http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20030313.htm

March 13, 2003

Military archbishop says best course of action is to 'pray for peace'

CHICAGO (CNS) -- The best thing American Catholics can do to support the men and women in the armed forces is pray for peace, said Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.

"The only way we're going to get away without a war at this point is to pray," said Archbishop O'Brien, who was in Chicago to visit St. Barnabas Parish on Chicago's South Side for the annual St. Patrick's Day family liturgy March 14. "That's the first step. I think all our troops would benefit by not going to war." Parishes and individuals also should do everything they can to support the families, especially children, of soldiers and sailors who have been deployed to the Middle East for a possible U.S. war on Iraq, he said.

Having a member who serves in the National Guard or the Reserve suddenly be gone for a lengthy and indefinite time creates huge stresses on families. In the meantime, especially following an invasion of Iraq, parishes can help by remembering their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and friends in uniform during the prayers of the faithful and as intentions at Mass, he told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago.