USCCB international policy head calls for cease-fire, end to violence

Published: 2006-07-18

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy called for an end to the violence in the Holy Land and Lebanon and for a cease-fire to be secured. "Violence, from whatever side, for whatever purpose, cannot bring a lasting or just peace in the land we call holy," said a July 18 statement from Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla. Bishop Wenski said "rocket barrages and suicide bombings against innocent Israeli civilians and cross-border attacks and abductions" by extremist Palestinians, as well as Israel's "sweeping counterattacks on civilian areas, civilian infrastructure, blockades and other acts of war in Gaza and Lebanon" are actions "we cannot support." The statement, "Break the Cycle of Violence in the Holy Land," was issued in response to escalating attacks on Israel in July by Palestine's Hamas faction and Lebanon's Hezbollah faction and Israel's retaliation for those attacks.

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