Bishop John Michael Botean’s 2003
Pastoral letter on the Iraq War
Beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord, Jesus Christ,!
!
Great Lent, which we now begin, is traditionally a time in which we take stock of ourselves, our lives, and the direction
in which we are headed. In the common language of the Catholic Church, it is a time for a deep “examination of
conscience” as we fast, pray, and otherwise attend to the call for repentance issued by the Church for the forty days
before we celebrate the Resurrection of her savior, Jesus Christ.!
!
A serious examination of conscience requires that we recognize that there are times in the life of each Christian when
one’s faith is seriously and urgently challenged by the events taking place around him or her. Like it or not, these
challenges show us just how seriously—or not—we are living our baptismal commitment to Christ. Most of us, most of
the time, would prefer to keep our heads in the sand, ostrich-like, than to face truths about ourselves. This is why the
Church has found it so vitally necessary to have seasons, such as Lent, during which we must pull our heads out of
the sand and take a good, hard look at the world around us and how we are living in it.!
!
We cannot fail, as we examine our consciences, to take into account the mo 7B7&