
In his statement, released before the nationwide rallies, Bishop Wenski
briefly reviewed the history of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
“Three years ago the proxy militias known as the Janjaweed began
a ruthless campaign of death and destruction against the non-Arab population
of Darfur, with the support and acquiescence of the Sudanese government
in Khartoum,” he said.
He said a brief respite in violence last year coupled with peace talks
sponsored by the African Union led to hopes for a change, but “subsequent
events have shattered those hopes.” He said the international community
faces a “daunting challenge” of delivering humanitarian aid
to 2.5 million people who have fled their homes and another million still
in their homes who risk starvation.
Two years ago Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., then
head of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy, warned that
Darfur was “rapidly becoming the newest symbol of human depravity
and ethnic cleansing.”
An estimated 400,000 people have died in the conflict since 2003. Last
November Pope Benedict XVI made an urgent appeal to the international
community to protect the rights of the people of Darfur.
Bishop Wenski said the nation’s bishops support recent Bush administration
efforts “to strengthen the mission of the poorly funded, ill-equipped
and undermanned peacekeepers from the African Union.” He said the
bishops had repeatedly urged passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability
Act and welcomed its adoption by Congress late last year.
Along with the political and religious leaders who addressed the Washington
rally were several celebrities, including actor George Clooney, whose
recent visit to Darfur with his father, Nick, sparked wide media interest,
raising U.S. popular awareness of events there and helping to spark the
“Save Darfur” rallies across the country.
“This is the first genocide of the 21st century, but there is hope,”
Clooney said.
Nick Clooney, a journalist, also spoke. The people in Darfur are “all
alone,” he said. “There is no one to help them.”
(Contributing to this story was Moira E. McLaughlin.)
People attend a rally held on the National Mall
in Washington April 30 to call for the end to the genocide taking place
in the Darfur region of Sudan. The “Save Darfur” rally included
an alliance of more than 150 faith-based humanitarian and human rights
organizations.
CNS photo/Jim Young, Reuters
