War on America 2

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
23 Sep 2001

The targets were carefully chosen, the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre Towers; both symbols of the U.S.A.'s super-power status. Their destruction and the still unfolding economic damage are like the confusion that surrounded the attempt to build the tower of Babel in Old Testament times.

No one can be sure what lies around the corner, even the world's only super-power. Evil is real and dangerous. History tells us humanity carries the brand of Cain, the son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel. There is a flaw that runs through the human heart and all history and it is dangerous, counter productive to deny it. There is more goodness, truth and beauty in the world than evil, but we are all flawed; some grievously.

Terrorists are fanatics and psychopaths, with no empathy, no feeling for their victims. Their victims, whatever their status or age are statistics, merely necessary means to their hate-filled ends.

Such fanaticism and hate feed on injustice, ancient wrongs, especially killings and violence done to loved ones, often stretching back through generations. Too often this hatred is nourished by evil teaching, where aggrieved and simple people are indoctrinated, brainwashed into dehumanising whole populations, condemning them as enemies who have no face, sub-humans, less than brothers and sisters.

The evil masterminds of these outrages would like to produce a similar fanaticism in the Free World, which would strike out indiscriminately, laying the ground for future generations of fanatical murderers, nurtured from among the relatives of victims.

Their mad logic would welcome this decline into barbarism, this return of the law of the jungle.

The United States as the leader of the Free World stands for much more than the exercise of naked power. That is why they have been engulfed in a wave of sympathy, from people in countries widely different from Australia. It is a wave of friendship, admiration and respect, which does not require a whitewash of American failings at home or abroad.

We were not surprised to hear of their firemen and police, resolutely heading into the buildings to help as thousands escaped to safety and not surprised, only saddened to hear that 369 are still missing and have probably lost their lives in doing their duty. As a Catholic priest a took pride in the simple heroism of Father Mike Judge, a brother priest, killed as he tended the wounded. We took heart from the thousands of workmen, volunteers who descended on the rubble vainly searching for survivors, working for days on end. We admired Mayor Giuliani, a tough controversial figure, imperfect like the rest of us, who inspired the whole city with his regular calm and presence, his denunciation of looting and his refusal to allow any scape-goating of Muslims.

New York is a great international centre and the victims came from many nations, especially those with close cultural ties like Australia and Britain. More Australians died in New York than in the Port Arthur massacre.

Our hearts go out again to all the victims and their loved ones, and especially to our fellow Australians.