ORDER IN THE COURT

"AND NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION"

Monday February 25, 6:00 P.M., JFK International Airport. Flight 111 for Geneva
departs at 7:30, giving me ample time to reexamine what I am doing and
reconsider going on a "peace pilgrimage" with Joe Cosgrove, a brilliant and
dedicated public defender.

Joe's plan was simple: We would go to Rome, meet Mother Teresa, and ask her to
present his legal brief to the Pope, who, in turn, would approach the World
Court and demand an immediate cease-fire in the Gulf. Wishful thinking? Pure
nonsense? Perhaps an equal measure of both.

6:45 P.M. I am now firmly resolved to tell Joe of my intention to withdraw from
the sophomoric misadventure. After listening patiently to me, he asks, "How can
we determine what's in store tor us before we even take the first step?" I have
to agree: More often than not, it was the unplanned journey that proved more
fruitful and more rewarding. I have been moved by the Spirit to join this peace
pilgrimage, and I decide to trust that Spirit. We are pilgrims-not
diplomats-and we must surrender to what lies in store for us and stop trying to
determine the work of grace.

Tuesday, February 26, 5:00 P.M. (Rome time). Joe and I made our way up the
Piazza San Gregorio to the residence of the Missionaries of Charity and rang the
bell, No sooner had we begun to settle in than a tiny sister appeared smiling in
the doorway. It was Mother Teresa of Calcutta! I was astonished at her size,
Not taller than five feet, she could not have weighed more than 90 pounds, yet I
had never in my life experienced a more powerful presence, She was simply
overwhelming and overwhelmingly simple, which made her completely disarming. As
we rose to greet her, she took our hands in hers and gave us each a blessing.

"Now, what can I do for you?" she asked. Joe said that he had been moved by the
Spirit to draw up a legal petition for the World Court in The Hague, to sue for
a cease-fire in the Gulf; that he needed to present this brief on behalf of a
state, since the World Court does not acknowledge individuals as litigants. "I
never heard of a World Court," Mother Teresa said. Explaining that it had been
founded when the UN charter had been ratified, Joe gave the brief to Mother in
an envelope addressed to Pope John Paul 11.

After a reflective pause, Mother Teresa said, "You know both Saddam Hussein and
Mr. Bush have ignored the Holy Father's plea to end the war. I also wrote to
both of them, but neither one of them responded," She told us she had considered
going to Baghdad to see Saddam. "What good could I do?" she asked. What good? I
thought, recalling how she had caused an immediate cease-fire during the civil
war in Lebanon simply by her presence in Beirut. Mother Teresa finally said,
"I'm going to see the Holy Father tomorrow, and I will give it to him then."
Relieved and gratified, we talked to each other for another forty-five
minuteslike three old friends.

Wednesday February 27. After meeting with Mother Teresa, the Pontiff, as part of
his regular midweek general audience, issued a strong statement against the
horrors of the war in the Gulf.

Thursday, February 28, 6:00 A.M., Missionaries of Charity Chapel. On Mother
Teresa's invitation, we returned for a Mass of celebration. Earlier that morning
the news of a cease-fire in the Gulf had reached us in Rome.

Was there any meaning in our journey? Did it have any impact on the course of
the war and the beginning of peace? Who can say? In his traditional Urbi et Orbi
speech given on Easter Sunday, Pope John Paul 11 was vehement in his criticism
of the Gulf War. He repeated the moral chastisement that he had used since the
war's beginning, but in an unusual moment, the Pope also called the war a
"violation of international law," To place a secular label on this terrible
event was a dramatic move by the Holy Father. Was it coincidence that the brief
Mother had given to the Pope on our behalf outlined the illegality ot the war
based on international law? Perhaps. A letter, dated three days atter Mother
Teresa's meeting with the Holy Father, and written by the Vatican secretary of
state, thanked Joe on behalf of the Pontiff for the information given to him.
In its final paragraph, the letter bestowed the Pope's apostolic blessing on us.
A fair reward for our humble effort, reminding us once again what Daniel
Berrigan has always taught: Our work for essential human needs seeks not results
but instead has its remuneration in the goodness, the rightness of the work
itself. And that is a blessing of apostolic proportion.