Bishop Wenski urges Congress to do all it can to end Mideast strife

Published: 2006-07-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy called on Congress to "do all you can to end this terrible cycle of violence" in the Middle East. In a July 20 letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., said the bishops "stand ready to work with those who work for a just and lasting peace in the land that three faiths call holy." The letter followed a July 18 statement from Bishop Wenski that said, "Violence, from whatever side, for whatever purpose, cannot bring a lasting or just peace." "The horrific cycle of violence in the Middle East is destroying the lives of innocent people on all sides of the conflict," he said in the letter to Congress. "It is also destroying the hopes for negotiations and accommodations that could lead to a just peace that offers genuine security to Israelis, a viable state for Palestinians and real independence for the Lebanese people."

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