Vatican, U.S. bishops were right to oppose Iraq war, says professor

Published: 2004-02-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, "the Vatican and the U.S. bishops got it right," said a consultant to the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy. "Military action was not necessary to contain Iraq," said Maryann Cusimano Love, who also is an associate political science professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington. The task now for Catholics is to pressure U.S. officials so that the war on terrorism does not overshadow other pressing domestic and international issues, she said Feb. 23 at the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. The U.S.-led invasion was really a "preventive war" to keep Iraq from gaining more military power rather than a "pre-emptive war" to keep it from using weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States, she said at a workshop on morality and U.S. foreign policy after the war on Iraq. "A preventive war is very rarely justified. A pre-emptive war needs grave causes," said Love.

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