THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060505
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 62 lines
Catholic Bishop Walter F. Sullivan on Thursday condemned this week's U.S. missile attacks on Iraq, on behalf of the national peace organization that he heads.
Sullivan, in addition to heading the Richmond diocese, is the bishop president of Pax Christi USA, the national branch of the international Catholic peace movement.
His comments came during the Festival of Hope, a show of support for three peace activists who will be sentenced today in federal court for hammering and pouring blood on a nuclear submarine in Newport News Shipbuilding in August 1995.
``This whole militarism is something we have to continually stand up and say it's hurting our people and, in a very special way, hurting the poor,'' Sullivan told about 70 people at Church of the Sacred Heart. ``There is a war on, and it's a war against the poor and the disadvantaged.''
The activists believe the government should spend its money on feeding the hungry - not on weapons.
``I think Pax Christi and the peace movement are more important than ever,'' Sullivan said. ``People who are willing to witness and say there's got to be a better way.''
Sullivan attended the rally with peace activists from the West Coast and along the Eastern seaboard. Three activists - Michele Naar-Obed of Baltimore, and Rick and Erin Sieber of Philadelphia - will be sentenced today for the Newport News protest. They face sentences ranging from six months to 22 months.
The three entered Newport News Shipbuilding on Aug. 7, 1995, hammered and poured their own blood on the submarine. They were convicted of misdemeanors and given one-year prison sentences, but the state waived felony charges when federal sabotage charges were filed. Activists at the rally said the charges were the harshest ever filed against nonviolent protesters.
``I don't know how we've come through what we've come through as a world,'' Naar-Obed said. ``This is not what God would want us to do. You'd think sometime we'd learn that, but we don't.''
The three were joined at the rally by two other activists who had carried out a simultaneous attack on a Trident missile at Lockheed-Martin in California. Those activists have already served their prison terms. They call themselves the Jubilee Plowshares, patterned after Micah 4:3: ``They shall beat their swords into plowshares.''
Sullivan has spoken out on behalf of the group before. He said it was ridiculous of the government to call them saboteurs.
``If they were such a danger to society or a threat to our country - it's absurd,'' Sullivan said.
Activists are hoping that bad weather will not prevent Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton from attending the sentencing on Friday. He has offered to be a character witness. The judge refused to allow evidence of their religious motivations to be introduced during the trial last spring.
Erin Seiber said he is prepared to go to jail.
``It's all in God's hands,'' he said. ``It's different when you're in jail for a witness. You know you're not there for doing something wrong. That's the light that keeps you going,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan speaks at Church of the Sacred Heart in
Norfolk during a peace vigil for three activists on Thursday. by CNB