1. Friday, May
18 -- 5:15 p.m. -- Gather at the Fordham University
Main Entrance at 2853
Southern Parkway, Bronx, NY.
At 6 p.m.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be presenting the Fordham Baccalaureate Mass for
the Fordham
University Commencement for the Class of 2012. Urge Archbishop Dolan to
speak out against the war drones controlled out of Hancock Air Base in Syracuse,
NY; Syracuse is part of his eccelesiastical province.
Note: On May 9, a group from upstate New York visited Syracuse Bishop Robert J. Cunningham to ask him to publicly oppose drone warfare; a *report of their meeting appears below.
Note: On May 9, a group from upstate New York visited Syracuse Bishop Robert J. Cunningham to ask him to publicly oppose drone warfare; a *report of their meeting appears below.
2. Saturday,
May 19 -- 9:15 a.m. -- Main Gate of Fordham
University, Southern Parkway near Fordham Road, Bronx, NY.
Protest the
awarding of an honorary degree to John Brennan, the Obama Administration's
Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security and
drone warfare advocate as well as the school's invitation to him to be the
commencement speaker for the Class of 2012. The ceremony starts at 10
a.m.
3. Sunday, May
20 -- 3:15 p.m. -- Radio City Music Hall,
1260 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, NY.
Protest drone
warfare at the awarding of an honorary degree to Congressman Edolphus Towns
(Brooklyn, NY), at the 4 p.m. diploma ceremony for the Fordham Graduate School of
School Service. Congressman Towns is a member of the Congressional Unmanned
Systems (Drone) Caucus, a lobbying arm of the drone industry within the
Congress.
*Report of the Meeting with Bishop Cunningham -- May
9, 2012
Ruth Giammichele opened with a prayer for
Fr John Donovan, who was undergoing surgery at about the same time we were having
our meeting.
Main point of our group was to get the
Bishop to take a leadership position and call for an end to drone
killings.
Ruth Giammichele, Jim Clune, Ed Kinane,
Paul Welch and Jack Gilroy met with the Bishop Wednesday afternoon on May 9.
Bishop Cunningham had a binder with
articles on drones, and said he had read most of the information. We did not
lecture him on drones but rather continued to press him to accept the immorality
of killing drones and asked that he take the issue to the Catholic Council of
Bishops meeting next November. He responded that their agenda is established long
before the meeting, and that a specific issue like drones would not be
considered.
We
then asked for him to take leadership in his diocese calling for an end to drone
killings. As Bishop of the Syracuse Diocese, he is the acknowledged moral
leader of all Catholics and an important symbol for people of all
faiths.
Bishop Cunningham responded that we need
to know that there are many people who do not agree with our position. There are
Catholics who work at Hancock and who support drones. We
noted that this is true, but we're asking him to take the step to stop violence
and speak out.
Bishop Cunningham noted again the issue of
not just jobs but people believe that our soldiers and airmen are protected by
drones which eliminate much of the need for our men and women to go into foreign
lands to conduct war.
We
noted that jobs would be created if crematoriums or immigrant prisons were to be
built locally by the government, that the argument of jobs will always be there
but we're asking him to do the right thing and speak out in opposition to
violence -- the violence of drones.
We
asked him what we could do to help him make the statement. We asked him if we
could draw up a statement he could use.
Bishop Cunningham said we could do that
but assured us he was not ready to make such a statement. He needed more time to
consider.
Each member of the team had something to
say. All comments were listened to by the Bishop.
It
was a good and genial meeting. What may come of it we don't know.
We
asked if he would meet with us again.
He
said he would.
