For Immediate Release: December 8, 2006
Contact: Matthew W. Daloisio, 201.264.4424; Frida Berrigan, 347.683.4928; Ethan Vesely-Flad, 510.701.5267

Catholic Justice Activists Mark International Human Rights Day With "End Torture – Shut Down Guantanamo" Vigils at St. Patrick's Cathedral & Other Catholic Cathedrals Nationwide; Vigils to be held in NYC, Des Moines, Boise, Wichita, Winona, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington DC, & at Loyola University in Chicago

New York, NY – With pressure increasing on the Bush administration to dramatically reverse the effects of its failed foreign policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, Roman Catholics are calling on their church to speak out forcefully against the U.S. Military Commissions Act, which allows for U.S. sanctioned torture. Members of the Catholic Worker community and allies will hold solidarity vigils on Sunday, December 10th – International Human Rights Day – at more than a dozen cathedrals across the country. These actions will follow-up on an October 2006 national gathering that had challenged U.S. Catholic Bishops to speak out on this pressing human rights issue.

Catholic Workers will vigil to amplify the interfaith statement signed by Bishop Skylstad, head of the U.S. Catholic Conference's national board: "Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable. Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now – without exceptions." (www.nrcat.org) The vigils will also publicize the planned International Day to Shut Down Guantánamo Protest, to be held on January 11th in Washington, DC. That date will mark the fifth anniversary of the internment of "war on terrorism" prisoners at Guantánamo.

Joseph Margulies, a lawyer challenging the indefinite detention of the prisoners at Guantanamo, recently stated; "There is little question of how history will respond to Guantánamo…it will be looked back on with condescension and bemusement. How could we be so foolish, misguided, cruel? How we will respond is a legal question and a political question. But it is most of all a moral question. Will we respond with courage or cowardice? This is our choice."

In Washington, DC on January 11, 2007, we will march from the Supreme Court to the U.S. Federal Court. At the Supreme Court, Guantánamo lawyers and others will address the press. Individuals will then process to Federal Court, taking on the names and identities of the men in Guantánamo and submitting Habeas petitions to the Federal Court. Solidarity demonstrations will take place from Boise, Idaho to Amsterdam, and calls will flood Congressional switchboards in a National Call-In Day.

One year ago, a group of U.S. Roman Catholics completed a70-mile, five day walk from Santiago de Cuba to Guantánamo Bay Naval Station, where hundreds of men imprisoned by the United Stares were on hunger strike. The group—called Witness Against Torture—attempted to visit the prisoners as an act of mercy prescribed by their Christian faith and as an act of protest against torture, illegal and indefinite detention.