The Pope Can Stop the War

 

The Pope should go to Baghdad and hold a Peace Seminar there on an ongoing basis until such time as the world recognizes that there are other ways to achieve results through peaceful means than simply the law of warfare.

He should invite the religious and peace leaders of the world to visit him there and find ways that mankind can solve their "issues" in peace.

He should announce to the Islamic world that the Catholic Church is sorry for any role it played in the past with the Crusades, and that they are now ready to create a "world crusade for peace" starting right there in Baghdad.

The Pope is the ONLY person who has the stature to stop the tanks and the bombs absolutely and begin this dialogue.  He is always interested in creating saints--he can create one!!!  He has already said this is an immoral war, as have most other major religious leaders.  He can prevent it.  He can re-set the world dialogue on how to solve issues and can invite people to truly make war the last resort, implement the teachings of Jesus in a very real and powerful way, and make a statement that brings all of humanity into focus on the idea that we need to find other ways to solve our disputes than simply hurting each other.

he would go down in history as one of a small handful of great saints and leaders who changed the course of history, along side Jesus, Gandhi, etc.

The world peace movement would be energized.  The governments of the world would have a new calculus to reflect on.  And even the strongest "war hawks" in the world could not start bombing Baghdad with all these great leaders, led by the Pope, sitting there.

Of course, inspections could continue, and a dialogue with Saddam could begin so that he realizes that he has no future in the "war" business either, but he can be "ground zero" for providing political leadership for peace.

The bottom line of course is, if the West cannot provoke a war, if Saddam is occupied having to deal with all the peace leaders, and if the inspectors are keeping his weapons systems under control, the world achieves stability, we reduce the tensions between Christianity and Islam which fuel much of the world's current tensions, we start a dialogue to bring about a higher level of action that puts warfare basically "off the table" unless as a pure, defensive, absolute last resort, for resolving mankind's problems.

Santosh Krinsky

Twin Lakes, WI 53181

March 1, 2003