Bush Faces Question of War Morality

ByABC News
March 6, 2003, 4:27 PM

W A S H I N G T O N, March 8 -- It was Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent and the beginning of the solemn 40-day countdown to Easter, when Catholics made their strongest appeal to President Bush to avoid a war with Iraq.

The Catholic Church urged parishioners to use the day as a time to pray against war. And Pope John Paul II sent an emissary to the White House to make a personal plea to President Bush.

Bush, a born-again Methodist, listened to Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States and a Bush family friend, who came with a message from the pope that a war would a "defeat for humanity."

Elsewhere in Washington, D.C., 62-year-old Tony Bearjie left services at St. Matthews Cathedral hoping Bush would be impressed by the number of Catholics who turned out in churches around the country. "If that doesn't make a difference," Bearjie said, "and if the president doesn't listen to that, then we are in serious trouble."

Christopher Havins, 29, said "I think any grand show of faith around the world is going to do a lot of good."

Divisions Among Christians

Despite the vocal push against a war, Christians are divided. Polls show a majority support Bush's view that a war with Iraq could be necessary to rid the world of Saddam Hussein and many Catholics support military action in Iraq despite the Church's official stand.

Bush's main support comes from conservative Protestants, such as Richard Cizik, a minister and vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

"In Iraq today, 5,000 children die a month from the sanctions policy. Is it moral to continue that? And to my friends on the religious left I would say, in giving peace a chance, you allow that immorality to continue," Cizik told ABCNEWS. Yet Cizik and others noted that they feared for the safety of American missionaries working in countries with large Muslim populations, especially turbulent ones like Indonesia, if war breaks out.

Bush belongs to the United Methodist Church, which does not support him on the war.