Washington, D.C.—Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999, and extending
throughout the 40 days of Lent, the Washington, D.C. Dorothy Day Catholic
Worker and the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness is sponsoring a
nonviolent campaign called a "Lenten Witness to End the U.S. War Against
Iraq." During Lent, a liturgical season for personal and social repentance,
people are called to fast in repentance for the suffering and death the U.S.
has inflicted on the people of Iraq.

Peace groups are being invited to come to the White House on the six
Saturdays in Lent to conduct a nonviolent direct action. The first White
House protest at 12 noon will be organized by the Baltimore Emergency
Response Network [BERN]. People across the U.S. are being invited to fast
each Friday and some people have committed to fast for longer periods. Art
Laffin, of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Sr. Maureen Foltz, c.c.v., of
Washington, D.C., Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, a Catholic Worker from Worcester,
MA, and members of the Hartford Catholic Worker will fast for twenty days,
beginning Ash Wednesday.

The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and Voices in the Wilderness have been
actively working to end the US-led UN economic sanctions and the US military
intervention in Iraq. The groups oppose the existence of all weapons of mass
destruction everywhere in the world and call for nonviolent, diplomatic
solutions to resolve conflict. The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker has
maintained a prayer vigil at the White House each Friday over the last year
calling for an end to sanctions. Members of the group have been arrested at
the White House for nonviolently protesting the sanctions and US military
strikes against Iraq. Voices in the Wilderness, which was formed in 1996 to
end economic sanctions against Iraq, has sponsored 19 delegations to Iraq
where people have taken medicine and medical supplies in direct violation of
US sanctions law. In Dec. 1998, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the
US Treasury Department issued a prepenalty notice of $163,000 against Voices
in the Wilderness for the violation. The group refuses to pay the fine as a
matter of conscience.

According to UNICEF economic sanctions have killed over one million Iraqis
during the last eight years. UNICEF also estimates that about 250 Iraqis,
mostly children, continue to die daily from preventable diseases and
malnutrition, and that one million Iraqis are chronically malnourished.
Their current sanctions against Iraq prohibit vitally needed spare parts to
repair Iraq’s infrastructure which were decimated by US and allied bombings
in 1991.

Art Laffin, a spokesperson for the Lenten Witness campaign, stated: "Lent is
a time to turn away from our sins and to convert our lives to God’s
commands. It is a time to follow the example of Jesus who calls us to love
unconditionally, to be peacemakers and to establish justice. The ongoing
US-led economic sanctions and recent military strikes against Iraq are acts
of counter-population warfare, in violation of divine and international law.
It is time to stop demonizing Arab peoples and to see the Iraqi people as
our sisters and brothers. It is time for the US to repent for the suffering
it has inflicted and make peace."

Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW, Washington, D.C. 20010 PH: 202-882-9649

Contact: Dorothy Day Catholic Worker 202-882-9649/Art Laffin or Reba Mathern-Jacobson or Voices in the Wilderness 773-784-8065/Kathy Kelly

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"I prefer the most unjust peace to the justest war that was ever
waged." Cicero, LETTERS TO ATTICUS

Baltimore's Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, 4806 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21212 Ph: 410-323-7200; Fax: 410-323-7292; Email: maxo@igc.org