'Great support and open ears': U.S. peace activists visit Vatican

Published: 2007-03-23

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- On the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, three U.S. Catholic peace activists paid a discreet but significant visit to the Vatican. The officers of the Indiana-based Catholic Peace Fellowship were in Rome in mid-March to promote the issue of conscientious objection to war. They didn't know what kind of reception they'd get from Vatican experts, but after a week of talks and meetings, they left feeling like they'd received a sympathetic hearing. "It's been a miraculous trip," said Joshua Casteel. "We've received great support and open ears here. It's encouraging to see that we are part of a tradition that's very sensitive to peace issues." Casteel, who works as conscientious objector liaison for the fellowship, served in an Army intelligence unit in Iraq in 2004 and was an interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison. After concluding that systematic torture was being used against mostly innocent people and that his own participation in the war was compromising his Christian witness, Casteel applied for and received conscientious objector status and left the Army. Deacon Tom Cornell, Catholic Peace Fellowship co-founder, and Michael Griffin, the organization's director of education, arranged the trip to Rome to promote more visible backing of conscientious objection by the church hierarchy.

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