A Christmas Miracle....sort of

A Katrina Christmas in the Gulf

Christmas in Iraq (Mosul)

Reluctantly, I went to the local Roman Catholic Church with my wife for Christmas Eve midnight mass. I'm still "officially" Catholic but have been in conflict with the Church for some time. In particular, I've had many conflicts with the Denver Archdiocese's Archbishop.
Despite all information showing what George Bush intended in Iraq and the Middle East, this Archbishop continued to support Bush in the 2004 election. Oh he was very deceptive but when he told the laity it would be sinful to vote for any candidate supporting a woman's right to choice in abortion he endorsed George Bush by default.
Shortly after the election the same Archbishop was photographed at a Presidential breakfast with George reaching over to touch his leg and smile warmly (anyway for George).
I was somewhat surprised then on Chrismas Eve. The pastor of Notre Dame actually made reference to the Iraq war and told the assembled congregation he had the thought when Rumsfeld left that there should be a Secretary of Peace as well as one for Defense.
The Pastor even spoke of the birth of Christ as an event to herald peace since it is often that we call Him the King of peace.
I was motivated to write Msgr. Leo Horrigan an email to express my thoughts about his mention of peace and the war. I'm going to post that email because it was my feelings toward Christmas at the time.
Hopefully before next Christmas we will truly have the troops home and the violence in Iraq can begin to come to an end. Miracles sometimes happen.
Here's the email:


Msgr. Horrigan,

I wanted to thank you for broaching the subject of a “department of peace” during your homily this evening at the solemn mass for Christmas. As you may very well know, there are a number of activists within the movement for peace who have developed the concept of a Department of Peace. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been one member of Congress that’s continuously pushed for this idea.

There are also some, like me, who believe the department is an idealistic concept that does need looking at but first we must use our energies in the urgent matter of ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I’ve worked with several Iraq veterans who now oppose the war they participated in that tell stories of atrocity and corruption. I’ve worked with parents who have lost sons and daughters or have seen the horrible effects of war on their sons or daughters on return from combat.

I’ve also worked with survivors of Katrina on three separate occasions since September 2005. A group of veterans were among the first to start bringing food and needed supplies to parts of New Orleans and the surrounding area when federal agencies like FEMA failed the citizens. We have made the connection of the billions of dollars spent on killing in wars and the abject failures to come to the assistance of the marginalized communities such as the 9th Ward of New Orleans. Every bomb dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan is one dropped on the shores of the Gulf because it’s that much more funding lost to help repair lives in that area.

Still today much of the worst hit areas of Katrina are like a war zone. This past March a group of young vets assisted by some of us older vets marched from Mobile to New Orleans over a week’s time. We struggled to understand why seven months after Katrina we found the majority of the area looking like the war zones we’d done time in with the military. We struggled to understand why most of these areas were in the black communities and the immigrant communities.

Today, still, Monsignor, I struggle with the Church’s lack of opposition toward a war that drains billions of dollars from safety net programs for the weakest of our citizens. I struggle with the Church when it speaks about the sanctity of life but fails to point toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as a violation of that sanctity. By now it is clear the wars were based upon lies, manipulations and a thirst for greed and power. Corruption is rampant and death is a common daily experience in the lives of innocents in Iraq.

The most reliable estimate of innocent dead in Iraq was done by the English medical journal, Lancet. Their estimate three months ago was 650,000 innocent Iraqis have died since March 2003. The study is the only one that has been done using correct scientific methods. Of the numbers mentioned 40% of the killed have been children.

I have a dear friend with 75 % of her father's family living in southern Iraq. They have endured lack of electricity on a daily basis for most of each day. They have to buy bottled water to be safe. Raw sewage runs in the streets of their large urban area. Women are now afraid to been seen uncovered. Medical services which were once the best in the Middle East are deplorable. They constantly run out of even the basics such as bandages and antibiotics. Children die from water borne diseases which would be unheard of in this country. My friend, a MD, has been in Iraq twice since 2004 and things have gotten worse.

So, I wonder, Monsignor, why we are asked to say special prayers for the American troops….and I have no problem doing this…..but the innocents of Iraq and Afghanistan are never mentioned? The American troops have lost almost 3,000 dead and close to 30,000 wounded. The Iraqi civilians have been affected 10-30 times worse by the war.

Most of the horrible wounds and the deaths have occurred as a result of American bombs, artillery and other munitions. White phosphorous and napalm have been used despite both being war crimes under international law.

Depleted uranium is poisoning both Iraqis and our own troops with radiation and nothing has been done to stop this use in American armaments despite studies by the Pentagon that demonstrates the deadly effects. The head of the Pentagon study team has called the use of depleted uranium a “war crime”. Helen Caldicott, a noted child physician and anti-nuclear activist, has warned about DU for decades. Only the U.S. and its allies use it.

And, again, I wonder why the Church and its leaders have failed to speak out against such madness. I wonder why so much is said about the sanctity of life but it doesn’t seem to apply in all cases. And I must admit I have struggled with a spiritual crisis as I’ve seen the Church fail to speak out against such evil and in truth some of the leaders have endorsed politicians who are the architects of the death and destruction associated with the wars and the ways it is executed.

So, on this Christmas, I found hope hearing my parish pastor saying something that hinted at such insanity. I found hope to hear once again that the birth of Christ is essentially about peace and love for all men and women. For that, I want to give you my most heartfelt thanks, Monsignor.

May you have the peace and love of this miracle of Christmas, Msgr. Horrigan.



Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver,CO