"A Justice and Peace Minister’s Journey over Torture Awareness"
Br. Steve Herro, O. Praem.
May 29, 2009
It might be a lot more fun to mark Dairy Month during June than National Torture Awareness, but no one ever said that social justice ministry would be easy, popular, trendy or cool.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (see nrcat.org) includes 98 participating members, such as the Maryknoll Office for Global Concern and Pax Christi USA. Over 155 endorsing members include the Conference of Major Superior of Men, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, 8th Day Center for Justice, U.S. Catholic Mission Association, and scores of religious orders’ justice and peace offices. For over one year, St. Norbert Abbey has supported the mission of NRCAT by displaying banners and signs opposing torture, including prayer petitions, and collecting signatures to be sent to Washington officials.
During National Torture Awareness Month (June 2009), the Abbey Justice and Peace ministry encourages all to study and pray over NRCAT’s campaign for a commission of inquiry that would formally investigate the use of torture by U.S. military and intelligence officials this decade. Please see http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=299&Itemid=220. We are also considering the viewing and discussion of Ending U.S. Sponsored Torture Forever this June. For more information about this, please contact me, 337-4345 or steve.herro@snc.edu.
In March 2009, I attended an update by NRCAT at Ecumenical Advocacy Days. We were reminded that there was reason for hope. President Obama did deliver an executive order in his first week of office which required the CIA to comply with the Army Field Manual per its definition of torture, closed secret prisons, ended rendition for torture, and provided the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all U.S.-held detainees. Matthew Alexander, a former U.S. military examiner and author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, shared that he would often interrogate Moslem, but not Iraqi, captured suicide drivers. He learned very quickly that these drivers were inspired by U.S. brutality at the Abu Ghraib prison to leave their homeland and volunteer in Iraq. Internationally reported U.S. torture was indeed a major cause for terrorism against the United States following Abu Ghraib. Alexander went on to say that professional research has proven that torture does not effectively “break” the subject to reveal necessary intelligence, but rather inspires a sought after answer which might not be true. Questioning inspired by a respect and understanding for human understanding has been proven to provide much more credible intelligence.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is clear in its recognition of, yet opposition to, torture. The conference wrote in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (2007), “…direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, and racism, can never be justified….Catholic teaching about the dignity of life calls us to oppose torture, unjust war, and the use of the death penalty…Genocide, torture, and the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war or terrorist acts are always wrong.” (23, 45, 64)
My own discussions with others about the proper response to torture awareness has been a sticky issue. Video footage is not pretty; blunt language on banners can be seen as too “in your face,” placement of visuals on the grounds of a church or retreat center might seem inappropriate to those entering the building for “spiritual renewal.” Sorry, but you cannot sugar coat torture. Furthermore, if social justice awareness does not help people connect the praying that we do inside the walls of the church, synagogue, or mosque with the social injustice outside of the building, we are failing in a portion of our vocation.
