Terrorism
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
12 Sep 2004
First of all September 11. Then the Bali massacre. Now 367 children murdered in Beslan, Russia.
It sounds terrible but I felt only a feeling of relief that the bomb outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta killed so few, although many are injured. I was not surprised, not shocked, but relieved it was not worse. Terrorism is changing our sensibilities, as well as the political landscape.
When dealing with terrorism and mass murder we should call a spade a spade. These killings are evil. The killers and their masters are evil. Men of violence sometimes appeal to religion for justification. If any of the Ossetia murderers were religious, we should be told the attitude of their religious leaders to these crimes. The issue is too serious to be ducked.
It is easier to be fierce in our condemnation when the “enemy” is responsible, and to go more softly when our “own” commit the crimes. Just a few days ago I was with a German born woman, whose parents were in Dresden when it was fire bombed into oblivion at the end of the Second World War by the Allies. She was in a nearby village and saw the city like a set of mighty bonfires. This too was a crime.
We cannot be sure that it cannot happen here. One hundred years ago no one would have believed that the ancient Christian civilization of Russia could spawn Stalin, who killed more people than Hitler.
Once again we Australians must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that terrorism takes no root here. Justice for all, respect for minorities and intolerance of violence will ensure this.
No set of injustices can justify the slaughter of innocent children. This is barbarism. Only the worst fanatic could imagine that such a slaughter would advance any political cause, although a surviving terrorist said the aim was to provoke a general war.
The fact that some terrorists were women brings a new meaning to the struggle for equality, throws new light on one reviewer’s rejoicing that the heroine in the last James Bond film was as violent and promiscuous as James himself. What a world view!
The thirst for revenge, especially when the young are murdered, can seem overwhelming and the Christian call to forgiveness impossible and misleading. However forgiveness does not mean that evil doers should be left unpunished by authority and the punishment of culprits, real or substitutes, by vigilantes will unleash widening circles of deadly violence for decades. A grim prospect.
Pope John Paul II summed up the tragedy. The students “were inside a school, where one learns the values that give meaning to history, culture and people’s civilization: reciprocal respect, solidarity, justice and peace.
Behind those walls, instead, they experienced outrage, hatred and death, evil consequences of a cruel fanaticism and an insane contempt for the human person”.
