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Resolution Condemning Torture
CMSM condemns torture in all its forms regardless of
putative justification, and encourages support and help for victims of
torture throughout the world, but especially in areas under the control
of the United States Government.
Rationale
Jesus’ death and resurrection revealed the infinite value of each
human being in God’s eyes. [Cf. Mt 5:44-48; 10:29-31] Torture is
a denial of that value. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
condemns torture as “contrary to respect for the person and for
human dignity,” and Gaudium
et Spes of the Second Vatican Council [#27] characterizes as
criminal “all violations of the integrity of the human person, such
as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures,”
including them in a list that also contains “all offenses against
life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and willful
suicide.”
Resolution
Given the universal condemnation of torture in both International Law
and religious documents, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men resolves:
- To condemn unequivocally any use of torture by agents
of any government for any reason;
- To encourage its constituencies to use their resources
of education, preaching and advocacy to eliminate use of torture as
contrary to both natural law and human dignity, and in fundamental opposition
to God’s salvific love for humanity;
- To join with others to work in advocacy for the abolition
of torture, and to offer help and support to victims of torture.
The Justice and Peace office will be responsible
for implementation.
 Additional
Facts/Related Circumstances
Background
“The torturer has become like the pirate and slave trader before
him hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind.” So
proclaimed the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1980 [Filartiga
v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2nd Cir.(N.Y.) Jun 30, 1980)]. In his 1958
Chicago address to the Radio and Television News Directors Association,
Edward R. Murrow said, “Not every story has two sides.”
The United Nations Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
[1984] defines torture as follows:
For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture”
means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as
obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing
him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of
having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person,
or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain
or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent
or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official
capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent
in or incidental to lawful sanctions. [See also a
listing of other international documents that condemn torture]
Recent actions brought to light about the involvement
of the U.S. military and other branches of the government in the application
of torture to prisoners demand a faith-based response. The USCCB has spoken
as follows on the issue:
The United States has a long history of leadership
and strong support for human rights around the world. Ratifications
of the Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against
Torture embody our nation’s commitment to establishing standards
of conduct and prohibiting torture and other acts of inhumane treatment
of persons in U.S. custody. Tragically, our nation’s record has
been marred by reported instances of abusive treatment of enemy combatants
held in military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
[The
complete document is available here.]
The CMSM Executive Committee issued a statement
in May of 2004 that included the following:
The Executive Committee of the Conference of Major
Superiors of Men is greatly disturbed by the revelations of torture
and abuse by U.S. military personnel. We have consistently called for
U.S. troops to abide by international standards and laws that govern
the treatment of detainees and have questioned the lack of access that
international monitoring organizations such as the Red Cross, the Red
Crescent, Amnesty International have had at detention centers in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Reports by independent organizations
and military personnel, combined with the photographs and the admission
by Administration officials of the abuses indicate that the U.S. military
personnel and others contracted by the U.S. to work in the detention
centers must be monitored to protect the rights and dignity of detainees.
As people of faith and as leaders of the Catholic
congregations of the nearly 23,000 brothers and priests in the United
States we believe that we must address this issue. Each human being
is created with God-given dignity and each life is precious. This dignity
must always be upheld and protected but especially so when an individual
is being detained and his or her rights are already limited. They deserved
to be treated with dignity and protected from violence and humiliation.
As Christians we are deeply troubled that much of the humiliation and
abuse violates the beliefs and practices of Islam. As U.S. citizens
we are ashamed that those who represent our nation are perpetrating
these abuses. We believe that as a nation we stand for the protection
of human rights and uphold the dignity of all peoples regardless of
their ethnic or religious background and we hold our national and military
leaders responsible for the conditions that made these abuses not only
possible, but who refused to acknowledge them even after they knew of
the abuses.
 George
Hunsinger of the National Religious Campaign against Torture adapted
these words from Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at Riverside Church in New York
in 1967:
A time comes when silence is betrayal. [People] do
not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially
in time of war. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate
to our limited vision, but we must speak. For we are deeply in need
of a new way beyond the darkness so close around us. We are called upon
to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation,
for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands
can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.
Resources
A powerful article by Gary Haugen titled “Silence
on Suffering: Where are the voices from the Christian community on cruel
and degrading treatment of detainees?” appeared in Christianity
Today
in October of 2005.
Other useful links
The National
Religious Campaign against Torture
Torture Abolition and
Survivors Network International
Amnesty
International
Center for the Victims
of Torture
Origin of Proposal
CMSM Justice and Peace Committee
Budget
None
Contact Person
T. Michael McNulty SJ, Justice and Peace Director
Illustrations
Illustrations are from the Stations
of the Cross in the UCA Chapel, El Salvador, photographed by Don Doll
SJ.
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