In case you missed it …

National Catholic Reporter (NCR) named our own Marie Dennis, co-president of Pax Christi International and a member of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative’s executive committee, as its 2016 Person of the Year. Those of us who have the great privilege to know and work with Marie know that this honor is well-deserved. She is a tireless, generous and gifted colleague and friend.

NCR writes that Marie “has long known that making peace in today’s world requires not only new ways of acting, but also new ways of seeing and thinking.

“In this regard, 2016 could prove to be a watershed year. In April, at an unprecedented Vatican conference, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi brought together activists, academics and church officials to re-examine how the church thinks about war and peace, violence and nonviolence. The resulting document, An Appeal to the Catholic Church to Recommit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence, lays the foundation for a fundamental shift in church teaching.

“While some herald the development as a rejection of the church’s long-held teachings on just war, others see it as a more radical redirection. The document states, ‘The time has come for our Church to be a living witness and to invest far greater human and financial resources in promoting a spirituality and practice of active nonviolence.’

“This initiative could well prove to be the catalyst for the new ways of seeing and thinking that can spark people’s imagination to fresh means of resisting violence of all types.

“… Her efforts might well lead to a papal encyclical. They have already resulted in a substantial pontifical statement, Francis’ World Day of Peace message for 2017.”

Read the entire column here.