Dome-busters upholding gift of universal peace

Kevin Toomey says the acquittal of three men in the Waihopai "spy" satellite case is "a celebration of the privilege of living in a democratic society".

The tragedy of the sexual abuse cases in Ireland rightly deserved to be editorialised in the Otago Daily Times (18.3.10). And how good it was to see Bishop Kieran Conry's words: "The Roman Catholic Church sets itself up to be the great moral authority. When it does fail its own rigid standards, it deserves to be attacked and criticised."

They ring true and clear. The symbolism of evil, the evil reality of which these cases speak and the failure of the Church hierarchy over so many years to do anything positive and constructive deserves condemnation and full-blooded editorial comment.

How ironic it was that the case of the acquittal of three Catholic Christian men for their defence of people's lives and for condemnation of war in whatever guise, in this case the war on terror, did not receive similar treatment, coming as it did on St Patrick's Day.

This is a good news story, which hit the front page of other metropolitan newspapers. If it had been a local murder case, or a case of sexual abuse, it would certainly have hit the front page. Why not here? This trial was a sign that the great Christian tradition of peacemaking, beginning with the person of Jesus, is once again vindicated.

Through the commonsense of a jury they judged that Sam Land, Adrian Leason and Fr Peter Murnane were justified in their symbolic gesture of disarming one of the domes at the Waihopai Spy Base on April 30, 2008.

These three men represent the many people in our society and churches who desire to see the war on terror ended, and other practical means taken to solve the critical problems which this war represents.

This gospel peace tradition has been handed on in each era since then, even if by only a few courageous souls.

There are those soldiers in the late Roman era who refused to take up arms because their newly received faith told them that this was contrary to the teaching of their founder, and a blasphemy.

Think of other groups, such as the Quakers, the Mennonites, and people in the tradition of the Catholic Worker movement who have worked strenuously to uphold the great shalom, this gift of universal peace, which underlies the tradition of Christianity and its beginnings.

It goes much further back and underlies the strong Jewish tradition of the prophets and martyrs in Israel.

Many people will continue to say that these three dome-busters destroyed Government property, and for that the law should take its course. It did.

On Wednesday evening, the judicial process of trial by jury was vindicated. It can be seen as a celebration of the privilege of living in a democratic society where two interpretations of an action were argued fully in a court of law, and the representatives of the people judged the rightness or wrongness of this action.

It could not happen in a police state, where the system would have worked to ensure that protest was crushed to encourage the others never to do the same.

This judgement of 11 ordinary Kiwis was given its rightful place, one which says that there is a higher cause of truth, and that it is justifiable in certain circumstances to do what seems to most to be an evil in the pursuance of a higher good. It gives credence and life to another long tradition that war is not good.

We see the damage in terms of people's lives, especially those of innocent civilians (women and children are always the first to be hit). We know of the acts of torture which in any society must be condemned absolutely.

One could also cite the use of depleted uranium by the United States military as an ordinary instrument of war through the continued use of projectiles armed with such warheads.

These are things which need to be highlighted in our media and condemned for the evil which they represent.

They are not just the ravings of people like John Pilger, but considered judgement on the beauty of a humanity whose goodness needs to be upheld.

• Kevin Toomey is a Dunedin-based Dominican priest, and editor of Tui Motu, an independent Catholic magazine.