Norbertines invite your participation in
national campaign against torture
Br. Steve Herro, O. Praem.
Chair, St. Norbert Abbey Justice and Peace Committee
November 2008
If you visit St. Norbert Abbey in November 2008, you will see a 3’ x 9’ vinyl banner proclaiming “torture is wrong” at the north entrance and a 2’ x 3’ poster proclaiming the “Banners across America” campaign in the back of the Abbey Church. Why is the St. Norbert Abbey Justice and Peace Committee displaying such signs this month?
As a Catholic religious order of priests and brothers, we join other men’s religious communities in the Conference of Major Superiors of Men by supporting the work of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (http://www.nrcat.org). NRCAT is a growing membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, over 200 religious groups have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Roman Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Orthodox Christians, Unitarian, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and congregations.
As recently as March 2008, the Bush Administration refused to follow the restrictions of torture as defined in the United States Army Field Manual in the Defense Reauthorization Bill. During an era in which the United States government has used water boarding against detainees, transferred war prisoners to detention centers in countries with less stringent detention laws, and restricted the right of habeas corpus for many foreign detainees, we acknowledge that justice must be served.
On November 4, 2008, the United States citizens chose a new President. On November 12, 2008 St. Norbert Abbey joins with people of faith throughout the country in a National Day of Witness for a Presidential Order to Ban Torture. While advocates are meeting with Congressional delegates in Washington D.C., we invite you to pray for an end to torture and to endorse the Executive Order Banning Torture in the United States (http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=158).
Why do we oppose torture? According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (http://www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf), “…direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified,” (#23). Francis Cardinal George, President of the USCCB, wrote to the U. S. President earlier this year, “…Torture undermines and debases the human dignity of both victims and perpetrators. It is never a necessary cruelty. Pope Benedict XVI, in a September 6, 2007 address, stated, ‘I reiterate that the prohibition against torture cannot be contravened under any circumstances.’ The issue of torture also has a major impact on the way the United States is viewed abroad. As a champion of human rights, the U.S. should avoid being perceived as engaging in actions that contravene Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.”
And why do we position these emphatic signs outside our retreat center and in the narthex of our church? We cannot separate the peace that we pray for in our retreat center and during the liturgies in our church with these visual reminders. There is a direct connection between that which we pray for on these grounds and the current social issues that demand our attention. Jesus himself proclaimed in the synagogue that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He was anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free (Lk 4:18-19).
