.- Bishop Jose Ignacio Munilla of San Sebastian in Spain said this week that the Basque separatist group ETA must disband if it wants the country to take its recent statement announcing an end to its terrorist activities seriously. Conditions for peace, the prelate continued, can only be created through “repentance, reparation, patience, dialogue, tolerance and justice.”
During a Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Arantzazu, Bishop Munilla offered prayers for a “definitive” peace in the region and cautioned for “prudence” in response to ETA’s announcement.
He said the truce announced by the separatist group must be “definitive and unconditional” and that ETA must disband. Peace must not be “used” as a means, but rather it must be sought out as a end, he continued. “Let us remember that life is an inviolable right of each human being, and does not depend on the current moment, on ideologies or on any strategy, but rather on God, the author of life, in whom we live, and move and have our being,” the bishop said.
On the other hand, he remarked, “Unless we grow in humility, there is no chance for peace,” because “pride is the mother and ultimate cause of all violence.” “The search for justice is also a necessary condition for there to be peace,” the bishop said, quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Peace is the work of justice.”
The Church’s contribution to the cause of peace is to call for the conversion of hearts of each and every one of us, to call for personal humility,” he said.
