Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

The following essay, written by Eli McCarthy, was published in The Hill, a newspaper focused on the U.S. Congress. McCarthy, a professor at Georgetown University in Justice and Peace Studies as well as the director of Justice and Peace for CMSM, which serves the U.S. leadership of Catholic men’s religious institutes, serves on the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative steering committee and coordinates the Washington, D.C. Peace Team.

As key leaders in the United States government escalate another conflict with threats of violence, we must find a creative way to avoid another war and transform the conflict into an opportunity for mutual growth.

How can we do this? We can shift our approach and reasoning to a just peace framework. This offers more creative possibilities and potential for sustainable peace. Continue reading Choose just peace framework to respond to conflict with Iran

Thanks to Pax Christi UK for creating a study guide to accompany Choosing Peace, a compilation of essays on nonviolence and just peace and other documents in support of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. The study guide is available for free download from the Pax Christi UK website.

Before you begin: To understand how Choosing Peace came about, read the Acknowledgements section right at the start of the book. The five sessions of the quick study guide will help you dip into selected parts of the book to help understand five key areas. The book is rich with wisdom and witness. We hope you will be inspired to read more of it.

Choosing Peace was published by Orbis Books.

From CNI steering committee member Eli McCarthy:

Local organizers have requested protective accompaniment at a large posadas gathering at the San Diego/Tijuana border on December 15. Training will likely be provided on December 14.

Las Posadas is a Christmas tradition, primarily within the Hispanic community, celebrated December 16-24. It is a processional ceremony which re-enacts the Holy Family’s search for welcome at the time of Jesus’ birth.

Some basic goals of protective accompaniment are:
1) Accompany those most in need
2) Prevent and defuse hostility/violence
3) Interrupt de-humanization
4) Re-humanize and cultivate empathy Continue reading Accompaniment on U.S.-Mexico border

Since its founding in 2016, the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International in partnership with several other international Catholic organisations, has significantly advanced the conversation and understanding of nonviolence and just peace in the Catholic Church and beyond.

We are convinced that an expanded and strengthened understanding of active nonviolence as the cornerstone of just peace can help build cultures of peace and promote the integral ecology that must be embraced for the sake of our species and all of creation.

The last quarter of 2018 finds us overwhelmed and grateful for the intense and ground-breaking efforts of five working groups (“roundtables”) which wrapped up a year’s work in August. Each group has submitted an extraordinary document focused on the application of nonviolence in our faith tradition: in our study of the Hebrew and early Christian texts; as the basis for deep theological reflection; as an ethical framework for effective responses to violence in this current age; as a subject for preaching and teaching in Church bodies and structures; and as a lifestyle and powerful peacebuilding practice already embraced by Catholics around the world. Continue reading CNI update, December 2018

Posted by La Croix, 20 November 2018

Catholic religious leaders in Lebanon have appealed to the international community to stop wars in the Middle East and work to bring about a just peace.

In a statement following its Nov. 12-16 annual meeting, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon urged Catholics “to endure the grace of God in the hope of rebuilding their homelands with their Muslim brothers in equal and responsible citizenship.”

The prelates expressed “anguish at the continuation of the wars in the Middle East, which continue to destabilize the peace, wreak havoc, destroy and displace citizens,” Catholic News Service reported.

The patriarchs and bishops condemned “violence in all its forms” and appealed to “the international community and concerned states” to stop wars in the region and “to bring about a comprehensive and just peace and to work seriously for the return of displaced persons, refugees, abductees and deportees to their countries, homes and properties.” Continue reading Lebanon’s Catholic leaders urge peace

One of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative’s goals is an increased awareness of and commitment to teaching peace and nonviolence in Catholic schools and universities. We are heartened by the following article published on 12 November 2018 by Vatican News which reports that Pope Francis has urged the Pontifical Lateran University to promote peace.

Pope encourages promotion of peace in universities
In a letter to the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, for the inauguration of the new academic year, Pope Francis emphasises the importance of following a curriculum that promotes peace in the world.

By Francesca Merlo

The heart of Pope Francis’ message to Cardinal de Donatis, Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, for the inauguration of the start of the new academic year is that students and all staff must feel “involved in planting the seeds of peace.” The Pope explains that this “begins with listening, professionalism and dedication” which he says must always be “accompanied by humbleness, meekness and the desire to be all things to all.”

Education for peace
In current times, the Pope says, there is an ever-growing need to prevent and resolve conflicts. “The Church, in the light of the Gospel, feels called to inspire and support each initiative that ensures…a journey of peace.”

To do this, the Pope continues, there is a need for “an educational effort to listen and understand”, but also for “knowledge and studies of the assets of value” and “of the instruments capable of demolishing tendencies towards isolation, closure and power that brings violence and destruction”.

Searching for solutions
In quoting Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis goes on to explain that it is not only the Church who is called to favour “finding solutions to problems affecting peace, social harmony, the land, the defence of life, human and civil rights, and so forth.” The university world also has an important role in the pursuit of this objective, says the Pope. He describes university as “a place that symbolises the integral humanity that needs to be constantly renewed and enriched”. This, the Pope explains, helps produce the brave renewed culture that the current time asks for.”

However, the Pope continues, “This does not mean altering the sense of the institution and the traditions consolidated in our academic realities”, but rather “steering its function in the outlook of a more missionary Church”. He stresses that this must be done “first and foremost by addressing the younger generations”.

A dream of peace
Therefore, says the Pope, this is the task with which we are entrusted: “incarnate the Word of God for the Church and for the humanity of the Third Millennium.” All this, says the Pope “without being afraid of risking and dreaming of peace for all people and for all nations”.