Catholic groups join call to bring peace to Iraq

Published: 2007-03-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new consortium of organizations -- including several with Catholic roots -- have proposed a $590 million plan to bring "proven strategies of peace-building, humanitarian relief and responsible economic development" to Iraq. "Two-and-a-half days worth of funding the military could get you all of this for a year. Not bad, huh?" said Sister Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service who is head of Network, the Catholic social-justice lobby which is one of the backers of the proposal. The plan would include: $290 million to respond to the needs of an estimated 3.7 million Iraqis displaced in and outside their own country, including an estimated 712,000 displaced since the a Shiite mosque in Samarra was bombed in February 2006; $100 million to restore full funding of the Community Action Program and an Iraqi war victims' fund commonly known as the "Marla Fund"; $100 million to support Iraqi civil society, conflict resolution and peace-building strategies, and the advancement of human rights and rule of law; $100 million to rebuild 143 Iraqi state-owned industries with the potential to employ 150,000 Iraqis, which would reverse the decline in U.S. economic assistance.

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