We Raise Our Voices for Justice
October 2, 2023
President Biden,
The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids with their Associates and Friends are part of the international Dominican Family, which includes many Sisters and Friars in Ukraine. We have been supportive of their ministries for many years. We were able to maintain contact with them in the early months of the war. Obviously, we are concerned with their well-being and the well-being of all in Ukraine.
Out of that concern and out of our long-standing commitment to peace and non-violence, we urge you to enter into extensive diplomatic efforts to bring about negotiations for a cease fire and a just ending to the war.
Pope Francis has called us to dedicate October to praying for peace and reconciliation in Ukraine. He has further stated that “after months of hostilities, let us use all diplomatic means, even those that may not have been used so far, to bring an end to this terrible tragedy. War, in itself, is a mistake and a horror.”
Similarly, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proclaimed: “The guns are talking now, but in the end we all know that the path of diplomacy and accountability is the road to a just and sustainable peace.”
We must assertively use our diplomatic efforts to protect the Ukrainian peoples who are losing their lives, have become refugees, and see their lands devastated and contaminated. The ending of war will also protect the people of Russia, most of whom do not support this war. It is time to escalate diplomacy and end violence.
Cry out as if you have a million voices, for it is silence that kills the world. -- St. Catherine of Siena