Reprinted from The Catholic Radical, newsletter of Ss. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker, Worchester, MA, Feb/March 1999.


On December 3, 1998, the United States government, represented by a Mr. Richard Newcomb of the Treasury Department, sent a letter to our friend Kathy Kelly fining her organization, Voices in the Wilderness, $120,000. Similar letters were sent to four other peace activists who were fined between eight and forty thousand dollars each.

The letter accused all five of engaging "in certain prohibited transactions, detailed below, related to the embargo against Iraq." Specifically the government charged Voices in the Wilderness as a group and each of them as individuals with "exportation of donated goods, including medical supplies and toys, to Iraq." They were also cited for importing items including "an Iraqi water bottle label, an Iraqi stamp, photographic film, video and audio tapes and/or cassettes, postcards and assorted papers." The letter concludes with the threat, "this matter shall be referred to the United States Department of Justice for collection if the penalty is not paid within thirty days."

Apparently the government has decided that it is a serious crime for American citizens to deliver medicine and toys to children in Iraq who are dying at a rate of several thousand a month due to sanctions. Simultaneously, the government objects forcefully to Americans bringing back any and all evidence of this horrific suffering imposed on innocent Iraqi civilians. Most likely, the number of Americans who have gone to Iraq and are currently showing slides and telling the story in towns and cities throughout the country has reached a critical mass. More and more Americans are realizing that our government is pursuing a monstrous policy that must be stopped immediately. If more Americans go to Iraq bringing back additional information, it would be more difficult for the White House, Pentagon and Congress to perpetuate the lies they circulate to prop up the sanctions and to defend military strikes on Iraq.

Therefore, even though over two hundred Americans have taken medicine to Iraq in violation of sanctions, the government has decided to make an example of a few people. If harsh enough, this rebuke might serve to deter others. Notice that the government did not choose to prosecute Detroit's Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who has been to Iraq at least three times. There is no question that the prosecutions are selective and politically motivated.

It's also interesting to see that the government makes an issue out of the delivery of toys. My ten-year-old daughter, Grace, collected the bulk of those toys in the form of several hundred teddy bears. After seeing slides of miserable Iraqi children in squalid hospitals, Grace reached out to help in a tangible and personal way. That the U.S. government would stoop so low as to call this act criminal is almost beyond belief.

Thank God though, for Voices in the Wilderness, which has no intention of paying a single penny to the government. Kathy Kelly is still leading more delegations to Iraq. People are still delivering medicine and bringing back eyewitness accounts of conditions. Kathy believes the only ones who will suffer by taking Voices to court are the governmental apologists for sanctions.

I am very happy to say that Kathy is not alone. Pope John Paul II has consistently condemned sanctions. On January 20, 1998, fifty-four American bishops wrote to President Clinton "to call for an immediate lifting of the sanctions by the U.N. Security Council, to end all U.S. support for these sanctions, and to refrain from any military action in the current dispute." On December 3,1996, the entire U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a statement on Iraq which said, "The international community should not resort to means which effectively punish the Iraqi people for the actions of an authoritarian regime over which they have no control." And then. most recently, in his Christmas column in The Boston Pilot, Cardinal Law wrote:

" ... This child is the Prince of Peace. How desperately we need Him in our world. The fragile peace effort in the land hallowed by His birth threatens to unravel. Not too far from Bethlehem, in Iraq, 230,000 children under five have died of malnutrition or dysentery since 1991. The deadly weapon of embargo continues to put other children at risk. Instead of food during these Advent days, we have sent missiles - 400 of them in four days, at a cost of $400 million! What child is this who is victim to a dictatorial ruler and a flawed U.S. and international policy? This child, these children, have been made in God's image and likeness. If we would reverence the Christ Child this Christmas, we must reverence them.

While the government descends into lunacy, telling us that compassion for dying children is a crime, the Church is finding its feet on the solid ground of universal love. To be sure, there is still a long way to go before we expunge the patriotism the makes people reluctant to take prophetic stands against our own government, but voices like Cardinal Law's are water in the desert for those of us who have held dying Iraqi infants in our arms. Thus fortified, let us all continue to insist that sanctions on Iraq, (indeed on Cuba, Korea and Serbia too), must be lifted.

If you would like to consider going to Iraq or if you would like to get more involved in the campaign to lift sanctions please contact: Voices in the Wilderness, 1460 West Carmen Ave, Chicago, IL 60640 Telephone: (773) 784-8065.

We also strongly encourage all of our readers to write often to editors, politicians, and religious leaders urging them to take a forceful stand against sanctions.

". . . In Iraq, 230,000 children under five have died of malnutrition or dysentery since 1991. The deadly weapon of embargo cntinues to put other children at risk. Instead of food during these Advent days, we have sent missles - 400 of them in four days, at a cost of $400 million!. . ." Cardinal Bernard Law