There is no necessary or justified war because wars bring about death and hardship to innocent civilians. Even if there is the possibility that only one person will suffer because of war, for the sake of that one person war ought to be avoided because the life of one human being is as precious and valuable as that of every one else.

In the end, that one innocent victim could just as well be you! There are some contributors of your newspaper who claim that they are good Christians, yet they sanctioned and approved of the military aggression against Iraq by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. My question to these people is: Would you still say that war is necessary if you were to know that you, or a close relative of yours, were to be among the estimated 10,000 innocent civilians killed in this latest war for the possession of Iraqi oil?

Would you willingly accept your own death and that of your close relatives and consider that as a necessity? This is the whole issue.

It is easy to speak about events happening hundreds of miles away from our shores, which we can watch on our TV screens in the comfort of our homes simply as spectators, but not be ready to live Jesus Christ's teachings by putting ourselves in the shoes of those innocent people who suffer and die because of the greed and arrogance of other people who are in power.

The anti-war stance of the Pope is Christ's own stance for the fostering of love and peace for all of humanity. The message of Jesus Christ in the sermon on the mount carries the weight of a commandment: "Blessed are the peace makers, for they will be called the children of God". It follows, therefore, that damned are the warmongers, for they will be called the children of the Devil. War, being an act of violence and aggression, is not only diametrically opposed to the Christian faith but it is immoral and a crime against humanity.

This places a moral obligation upon every true Christian to be opposed to war, whatever the excuse to try to justify it. The resort to force is only justified when a nation or a people are forced to put up an armed resistance to a military aggression or occupation by a foreign power.

The Roman Catholic Church has always been consistent in its opposition to military aggression and it vehemently opposed Hitler's war against other European states and Saddam Hussein's war against Kuwait, as much as it opposed President Bush's war against the same Iraq. When the Pope said that if war against Iraq is waged those responsible will have to give account of their crime directly to God, he was being the mouthpiece of Christ himself.

Do those contributors of your newspaper who say the war against Iraq was necessary, consider Mr Bush or Mr Blair as a higher authority when it comes to matters concerning the Catholic faith? Or do they think that in a world dominated by the United States, our Pope has now become "irrelevant", like the United Nations, and that we ought to consider Mr Bush as our new pope?

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