Madrid, Spain, Dec 12, 2008 / 12:29 pm
The Archbishop of Madrid and president of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, has condemned neutrality and silence as a response to terrorism.
“It is not possible to be neutral about terrorism, whoever is silent is responsible for its existence,” the cardinal said during his speech at the closing of the sixth Seminar on Information, Victims and Terrorism, organized by the International Observatory of Victims of Terrorism at San Pablo University.
Throughout the conference, Cardinal Rouco Varela referred to the pastoral instruction, “Terrorism, It’s Causes and Consequences,” and its evaluation of this “intrinsically perverse” phenomenon. Terrorism “cannot be morally justified,” the cardinal stressed, saying it was distinct from an act of war or a just response to an act of aggression.
He went on to express his hope for the conversion of terrorists, if they recognize “the intrinsic evil of terrorism” and show “a will to make reparation.”
The cardinal closed his statement by adding that “one cannot be a Christian if one does not unequivocally reject terrorism.”
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