RABOUEH, Lebanon (CNS): Patriarchs from Middle Eastern Catholic Churches who met in Lebanon have warned the United States against a war with Iraq.
“Nothing justifies a war against Iraq, whatever the pretexts and reasons invoked,” the heads of the Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, Latin, Maronite, Melkite and Syrian Catholic Churches said in a statement.
“There can be no just war, since men have the choice – to negotiate and arrive at peaceful solutions or to unleash a general destruction,” said the statement released earlier this month.
The statement, issued after the Church leaders’ 12th congress in Raboueh, east of Beirut, criticised “the policy of double standards” of not holding Israel accountable to UN resolutions while condemning Iraq for not abiding by them.
*The five-day meeting, held in the residence of Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Antioch, was attended by 33 Middle East Church members and observers, including Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Patriarch Michel Sabbah, and patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church, Cardinal Stephanos II Ghattas.
