Ceasefire Vigils - Catholic Worker D.C. (Litany of Lament)

Nov 11

Excerpt of Statement

We are here today because we refuse to be indifferent to evil—the evil of injustice, killing, war and genocide. We feel and hear the suffering cries of human beings in our world, and especially in the land called "Holy." We ask God's mercy for the ways in which we have been indifferent to and complicit in evil. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us that some are guilty, but all are responsible. Mindful of our personal and societal need for repentance and conversion, we recognize that it is our responsibility to do what God commands: to reverence all life as sacred, to love our neighbor, to beat swords into plowshares, and never to kill. We therefore believe that to love our neighbor means we must renounce all injustice, violence and killing, no matter who the perpetrator is. And we must decry all forms of racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia!

Yesterday (Oct. 24), the following tragic news was reported on Democracy Now:

Situation Update 1:
Situation Update 2:

We pray and stand in solidarity with all who grieve today and who are acting for peace. We pray and stand with Palestinian and Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as all Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all people of goodwill everywhere who are advocating for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, that Israel, with U.S. support, not attack Iran, and working to end the cycle of violence.

Additionally, we join with many in advocating for:

immediate release of all Palestinian and Israel prisoners;
an end to settler violence and Israeli attacks in the West Bank;
allowing unimpeded delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza and restoring U.S. aid to UNRWA!
an end to all U.S. arms sales and military assistance to Israel;
removal of 100 U.S. troops and U.S. weapons systems in Israel;
removal of the USS Georgia Trident nuclear submarine with 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Middle East region;
an end to Israel's siege and occupation of Gaza and the West Bank;
an end to apartheid and self-determination for the Palestinian people;
just peace for Palestine and Israel;
a comprehensive peace with Iran, Israel and the U.S.

As we remember all Palestinian, Israeli, and Lebanese victims who have been killed, and as Palestinians face forced displacement, starvation, torture and endure living in an apartheid state—all with U.S.-backed military assistance—let us act in solidarity with everyone advocating for nonviolent solutions to end this tragic conflict and bring about a just peace in the Holy Land and the Middle East/ West Asia. This includes courageous student groups, 100 city councils across the country who have passed cease-fire resolutions, and the more than 150 NGOs Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel and End to Impunity amid a Spiraling Humanitarian Catastrophe and Escalating Regional Conflict. U.S. complicity in supporting Israel's genocidal war must end!

On Oct. 18, 2023, Pope Francis declared:

“The number of victims is growing and the situation in Gaza is desperate. Everything possible must be done to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. The world already witnesses so many open war fronts. Lay down weapons and heed the cries for peace from the poor, the people, and the innocent children. War solves no problems. It only sows' death and destruction, increases hatred, multiplies revenge. War erases the future; it erases the future. I urge all believers to take one side only: that of peace."

The times are extremely perilous. Now more than ever we need to heed Dr. King’s prophetic words: the choice before us is "nonviolence or nonexistence."

Litany of Lament

Reader 1:

Most merciful God,

We confess that we have sinned against you

In thought, word and deed,

Both by omission and commission:

We have as a nation actively supported the apartheid regime of Israel despite the relentless siege of Gaza and the dispossession of Palestinians from their land in the West Bank through more than 250 illegal settlements constructed over decades

Forgive us our failure to act, Lord.

We have sent over $3 billion annually to arm Israel, claiming that it’s for self-defense when in fact, as we have seen over and over again, those funds have been used for the purpose of ethnic cleansing and what the International Court of Justice is investigating as “plausible genocide”....

Forgive us our failure to act, Lord.

We have stood by as Israel confiscated more and more land.

Forgive us our failure to act, Lord.

We have stood by as Israel usurped water sources, many of them in the West Bank on Palestinian Land, and have forced the Palestinians to purchase the water which properly belongs to them – and, in many cases, to go without.

Forgive us our failure to act, Lord.

We have stood by as conflict has escalated between Israel and Lebanon as well as Israel and Iran, to the point where we face the reality of a broad regional war that could even escalate further to a nuclear conflict.

Forgive us our failure to act, Lord.

Lord, we are aware that even claiming hope in these dire times can be a way of avoiding the reality of what life is like for those in Gaza, the West Bank, and all of the Middle East every day. We hear the words of the one who cries out “I don’t want your hope. I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.” [Greta Thunberg]

Reader 2:

And yet we also choose to believe in the possibility of the miracle of the blind suddenly seeing. We believe because some of us have been there in the Holy Land among the people in Palestine and Israel.

We have seen the truth of the wall, the checkpoints, the poverty, the oppression, and still the faithfulness of your people, our fellow Christians in the Holy Land.

Our eyes have been opened, which is why we are here today. However small our number, however weak our voices in the context of the power symbolized by the White House, we are here.

O God, we are steadfast in calling out our own complicity as American citizens and calling out for our representatives and leaders to at last see the truth and to join us as we bow before you and ask for forgiveness and healing.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Therefore, O God, from these and all other sins we turn to you in sorrow and repentance.

Receive us again into the arms of your mercy, and restore us to the blessed company of your faithful people; through Him in whom you have redeemed the world, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.

Reader 3:

Our response will be sung: God forgive the wrong we’ve done; God forgive us now (Repeat)

For our nation’s role in the deaths of more than 42,500 Palestinians, including more than 17,000 children, and many thousands more who are missing and under the rubble, each one of them a precious and irreplaceable life. Over the last years, our leaders knowingly sent to Israel an estimated $17 billion in weapons and military aid that killed them. For this we repent…