In a statement issued today, the Assembly states that it agrees with «the urgent need to seek and exploit all possible ways to avoid the war, which entails mourning, destruction and grave consequences for humanity.»
The Assembly said it «exhorts Salvadorans to reaffirm their commitment to more intense prayer and fasting for peace, endangered by the growing terrorist attacks in Indonesia, the United States and Colombia, among other countries affected by this scourge.»
During a press conference Sunday, Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle of San Salvador reiterated the Church’s opposition to a war in the Persian Gulf and urged that all diplomatic initiatives be exhausted to maintain peace based on U.N. resolutions to disarm Iraq.
Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua urged that everything possible be done to avoid a war in Iraq.
«We Nicaraguans have a sickly idea of war as a result of the two wars we have had,» said the archbishop of Managua, who is also president of the country’s episcopal conference. «Let us pray to the Lord that there will be no war and that life will prevail.»