Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action 2021 (Catholic Nonviolence Initiative)

Nonviolence as a way of life in the web of Creation...

The days begin 21 September, the International Peace Day and end on 2 October, the International Day of Nonviolence and Gandhi’s birthday...

Their primary plan is to flee to America and pray the communists will forget them and ignore America.

>2 eschator83:

That throwaway remark is unworthy of you, my friend. The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative is a process which has been going on for a number of years, initiated by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Pax Christi International. Two major conferences were held in Rome bringing together around eighty people from all over the world including cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, nuns, theologians, academics, experts in war and peace, and most importantly, people who live in war zones - victims, activists and peacebuilders. Pope Francis wrote his 2017 message for the World Day of Peace entitled “Nonviolence: A style of politics for peace” based on the work of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. Books and papers have been published, regional consultations have been held, again with people who have lived and are still living in active war zones, and Zoom meetings continue.

And nonviolence is not passive - not "fleeing", as you put it. Nonviolence is active and organised, disciplined and committed. Empirical evidence shows that nonviolent struggles are twice as likely to be successful as violent ones - nonviolent struggles succeed a little over 50% of the time, violent conflicts around 25%, and in around 25% of cases, neither succeeds. Empirical evidence also shows that a nonviolent struggle is more likely to create a post-conflict society which is peaceful and democratic, and respects justice and human rights.

Of course it's your right to express a dissenting opinion, but you might want to inform yourself a little about the subject with which you are disagreeing. Have you read Pope Francis' 2017 message? It continues a trajectory of papal thought at least since Pope St John XXIII's Pacem in terris.

Your friendly references to my worthiness, my rights, and my little information seem grossly hypocritical, especially for someone whose posts seem to be 80% critical of the Church. Your rhetorical question is as usual a snide implication. Why not post about papal just war recommendations, Church actions to defend itself and civilization from violence, and whether the Church can govern or just make suggestions? What would you say are the best governed Catholic countries?
Which are Catholic countries? Can they survive?
Please cite your basis for your empirical evidence for ending violence, especially in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, and big blue American cities.

>4 eschator83:

I'm not aware that I am particularly critical of the Church, at least no more than many loyal and faithful Catholics who are willing to be constructively critical of that which they love. I've quoted approvingly two papal documents and referred approvingly to a Vatican dicastery in these posts; nothing I am saying is unorthodox nor critical of the Church.

Conversations about the "just war theory" are actually at the heart of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. Originally the just war theory was aimed at preventing war but too often it has been used to justify war. You refer to papal recommendations, so note that in my post I referred to the trajectory of recent papal statements in the direction of nonviolence. Even many proponents of the just war theory are now recognising that modern warfare can never actually meet the criteria of a just war. "Just cause" is an easy criterion to meet, as there are many just causes in the world. However other criteria of the traditional just war theory are far harder to meet - legitimate authority, last resort, the damage done to be proportional to the good achieved, and a reasonable prospect of success. It's difficult to name a modern conflict in Africa, Asia, or Latin America where all five of those criteria for a just war have been met.

Empirical evidence for the success of nonviolence is found in Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J Stephan, an academic study of, if I recall correctly, more than 300 "hard" conflicts over more than a century. One of the authors was deeply sceptical when they began the study, but she was surprised at the empirical results.

My apologies if my disagreement with you appeared hypocritical or snide. That was not my intention. But your remark did, on the surface, appear to demonstrate a degree of ignorance of what nonviolence is all about. From your reaction I realise that I could have phrased it more sensitively. Apologies again, and I will try to be more careful.

Since you mention Africa, let me share a personal experience. For 22 years I tacitly supported a violent liberation struggle, which apparently "succeeded", leaving over 2.5 million dead, millions more displaced from their ruined homes, a devastated country, a traumatised population and a legacy of militarism, including a flood of small arms and light weapons as well as areas sown with landmines. Within two years of the independence of South Sudan, that new nation descended into further violence, arguably worse than that of the civil war which had led to independence. The lesson that I and many South Sudanese civilians and church people have learned is that violence leads only to more violence. Meanwhile the youth and women of neighbouring Sudan have shown us how a nonviolent campaign can overthrow a brutal Islamist military dictatorship which had terrorised the population for thirty years. My personal experience therefore serves to reinforce the trend in our Church towards prioritising nonviolence as the way to bring about peace and justice in the world.

A couple of relevant articles from the Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 5: Issue 1, March 2021. I've only just come across this journal (full disclosure: they've asked me to write a review of a new book on South Sudan) and I'm looking forward to the August 2021 issue, out soon.

Strategic Nonviolent Struggle in the Twenty First Century

Abstract

The Twenty First Century is on track to become the first significant Century of Nonviolent Struggle in human history. New discoveries about the effectiveness of strategic nonviolent action, a proliferation of unarmed civil resistance movements, and an explosion of research of and development of creative training methods for such movements, transmitted globally via the internet and other means of international communication point toward the increasing prevalence of unarmed methods of struggle as the emergingparadigm for conflict transformation...

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, the Death Penalty, and War

Introduction

In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti (FT) Pope Francis puts forth a vision of universal solidarity, a love that excludes no one. On the basis of this vision he reflects upon and critiques various aspects of our modern world. He expresses strong criticisms, for example, of neoliberal capitalism, excessive individualism, consumerism, xenophobia, racism, and narrow and aggressive forms of nationalism. Francis also reflects extensively on issues concerning violence, with particular attention to the death penalty and war. In his reflections on violence he both draws upon and deepens the insights and teachings of previous popes. It is these teachings of Francis concerning violence and his expansive conception of nonviolence, rooted in his vision of universal solidarity and communion, that will be the focus of this essay...

The first is a good resource for those who want to inform themselves about nonviolence, particularly the short bibliography at the end of the article. The second reflects on how the Holy Father "both draws upon and deepens the insights and teachings of previous popes", and notes that "Many Catholics, particularly in the United States, do not seem to be aware of the depth of recent papal critique of war and still uncritically assume that a ‘just war’ is possible, despite the very deep doubts on this topic expressed by recent popes".

Living into Total Nonviolence: A Special Workshop with Rev. John Dear on September 11th

“To me, nonviolence is the all-important virtue to be nourished and studied and cultivated.” That’s what Dorothy Day wrote in her diary in 1967...

As a spiritual path, as the basis for people power, as a political methodology for change, and as a hermeneutic for Christian discipleship, active nonviolence is the best hope for humanity...

Next month, on Saturday, September 11th, I will offer a special workshop on holistic nonviolence, and how we might pursue the same all-encompassing nonviolence of Dorothy Day, Dr. King and Gandhi—that we might practice these three simultaneous attributes of nonviolence and move closer to the total nonviolence of Jesus. This special workshop will be offered on September 11th at 11 a.m. Pacific time,12 PM Mountain time, 1 PM Central time and 2 p.m. Eastern time and is intended for people who have not studied nonviolence, and those who are new to the life, vision, and methodology of active nonviolence. Many of you know a lot about nonviolence, so this workshop may not be for you, although a refresher course is always good. But if you are new to the idea of nonviolence, then this session is definitely for you! ...

To Register for these and other workshops, visit http://www.beatitudescenter.org.

For further information, contact Ruth Ann at thebeatitudescenter@gmail.com

Let me repeat that recommendation: But if you are new to the idea of nonviolence, then this session is definitely for you!

Pax Christi International Statement on Afghanistan

As an international peace organisation with a deep commitment to nonviolence, we are heartbroken by what decades of war and violence have wrought. Immediate attention to physical and human rights protections for the most vulnerable; accountability for atrocities; and diplomatic efforts to engage the Taliban at every level — from the local to the international, as difficult and often unreliable as those may be, are essential. But a deep reflection on the failure of war and the need to invest in effective tools for building just peace must also be undertaken nationally and internationally...

23rd Annual Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion and Peace (Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame)

Time: Tue Nov 9, 2021, 4:00PM - 5:00PM

Location: Auditorium, Hesburgh Center for International Studies and Zoom Webinar

Featuring Tecla Namachanja Wanjala, Kenyan Peace Advocate; Renowned Consultant on Transitional Justice, Conflict Transformation, Social Healing, and Reconciliation

The Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace, which began in 1999... Each year, the Kroc Institute invites a leading thinker, writer, scholar, and/or peace advocate to deliver a lecture related to nonviolence, religion, and peace. Following the lecture, audience members join in informal dialogue and discussion with the speaker and with each other.

You can attend the event in person or register to attend via Zoom livestream.

Virtual Gathering of the Unarmed Civilian Protection, Accompaniment and Peace Team Community (Nonviolent Peaceforce)

12-14 and 19-21 November 2021

Collaborate with practitioners, partners and academics to improve our work and even more positively impact the communities we serve. Through our regional workshops we have discovered at least 50 organizations carrying out this type of work in 26 areas of the world. And that number is growing! We will be learning and sharing across regions, disciplines, and organizations – seeking to build, develop, and connect our community of practice while dialoging on crucial topics.

Choose from fourteen discussions with colleagues about global trends impacting Unarmed Civilian Protection, Accompaniment and Peace Teams (UCPAPT) including: decolonizing UCPAPT, dealing with transnational corporate aggression, solidarity and nonpartisanship, UCPAPT in the digital age, and building a community of practice. Timing for the interactive events will be spread across multiple time zones and interpretation will be provided in Spanish, French, and Arabic to accommodate global participation.

Register here. Registration deadline is November 11th.

A Policymaker's Tool for Effective Nonviolent Strategies for Sustainable Peace

Organised by the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and Pax Christi International

21 October 2021
16:00 CEST
(Event in English with interpretation into French and Spanish)

You are warmly invited to a webinar to launch our new publication A Policymaker’s Tool for Effective, Nonviolent Strategies for Sustainable Peace.

The publication aims to engage policymakers, including church leaders, in developing and implementing policies that promote nonviolence in response to societal challenges.

We invite policymakers, civil society members, researchers and all those interested in joining us for an interesting debate. Together we will learn more about successful nonviolent policy strategies, including in the field of peace education, negotiations, and inclusive decision making...

SPEAKERS

Ambassador Lamberto Zannier: Former Secretary General and High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)...

Mr David Grosso: United States Attorney and politician...

Dr Marianne Severin: Researcher at the center for African studies, Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM)/Science Po Bordeaux (France)...

Dr Elias Omondi Opongo, SJ: A Jesuit priest and director of the Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations (HIPSIR) in Kenya and regional coordinator of the Africa Forum for Catholic Social Teaching...

Register here

Advancing Discourse and Praxis: A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence and a Just Peace Ethic

Tuesday, April 5th, 8-9:15 pm EST (Washington DC)
ONLINE via Zoom

Register Here

Come join us! Significant conflicts have spiked recently with the war in Ukraine as well as continued hostilities in Yemen, Somalia, and Palestine. The context of the pandemic along with the climate crisis provides significant challenges. Christian scholars have been discerning and exploring various approaches from pacifism, active nonviolence, just peace, and just war. Myles Werntz and Eli McCarthy will reflect and engage in critical discussion on each others recent book publications, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace (Baker Academic, 2022) by David Cramer and Myles Werntz; and A Just Peace Ethic Primer: Breaking Cycles of Violence and Building a Sustainable Peace (Georgetown University Press, 2020) ed. by Eli McCarthy. The Just Peace Ethic Primer includes case studies from the U.S. and internationally, such as South Sudan, Iraq, and El Salvador. Open discussion with the audience will follow.

Full disclosure: I co-authored a chapter in the second book.

A Climate of Violence


In 1977, Catholic bishops in Latin America gathered to name their situation of shared violence and to commit themselves anew to the gospel of peace. These reflections are as valid in today's global climate of violence as they were 45 years ago.

We live in a whole climate of violence. There is violence in the area of economics by reason of acute fiscal crises, the repeated devaluation of our currencies, unemployment, and soaring taxes—the burden of which ultimately falls on the poor and helpless. There is violence at the political level, as our people in varying degrees are deprived of their right of self-expression and self-determination and of the exercise of their civil rights. Still more grave in many countries are human-rights violations in the form of torture, kidnappings, and murder. Violence also makes its appearance in various forms of delinquency, in drug abuse as an escape from reality, in the mistreatment of women—all tragic expressions of frustration and of the spiritual and cultural decadence of a people losing their hope in tomorrow.

Here we may not scurry for cover to empty theories or hide behind condemnations of one group by another group. The violence is here; it is a fact. Injustice exists; this is reality. As Christians we may not abide this. We may not allow ourselves to grow accustomed to evil, least of all to an evil that is daily and constant. ¹

In a series of sermons, radio addresses, newspaper articles, and public speeches, Archbishop Saint Óscar Romero of El Salvador called the people of his church and his nation to return to gospel values, particularly those of justice and love as a way to end violence.

I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally. ²

When the church decries revolutionary violence, it cannot forget that institutionalized violence also exists, and that the desperate violence of oppressed persons is not overcome with one-sided laws, with weapons, or with superior force. . . . As long as there is not greater justice among us, there will always be outbreaks of revolution. ³

If there were love of neighbor, there would be no terrorism, no repression, no selfishness, none of such cruel inequalities in society, no abductions, no crimes. Love sums up the law. Not only that, it gives a Christian meaning to all human relations. . . . Love gives plentitude to all human duties, and without love justice is only the sword. With love, justice becomes a brother’s embrace. Without love, laws are arduous, repressive, cruel. . . But when there is love—security forces would be superfluous, there would be no jail or tortures, no will to beat anyone. ⁴

1. “Declaration of the International Meeting of Latin American Bishops on ‘Nonviolence: A Power for Liberation,’” in Adolpho Pérez Esquivel, Christ in a Poncho: Testimonials of the Nonviolent Struggles in Latin America (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983), 119.

2. Óscar Romero, The Violence of Love: The Pastoral Wisdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero, compiled and translated by James R. Brockman (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988), 200.

3. Romero, The Violence of Love, 42.

4. Romero, 107.

No mention of the violence committed against the Unborn. We are getting ready here in The Global North to declare Abortion is not a fundamental right when this happens I hope all the committees and organizations mentioned above will stand with us against the violent opposition that this decision of the US Supreme Court will inevitably bring....JMJ....

>14 brone:

The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative opposes all forms of violence, and calls for nonviolence to be a way of life, a spirituality, creating a "just peace" in which violence becomes unthinkable. Is that not explicit enough for you?

On those particular quotes from Latin America, they need to be taken in context. At the time the bishops were focusing on particular forms of violence which happened to be the major problem in that time and place. Not every statement opposing violence will name every single type of violence in the world.

I think you have a very jaundiced view of the nonviolence movement. I know you oppose Daniel Berrigan for his anti-war stance, which was probably his most well known facet if one relies on sound bites, but for argument's sake let's take him as a fair representative of the movement. Do you know that his anti-war activism was part of a more comprehensive spirituality and activism? Are you aware of what Fr Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life and President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council in the USA, has said about him? (link)

Those who fight for the born and those whose cause is to save the unborn don't need to be at odds with each other. Father Berrigan was a radical figure who spent a total of almost seven years in prison. What many don't realize though is that his activism extended beyond the anti-war movement and into the anti-abortion movement. Believing in what he called a consistent ethic of life, he linked abortion to war because both were deadly for innocent victims.

Berrigan's obituary in Crux states:

Despite his image as a radical leftist, Berrigan was also an outspoken opponent of abortion. During a 1984 talk at a Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Berrigan denounced what he called a “theory of allowable murder” in contemporary society. Christians should have no part in “abortion, war, paying taxes for war, {or} disposing of people on death row or warehousing the aged,” Berrigan said on that occasion. One cannot be pro-life and against a nuclear freeze, he insisted, or be a peace activist and defend abortion.

Fr John Dear has written (link)

Like {the towering prophets -- Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel}, he denounces war, weapons, arms races, corrupt regimes, miscarriages of justice, assaults on human rights, and threats to widows and orphans, the unborn and prisoners.

Berrigan himself said very clearly: (quoted in Wikipedia)

I see an 'interlocking directorate' of death that binds the whole culture. That is, an unspoken agreement that we will solve our problems by killing people in various ways; a declaration that certain people are expendable, outside the pale. A decent society should no more have an abortion clinic than The Pentagon.

And it's precisely because of this "consistent ethic of life" that many Catholics are not attracted to a so-called "Pro-Life" movement that often appears only to be anti-abortion, but meanwhile supports militarism, capital punishment, gun ownership, nuclear weapons, and a whole host of other death-dealing policies which ultimately kill children. As both Pavone and Berrigan have argued from opposite sides of the divide, these two "pro life" groups of Catholics need not be at odds with each other.

Edited to add: Might I add that Berrigan was publicly criticised by some on the left for his stance on abortion, with headlines like Father Daniel Berrigan, Anti-war Hero With a Huge Blindspot.

I have already posted my views about Berrigan and his brother, Kerry, Fonda, Drinnan Biden, Polosi, Francis. I must be nearing the end of my Journey because, I hang out with holy people now we go to Mass, read the bible now and again and keep our guns servicable....AMDG....

>16 brone:

It's good to hear that you get the chance to hang out with holy people, go to mass, and read the bible. I try to do the same, and I consider myself very privileged to have met some very holy people, some of whom are or will be famous, while many others are just ordinary folk doing the best they can who will remain unknown to all but God and those close to them. But I'm afraid guns have nothing to do with holiness.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Brother.

Contrary to what some modern Catholics may want you to believe, The Catholic tradition is clear, that using weapons can be justifiable in many instances. The thought that a Catholic be prohibited in the use of weapons would have been laughable 100 years ago. I'm not claiming here, that every use of a weapon a 100 years ago was justified, it's clear that historically the Church has understood the need for people to defend themselves-and others Catholics are obliged to defend the right of individuals to own and carry a gun, because resisting tyranny and protecting the innocent is the duty of everyone....JMJ....

>19 brone:

Actually it's not modern Catholics, it was early Catholics. But it's true that during certain periods of history the Church "read the signs of the times" and began to accept the use of violence, contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Thank God that in modern times, at least since Pope St John XXIII (although some would include Benedict XV during World War I), we see a trajectory in the teaching of the Church, once again reading the signs of the times and bringing us back to a more authentic understanding of Jesus' stance on violence.

Might I add that defending "the rights of individuals to own and carry a gun" is a peculiarly US political and cultural phenomenon which is found in hardly any other country in the world. There is nothing in Catholic Church teaching which supports that practice and plenty that opposes it. Statistical evidence from across the world suggest that small arms and light weapons in the hands of civilians do not help to bring peace, justice and security - quite the opposite. It's no coincidence that the USA is probably the most violent amongst all of the major western democracies, although it might be surpassed by countries such as Somalia and South Africa which have large quantities of weapons in circulation due to their violent histories. The difference is that their governments are at least trying to address the issue.

resisting tyranny and protecting the innocent is the duty of everyone

No argument with you there. This is primarily the role of governments, not armed vigilantes, but yes, the responsibility also rests on everyone. It's a major concern within human rights, peacebuilding, peacekeeping and UN circles under the title "Responsibility to Protect", often shortened to R2P. Nonviolent resistance and unarmed civilian protection are effective means of resisting tyranny and protecting the innocent which have been and still are being used throughout the world by many brave individuals and groups, many of whom have sacrificed their lives or their freedom to do so. One of the great strengths of nonviolent resistance and protection is that it is accessible to everyone, regardless of age, physical strength, economic or familial responsibilities, unlike armed resistance which is only accessible to people able to carry and use a weapon. If only more resources were put into supporting these practices and less into militarism, they would be even more effective. The innocent are also protected and tyrannies resisted by systemic measures such as multilateralism, good governance, the rule of law, education, eradicating poverty, social and economic justice, etc.

As I quoted elsewhere, "Christians are willing to die for what they believe, but not to kill" is a sentiment that is well worth aspiring to.

I have no idea whether these two chaps were Catholic, but they staged their protest on St Paddy's Day, so I think it counts!

Two ‘courteous’ US anti-war veterans in their 80s fined for disrupting Irish airport (Guardian)

Two elderly American anti-war activists described as “the nicest and most courteous protesters” have each been fined €5,000 by an Irish court for interfering with operations at Shannon airport, which hosts US military flights... The pair, who had both served in the US military, used bolt cutters to gain access to the airport on St Patrick’s Day in 2019 and walked on to a taxiway in an attempt to search US military planes for weapons. They had a banner and wore hi-vis vests emblazoned with the words “veterans for peace”...

Richard Moloney, a former police fire officer at the airport, told the trial the men fully cooperated when he accosted them. “These were the nicest and most courteous protesters I ever met in my 19 years in Shannon airport.” Pat Keating, a police officer who was in charge at Shannon garda station, told the court that Mayers and Kauff were “the best custodians I’ve had in 25 years”...

This story shows some of the key characteristics of nonviolent protest. They were protesting the USA's violation of Irish neutrality ("Peace campaigners have long complained that US military flights with troops and weapons refuel at the County Clare airport on the Atlantic coast despite Ireland’s military neutrality"). All ages and all types of people can participate in nonviolent protest - these chaps were in their eighties, and were former soldiers. And perhaps above all, not only were they peaceful, but they were "nice", friendly, "courteous", well-behaved, cooperative, living out the underlying spirituality of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, that all people are our sisters and brothers, not the "enemy".

There's an international virtual conference entitled "Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World" sponsored by the Catholic Peacebuilding Network on 20-23 June 2022. This is a fully virtual event. Plenary sessions will be in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish and French. Breakout sessions will be in English, Spanish, and French with simultaneous translation for select sessions.

Registration is here

The world is emerging from an historic health crisis that has exacerbated existing conflicts, poverty, inequalities, polarization, and threats to the environment. While the pandemic led to unprecedented cooperation and heroic responses by many, it also exposed deficits in leadership and emboldened authoritarians, demagogues, and chauvinistic nationalists. Just as the world hopes to move beyond the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens global peace in ways thought unimaginable when the pandemic began. The challenge to Catholic peacebuilders is clear: we must ensure that the post-pandemic return to “normal” does not look like the pre-pandemic status quo, or worse. That will require an integral and integrated approach to peace, development, and ecology because the cry of war’s victims, the cry of the poor, and the cry of the earth rise as one (Laudato Si’, no. 49).

This conference will convene a wide range of Catholic peacebuilders – Church leaders, scholars, peacebuilding specialists and other practitioners – from around the world. It will allow participants to learn from their rich and diverse experiences in confronting challenges to peace around the world and help them discern new and creative ways to respond to the historic challenges to peace that we now face.

All this social justice must be preached indeed. Our Lord would never dissociate Himself from the starving, the sick,ect. These however were not his assertions when he in effect said to Satan in the desert, "you tempt Me to a religion which would relieve want; you want me to be a baker, instead of a saviour; You are tempting me away from My Cross, suggesting that I be a cheap leader of people, a social reformer, filling their bellies instead of their souls. You and other materialists followers say," Man (sorry persons) lives by bread alone" then man is no more than an animal, and dogs might as well come to My banquet. He rejected any plan which made men better without making them holier, He says, Remember! not by bread alone.... AMDG....

>23 brone:

I think you put your own words into the mouth of Jesus. I doubt if you'll find many orthodox scripture scholars or exegetes who would phrase it "in effect" like that.

But why do you separate Catholic Social Teaching from holiness? Do you not realise it's all part of the same seamless garment?

>23 brone: He also fed people rather than send them home hungry.

>24 John5918: I Think not those are the words of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen....JMJ.... Catholic Churches in America are bracing for threatened violence on Mothers Day, Facist, and communist agitators and those that Stalin called Useful idiots, are theatening to block entrance to Sunday Mass. Sorry guys these thugs are not Authoritarians, demagogues, or chauvinistic, but anachists who want to destroy the Catholic Church our particular church will be protected by armed guards former veterans unlike your shannon disrupters, The entrance to our church will not be blocked, I wonder what side of the line Berrigan would belong, I'm betting he would do some tap dancing but in the long run He was Pro Life....AMDG

>26 brone: those are the words of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Well that is good to know. It might have been helpful if you had cited him as the source in the first place. A great preacher, albeit not well known outside the USA, but nevertheless I repeat that I doubt if you'll find many orthodox scripture scholars or exegetes who would phrase it like that. It would be interesting to see the context in which he said those words; was he trying to explain or counter some particular point, or was this a more general point?

But as I pointed out to you in>24 John5918: and as was reinforced by >25 MarthaJeanne:, Catholic Social Teaching is not against holiness, it is very much part of holiness. Why do you have to make it either/or?

Facist, and communist agitators and those that Stalin called Useful idiots

I'd be very surprised if there were still "communist agitators" around; that's a Cold War concept. You probably mean people who are politically to the left of yourself. There are certainly plenty of fascists around, many of them finding a place within Christian churches and so-called pro-life movements. I'm very sorry to hear that people are threatening to block access to your church; not something I would condone. I'll pray for you and your fellow parishioners. As for Berrigan, he was both anti-violence and pro-life and saw the two as being part of a consistent ethic of life. You don't seem able to grasp that there is no contradiction there. What I am pretty certain of is that he saw an absolute contradiction in using violence to further pro-life aims.

Block access to our Church I think and hope you mean, Facists in Prolife Movement, hmmn, Sheen not well known outside US hmmn, I see you left out The word Catholic when mentioning plenty of them around in "Christian Churches and so-called Pro Life movements key word so-called I guess there is another name for so-called Pro-life movement. I don't seem able to grasp that there is no contradiction. I can see Pilate was not alone when he said "what is truth" when he dismissed this question as unanswerable and irrelevant to his purposes. You know I am no rebel yet you express a certain wryness an implied suspicion bordering on the superstitious you are a skeptic a man of your time. When Pilate heard "the Jews" (anti semetic John) accuse Jesus of calling himself the Son of God, he was even more afraid. "In effect" there's that phrase again, I think Pilates' fear was superstious also, perhaps he thought maybe there really is something divine in this man....JMJ....

>28 brone: I don'o seem able to grasp that there is no contradiction

I'm genuinely trying to understand why you see a contradiction between the anti-war and pro-life movements. A "consistent ethic of life", as Berrigan calls it, values all human life, whether that be the unborn or the born. Help me out here?

Pope to South Sudanese leaders: ‘See God in your enemies’ (Vatican News)

In a joint message celebrating the Easter season, Pope Francis, Archbishop Justin Welby, and Reverend Jim Wallace invite South Sudan’s leaders to work for reconciliation and a future of peace and fraternity... “In this Easter season, we write to share with you our joy as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who shows us that a new way is possible”...

I share this article in this group because I think that headline, "See God in your enemies", sums up the spirit of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly. To anyone who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek as well; to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from someone who takes it. Treat others as you would like people to treat you" (Luke 6:27-31). It's probably one of Jesus' most difficult teachings, and certainly one that many Catholics and other Christians have ignored. It's counter-cultural, it goes against the norms of most societies, it's not what our peers and our "neighbourhood" do, it goes against our ego and (for males) our sense of machismo, it challenges us not to succumb to our knee-jerk reaction to retaliate or defend ourselves with violence. And yet if I truly see God in other people, they are all my sisters and brothers, so how can I offer them violence, even if they assault me or steal my property? How would I like them to treat me? Well, that's how I should try to treat them. Of course I often fail, weak and sinful as I am - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - but this is the teaching of Jesus and this is what I aspire to follow. The resurrection of Jesus the Christ does indeed show us "that a new way is possible”.

I'm not sure where I read this.

It's not that Christ's teachings were tried and found wanting. They were found hard, and not tried.

Peace message: Gareth Bale joins children of Wales for centenary year (BBC)

At dawn on 28 June 1922, a signal on behalf of the children of Wales was sent from an Oxfordshire radio station. It was the first peace and goodwill message, and was heard and repeated at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A similar message has been shared every year since, reaching 84 million people in 2021, and this unique gesture has now chalked up its centenary...

Meanwhile according to Genocide watch, " Nigeria is a killing field of defenseless Christians". According to that report 350 Nigerians murdered in the first two months of 2020; 11,500 have been murdered since 2015 between four and five million have been displaced; 20,000 churches have been destroyed, Christians are fleeing to safer places where they can sleep with both eyes closed. Rape, pillage, murder, peace messages to the Eiffel tower that might work....JMJ...

>33 brone:

Thanks for your affirmation. Yes, peace messages are part of the process which might work, along with all the other aspects of nonviolence. Various military options have been tried, and so far have failed miserably and simply caused more suffering and death.

Fr Richard Rohr's daily meditation today quotes Brian McLaren

Christianity’s Violence Problem

CAC teacher Brian McLaren has long asked questions out loud that many have often asked only to themselves. In his new book Do I Stay Christian?, Brian outlines compelling reasons both to leave and stay within Christianity. Today we share his critique of Christianity’s complicity with violence. Such truth-telling can be difficult to read. We invite you to practice the contemplative stance of “holding the tension of opposites”:

Echoing its founder’s nonviolence, the Christian faith initially grew as a nonviolent spiritual movement of counter-imperial values. It promoted love, not war. Its primal creed elevated solidarity, not oppression and exclusion {see Galatians 3:26–28}. . . . The early Christians elevated the equality of friendship rather than the supremacy of hierarchy (John 15:15; 3 John 14, 15).

This commitment to nonviolence rapidly eroded in the early fourth century when the emperor Constantine declared Christianity the religion of the empire. This led to an acceptance of violence and domination against the empire’s enemies, but also perceived “enemies” from within:

What the empire wanted to do, the church generally blessed. . . . This cozy relationship with empire continued long after the Roman Empire had fully collapsed. The church supported the empire’s many reincarnations in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Russian, German, and American imperial ventures. Each empire could count on the mainstream Christian church to bless its successes, pardon its failures, and pacify and unify its masses.

A community with a history of violence to Jews . . . does not sound like a safe place for non-Christians. But as a chaplain to empire, Christianity was not a particularly safe place for Christians either—at least not those who chose to differ from the authorities of the church or state. Choosing to differ, in fact, was the root meaning of the word heresy. . . .

Historians generally agree: while the records are unreliable and incomplete, at least tens of thousands of suspected nonconformists were prosecuted by church courts between 1180 and 1450; many thousands were tortured; over a thousand were executed by church authorities. . . . In a seventy-year period starting in 1560, 80,000 women were tried as witches and 40,000 were killed. . . .

Today, abuse of Christians by Christians tends to be more emotional and spiritual than physical. But shunning and disowning (forms of relational banishment), public shaming and character assassination, private humiliations, church trials of nonconformists, blacklisting, and other forms of Christian-on-Christian cruelty continue, and more and more traumatized people are coming forward with their stories. . . .

To state the obvious: Jesus never tortured or killed or ruined the life of anyone, but the same cannot be said for the religion that claims to follow him.

Knowing what I now know, if I were not already a Christian, I would hesitate in becoming one, at least until the religion in all its major forms offers a fearless, searching, public moral accounting for its past crimes . . . first, against Jews, and also against its own nonconformist members.

Brian D. McLaren, Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned (New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2022), 22–23, 24, 25, 28.

I got a meditation for Mr Rohr today, or Mr Mclaren on their tearful hand wringing about American imperialism, non conformists, witches, thanks Mac for asking these questions I had hidden in my catholic heart. Especially lumping Americans into the mix when this stuff was going on American Catholics were persecuted and treated as second class citizens. If it were not for Americans Europe would have been a facist/communist continent. So lets talk about The most violent crime of the past 50 years, I dare say you or Rohr ever mention the 60,000,000 million babies killed in the womb since 1973 in America only. What do we say about this violence, stem cell research, profits of clinics, complacency of pro choice "catholics" , If we are Rohr we preach abstract mumbo jumbo from some buddhist mountain and gather all his followers mostly young men and dance and frolic around his camp fire in the high desert. Worrying about burning Joan of Arc at the stake, I think not.And Mac is he really worring about the butchery of Tyburn Nah I doubt it,....JMJ....

>36 brone:

Violence is violence, whether it be committed against a foetus, or against babies and children after they have been born, or against women and minorities, or whether it is a war, or caused by guns, or by capital punishment, or by security forces, or any of the other forms of violence. The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative opposes all these forms of violence, as increasingly does the Church as a whole in a trajectory which has gained pace during the last six papacies. I note that you appear to support violence and the taking of human life in some of these cases while vehemently opposing it in others. This is in contrast, say, to people like Daniel Berrigan and Cardinal Bernadin who propose a "consistent ethic of life" - all human life is sacred, not just some.

14 children murdered in Texas " you tell me I "appear" to support violence, first time i've ever been accused of that. I believe in self defense with deadly force if neccessary. I wish to God that this murderer could have been stopped by any force necessary....JMJ....

>38 brone:

Another tragedy connected with the availability of deadly weapons in the USA, probably with mental health issues, and it's yet to be seen whether it is connected with right wing or other ideologies and conspiracy theories like so many of these mass shootings, including the recent one in Buffalo. I wish to God that the conditions to stop this murderer before the act had been in place.

you tell me I "appear" to support violence

My apologies if that is not the case. I understand that you support the death penalty and gun ownership, that you oppose anti-war campaigners, and as you say yourself, you support the use of violence in self-defence. Thus it seems to be a factual and non-judgemental statement that you "support violence" in some circumstances.

first time i've ever been accused of that

I'm not surprised it's the first time. We live in societies which are so desensitised to violence that often it is not recognised as such, it is just considered "normal". Part of the solution to any problem is to move beyond denial, to name the problem, and to recognise that it should not be "normal". The radical message of the Gospel is counter-cultural.

Please note I am not judging the law enforcement officers who shot the murderer. They were doing their duty as expected by society, doing what they believed to be right, and were very courageous - I believe a couple of them were injured in the encounter. But how much better it would have been if society had not created conditions whereby this disturbed young man was able to do what he did.

I don't support any kind of violence but I do have the right to defend myself against violence with"proportionate" force. Archbishop Gallagher: On a recent state visit to Ukraine is quoted as saying Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and he also stated That the Pope recognizes the value of any system of security for their defense as long as it is proportionate, the Pope is saying what I'm saying only difference I tell it like it is He tells it ambiguously as usual but he is defending the right of self defense Go Francis... On another subject Bernardin's seamless garment quip coined back in 1984 lots of little moth hoes in that old cloak I'll enlighten you tommow so sharpen your pen....JMJ...

>40 brone:

"Proportional force" is violence. When Peter tried to use "proportional force" to save the life of the innocent Jesus, Jesus told him to put away his sword. When Pope Francis said the world had to find a way of stopping the massacre of Yazidis in Iraq, he insisted not by bombing or fuelling a war. Capital punishment is also violence. When Jesus came across a woman who had been legitimately sentenced to death, he said let whoever is without sin throw the first stone.

Of course we have to resist violence, but we have to do it nonviolently, otherwise we are just propagating a cycle of violence. Many, many people in your country are working very hard to resist violence such as the recent school massacre. They're doing it by trying to limit and regulate the ownership of military grade weapons by civilians, by campaigning for better mental health care services, and by countering the sort of ideologies, culture wars, hate speech, public incitement and conspiracy theories which fuel this sort of violence. Unfortunately they are being obstructed at every turn by right wing interests.

I do like to be "enlightened", but if you're going to "enlighten me tomorrow", I do hope you're going to provide me with some references so I can read things in their original context. That would be very helpful.

Talking to jihadists: How three community leaders took a bold step in Burkina Faso (The New Humanitarian)

Growing calls for non-military approaches to Burkina Faso’s jihadist conflict have led the country’s ruling junta to offer support to local communities engaging in dialogue with militant groups to prevent suffering and save lives... The New Humanitarian conducted rare face-to-face interviews with three influential Burkinabé community leaders who have organised local dialogues and struck pacts with militants over the past two years. Their stories involve acts of individual courage and leadership. But they also underscore the unpalatable trade-offs that communities are forced into as they seek ways out of the conflict... The idea of negotiating with jihadists – usually framed as fanatics and little else – has long been a global taboo issue. Western nations with military footprints in the Sahel have repeatedly told regional governments not to engage in such talks. Yet the failures of military operations and foreign interventions have forced communities to take matters into their own hands. Since mid-2020, dozens of local pacts have been struck with militants across Burkina Faso and neighbouring Mali. The results of the Burkina Faso talks are mixed... “We discovered that the jihadists have some moral values, such as hospitality and consideration”...

This is not specifically about the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, and the identity of the local leaders who initiated dialogue with the militants has been hidden for obvious reasons so we don't know their backgrounds. But it reminds me very much of Ugandan Catholic Archbishop John Baptist Odama who went into the bush nearly twenty years ago, at great risk to his own life from both the militants and the government army, to meet Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA had been classified by the USA as an international "terrorist" group, this one basing its ideology on what we would consider a flawed interpretation of Christianity (Christianism?) rather than Islamist. I'm currently writing the archbishop's biography. I did some peripheral work with him in those days, and I've talked at length not only to him but to others who were involved with him in meeting this "terrorist" group. I see parallels with some of what is written in this article (including the "mixed results").

It's important to challenge the dominant western narrative that you can't engage with militants, that they are "fanatics and little else", that they have no "moral values", that "military operations and foreign interventions" are the best and/or most effective remedy, etc, and it's important that agency is in the hands of the local communities rather than being dominated by national level politicians and international military powers. The archbishop was acting on behalf of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, a grouping of Christian, Muslim and traditional religious leadership of the Acholi community of northern Uganda, who were initially the main victims of the LRA and from whom Kony himself sprang. The archbishop has been a founding participant in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative.

It's worth highlighting "the failures of military operations and foreign interventions". Evidence-based research suggests that nonviolence is successful twice as often as violence (see Erica Chenoweth's book, already referenced in the touchstones of this thread), yet for some incomprehensible reason, a violent response seems to be the knee-jerk first reaction every time there is a crisis.

Bishop Martinelli: Human fraternity a prophetic act for peace (Vatican News)

A few weeks before the start of his assignment as Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paolo Martinelli takes stock of his mission. He looks forward to working in a multi-cultural ecclesial reality and reflects on how the Document on Human Fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi shows the way for living a life of faith in harmony with all...

Working towards a "just peace" which includes human fraternity and harmony is part of the philosophy of nonviolence. It is not merely a tool for defusing conflicts, it is a way of life, a prophetic stance, a spirituality.

Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World (Catholic Peacebuilding Network)

An international virtual conference

Jun 20 - 23

PLENARIES IN ENGLISH WITH SIMULTANEOUS SPANISH AND FRENCH TRANSLATION. BREAKOUTS IN ENGLISH, SPANISH OR FRENCH WITH SELECT TRANSLATIONS.

The world is emerging from an historic health crisis that has exacerbated existing conflicts, poverty, inequalities, polarization, and threats to the environment. While the pandemic led to unprecedented cooperation and heroic responses by many, it also exposed deficits in leadership and emboldened authoritarians, demagogues, and chauvinistic nationalists. Just as the world hopes to move beyond the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens global peace in ways thought unimaginable when the pandemic began. The challenge to Catholic peacebuilders is clear: we must ensure that the post-pandemic return to “normal” does not look like the pre-pandemic status quo, or worse. That will require an integral and integrated approach to peace, development, and ecology because the cry of war’s victims, the cry of the poor, and the cry of the earth rise as one (Laudato Si’, no. 49). This conference will convene a wide range of Catholic peacebuilders – Church leaders, scholars, peacebuilding specialists, and other practitioners – from around the world. It will allow participants to learn from their rich and diverse experiences in confronting challenges to peace around the world and help them discern new and creative ways to respond to the historic challenges to peace that we now face.

Registration at the above link.

New from Pope Francis, Against War: The Courage to Build Peace (Catholic Peacebuilding Network)

Contro la guerra: il coraggio di costruire la pace (Against War: The Courage to Build Peace) is a new book that collects Pope Francis's thoughts and teachings on war and peace. It is currently available in Italian only, but Communion and Liberation offers a translated excerpt of the introduction. On May 2, at Universitá LUMSA in Rome, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin presented the new book and offered his own remarks in which he called for a "new Helsinki Conference" to help end the violence in Ukraine.

Communion and Liberation's English translation of the introduction:

A year ago, on my pilgrimage to tormented Iraq, I was able to touch the disaster cause by war, fratricidal violence and terrorism with my own hands; I saw the rubble of homes and the wounds of hearts, but also seeds of hope for rebirth. Never would I have imagined then that one year later a conflict would break out in Europe. From the beginning of my service as bishop of Rome I have spoken of World War III, saying that we are already living it, though still in pieces. Those pieces have become bigger and bigger, merged together.... So many wars are going on in the world right now, causing immense pain, innocent victims, especially children. These are wars that cause the flight of millions of people, forced to leave their land, their homes, their destroyed cities to save their lives. These are the many forgotten wars that reappear from time to time before our inattentive eyes.

These wars seemed "distant" to us until now when, almost suddenly, war has broken out near us. Ukraine has been attacked and invaded. Unfortunately, many innocent civilians, women, children and the elderly have been affected by the conflict, forced to live in shelters dug into the ground to escape the bombs, with families divided because husbands, fathers, grandfathers have been left behind to fight whilst wives, mothers and grandmothers seek refuge after long journeys of hope and cross the border seeking refuge in other countries that receive them with open hearts.

In front of the heart-breaking images that we see each day, in front of the cry of children and women, we can only scream: "Stop!". War is not the solution, war is madness, war is a monster, war is a cancer that feeds on itself, engulfing everything! What's more, war is a sacrilege that wreaks havoc on what is most precious on our earth, human life, the innocence of the little ones, the beauty of creation.

Yes, war is a sacrilege! I cannot fail to recall Saint John XXIII’s plea in 1962 in which he asked the powerful men and women of his time to stop the escalation of the war that could have dragged the world into the abyss of nuclear conflict. I cannot forget the forcefulness with which Saint Paul VI, speaking in 1965 at the United Nations General Assembly, said: "Never again war! Never again war!". Or, again, the many appeals for peace made by Saint John Paul II, who in 1991 called war "an adventure without return."

What we are witnessing is yet another barbarity and we, unfortunately, have a short memory. Yes, because if we had memory, we would remember what our grandparents and parents told us, and we would feel the need for peace just as our lungs need oxygen. If we had memory, we would not spend tens, hundreds of billions of dollars on rearmament, to equip ourselves with increasingly sophisticated weapons, to increase the market and the traffic of weapons that end up killing children, women, the elderly: 1,981 billion dollars per year, according to calculations by a leading research center in Stockholm. This represents a dramatic increase of 2.6% during the second year of the pandemic, when all our efforts should have been focused on global health and on saving lives from the virus.

If we had memory, we would know that war, before it reaches the front lines, must be stopped in our hearts.

Decolonizing “Peace”: Notes Towards a Palestinian Feminist Critique (University of Notre Dame)

Recent scholarship underscores how race, gender, and sexuality are mobilized to sustain violence in peace and peacemaking processes. Hegemonic notions of peace are often male dominated domains that marginalize or exclude women completely, naturalize racialized and gendered state violence, and silence ongoing forms of patriarchal violence embedded in everyday life, which are empowered by the durability of colonial formations. Palestinian women, like women in other colonial and conflict contexts, have been marginalized from masculine domains of the political. This includes what is widely understood as the “Middle East Peace Process” (MEPP), which transformed an anti-colonial movement for liberation into a statebuilding project that ultimately served to pacify and control Palestinians rather than edify the path towards freedom and sovereignty. Indeed, the framework of “peace” became a tool of further entrenching Israeli settler colonial violence and power, enabling the consolidation of a (predominantly male) Palestinian ruling class committed to “maintaining the status quo.”

The critiques of peace processes notwithstanding, the hegemonic language of liberal peace is itself vested in the violence of the colonial order and the modern/colonial project of the nation-state. In Palestine, the peace process is inseparable from the foundational violence that created the conditions for its emergence: the genocidal removal of Palestinians and the creation of the Jewish state. This is a project that is, as yet, ongoing. The discourse of peace thus creates an unintended opening into a radical critique of the very project of security and statebuilding (and Humanity, no less) it intends to uphold.

Thus, a decolonial feminist analysis of peace is not concerned with the inclusion of women into liberal peace and statebuilding agendas, or the adoption of international resolutions to deter “violence against women,” the language of which too often serves as a disciplined performance of a civilizing subject. The biggest weapon wielded against the collective defiance of the oppressed and exploited is, according to Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, the “cultural bomb.” It makes the colonized want to identify with “all those forces which would stop their own springs of life,” including, centrally, the language and narrative of the oppressor.

The language of liberal peace is the language of the oppressor, which reproduces the dominant cultural order. It has helped to stifle a liberatory imagination, all the while distracting from the deeper entrenchment of the settler colonial project, blaming the victim for failed negotiations and violence inflicted on them through “narrative manipulation.” The liberal concept of peace thus cannot be disentangled from its foundations in the violence of the coloniality of power...

i saw some statistics on gun inflicted deaths in the us. School shootings are just a tiny part. Making guns less available would save a lot of lives.

Thank God for the guns and men who fought against Facist Germany, Imperialistic Japan and against Communism in China, Korea,Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Poland, east Germany, Romania,Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, To you my comrades in arms I pay tribute to you on this leftist catholic site it is because of you who defended our right to bear arms, freedom of speach, the right of association, the right of assembly, and the right of redress. that they can say the things they say. To my brothers who died in battle and who in my mind are forever 19, Millions will gather this Memorial Day to honor you sacrifice, May the Eternal Light shine upon you and may you rest in peace forever....JMJ...

I'd forgotten that in the USA you have Memorial Day at this time of year. In most of the western world it is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, recalling the Armistice Day on which the "Great War" officially ended. May all who died in all these senseless wars rest in peace, and may we honour their memory by ensuring that war becomes a thing of the past.

Thank God for all the people who resisted nonviolently, some of whom have now been declared saints. I think of the likes of Maximilian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Martin Niemoller, Thic Nhat Hanh; of the anti-war protesters such as Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, Jane Fonda, Mia Farrow, Bruce Kent, and many courageous Russians today; of the conscientious objectors who often suffered or died for their deeply held convictions; of those such as Gandhi who served as stretcher bearers and other nonviolent roles amidst all the violence; of the ordinary folk in Denmark and many other countries during World War II who resisted their Nazi occupiers nonviolently, sheltering Jews and refusing to collaborate with their occupiers (just as many Ukrainians are today resisting through nonviolent non-cooperation); of the young men and women in modern Europe who choose community service as an alternative to military conscription; of Neville Chamberlain, who tried to go that extra mile for peace but who ultimately failed and is now ridiculed for his heroic efforts; of all the people who have resisted violence and oppression through nonviolent means, such as Desmond Tutu, Beyers Naudé, Martin Luther King, Gandhi again, Oscar Romero, Mahmud Muhammad Taha, the Sudanese civilians led by women and youth who toppled a thirty year Islamist military dictatorship by nonviolent popular uprising in 2019; and of course Jesus the Christ... the list goes on and on.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to meet veterans from both sides of the Northern Ireland conflict, former fighters from both the Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Unionist sides. What struck me (and them) was that they all had the same narrative, "I took up arms as a teenager because I had been led to believe that I had to defend my community against the other community which sought to destroy us", and they both now shared the same conviction, "I don't want my children and grandchildren to be put into that same position where they feel forced to make the same choice". Powerful sentiments.

Edited to add: I've just seen the following news story, which I think is relevant:

115 Russian national guard soldiers sacked for refusing to fight in Ukraine (Guardian)

More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show, in what looks to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of security forces over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine...

‘Our friends didn’t die in vain’: Sudan’s activists aim to topple military regime (Guardian)

Three years after protests toppled Omar al-Bashir, activists hope to bring down another government with little more than phones, placards and motorbikes...

An example of nonviolent resistance in action. It's a long process, with setbacks such as the new military coup which occurred two years after they toppled one military dictatorship, but the movement still garners huge popular support and remains organised, disciplined, committed and nonviolent. After the 2019 intifada (popular uprising) which ousted Bashir, one of our retired Sudanese Catholic bishops said, “I am proud of my Sudanese people, particularly the women and youth who led the uprising. Not a shop was looted, not a car burnt, no violence was offered even when they were provoked by security forces who killed, tortured and raped them. This is truly an example to the world”.

Berrigan, kerry, mia farrow, we tolerated, Jane Fonda (Hanoi Jane) was a traitor who is photographed sitting in an anti aircraft gun with a communist helmut (complete with red star) smiling, while hundreds of POW's languished some for 8 years in the "Hanoi Hilton" down the street....AMDG.....

Religious Just Peace Delegation to Kyiv, May 25th (Franciscan Action Network)

A high-level delegation of religious leaders held a prayer service to contribute to ending aggression against Ukraine, the bombing of Ukrainian cities, and to pray for a just peace. The leaders arrived in Kyiv on Monday night after a 14-hour bus ride from Warsaw to Kyiv, Ukraine... In March, Mayor Vitali Klitschko of Kyiv, Ukraine’s besieged capital, issued a call to the religious leaders to come to Kyiv: “I make an appeal to the world’s spiritual leaders to take a stand and assume the moral function that is incumbent upon them, and to proudly assume the responsibility of their religions for peace,” said Klitschko... “Come to Kyiv to show their solidarity with the Ukrainian people. To show their compassion, and to join together in a spirit of harmony that my country and the whole world needs. Let us make Kyiv the capital of humanity, spirituality, and peace”... religious leaders from around the world have answered Klitschko’s plea. Seventeen religious leaders and people of faith from the major world are in Kyiv to engage in prayer, pastoral accompaniment, and distribution of humanitarian aid, as well as key encounters with peacebuilders, religious leaders, and political leaders...

The delegation included a number of Catholics, as well as Muslims, Jews and other Christians, and included people who are active in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative.

Ukraine will be eaten up piecemeal by the Russian bear because of the softness and decadence of the west.....AMDG....

>53 brone:

It's certainly true that like all wars, the war in Ukraine did not come out of nowhere, but is the culmination of political, economic, social and other dynamics which built up over decades. You're right about the decadence of the west - free market western capitalism, intent on making profit rather than building peace and stability, has been one of the bulwarks of Putin's regime.

No Market Marxism is more like it.

>55 brone:

Are you seriously suggesting that the world economic system dominated by US capitalism is marxist? Or that the London financiers who have been bankrolling Putin's regime are marxists? Sometimes you should really take a step back and think through the one-liners that you post.

I think this is an appropriate place to put this link:

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/02/01/when-your-god-is-a-gun/?fbclid=IwAR2BmxYO7t...

50 dead in Nigeria murdered at Mass by an islamic Terrorist. dozens kidnapped (woman). One Girl murdered a couple of weeks ago by stoning, brutal beating and a popular form of execution in Africa tire around neck set on fire, at least a gun wasn't used. Stalin said it best one murder is a tragedy a million a statistic....JMJ....

>57 MsMixte: Thank you!

>58 brone:

Yes, there is a great deal of violence in Nigeria at the moment. Almost every day I read of attempts being made by Nigerians, including Christian and Muslim leaders, to reduce the violence using nonviolent means, as well as attempts by the Nigerian army to stop it by using violent interventions. Neither seems to be working, although in nearby Burkina Faso there are signs that some local dialogue initiatives might be bearing fruit.

Stalin may be correct in terms of the international mass media, which seems to lose interest in such stories very quickly, but on the ground let me assure you that every death is a tragedy, mourned by families, friends, religious leaders and others.

77 years ago today American GIs stormed the beaches of Normandy suffering 10,000 dead this was the beginning of the end for the evil Nazi pagan ideoloy. We thank the people of Normandy for passing down the tradition of sacrifice these brave kids made and with honor maintaining our cemetaries....JMJ....

Today I watched a DVD of a performance of The Day they kidnapped the Pope A lovely message of peace.

>60 brone:

Not forgetting that it was actually a multinational force made up of US and British Empire forces (including particularly Canadians, 5,000 of whom were killed during the Normandy campaign) who stormed the beaches on D-Day, and that there is an institution called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which is responsible for maintaining British Commonwealth war cemeteries throughout the world. RIP. May we never again have to sacrifice our youth on the altar of violence.

The Catholic Socialist leader of Nicaragua,Daniel Ortega is allowing Russian forces to be deployed.

>63 brone:

Can you cite a link to that story, please, so that we can try to understand exactly what Nicaragua is "allowing"?

It's important to understand how and why the non-aligned nations, the Global South, call it what one wills, views the Russia-Ukraine conflict differently from the west. I think it's fair to say that almost the whole world condemns the invasion of one nation by another and recognises that Russia has acted illegally. However the moral outrage which the invasion has sparked in the west is not so apparent elsewhere. The rest of the world is used to seeing the US and its allies invading other countries (Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, to name but a few) and supporting aggressor nations (Saudi Arabia, Israel, various right wing dictatorships in Latin America, etc). It has also, within living memory, experienced colonialism, which was little more than western nations invading, occupying and exploiting the peoples of other continents by force of arms, and often committing genocide. None of the above provoked any self-righteous outcry from the west, and there were no consequences such as sanctions, travel bans, confiscation of the aggressors' assets, etc. As far as many people in the world are concerned, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is just another example of a big power flouting all the rules, which is what big powers are perceived to do on a regular basis. There is also some disquiet that the invasion and occupation of a white European "Christian" country provokes such an outcry, while so many other invasions (not least the illegal Israeli occupation of parts of Palestine) pass almost unnoticed.

Perhaps worth reading Endless Slaughter (Commonweal)

The hands of every American taxpayer are now dripping with blood, and there seems no likely end to the flow of our weapons to Ukraine. A remarkable feature of our aid to Ukraine is that, since the conflict began, we have devoted more than twice as much money to the provision of weapons as we have to the provision of humanitarian support. That is a graphic illustration of our priorities. This situation is also commonplace. The United States, against its own better nature, is the principal purveyor of violent death to the world. We sell and provide weapons almost everywhere, to almost everyone, in much greater quantities than any other nation; and, since the end of the Soviet Empire, we have invaded, laid waste to, and otherwise damaged more sovereign states than the Russian Federation, and with a complete disregard for international law and national sovereignty... We have no ground, then, for arguing against the Russian invasion of Ukraine from a position of injured innocence or moral superiority...

I would say that the non-aligned nations have a much better understanding of this dynamic than people in the USA or the west generally.

The hands dripping with blood are coping to feed and house 18,000 people a day coming from all over the world to escape the endless slaughter caused by these blood thirsty yanks....JMJ....

There is an element of truth to the "seamless garment" idea, however it can also be used in a way that causes people to ignore certain distinctions that also need to be made....AMDG....

>65 brone:

Which doesn't alter the point made in that article that the amount of humanitarian support provided by the USA is dwarfed by the amount it spends on fuelling conflicts all over the world by providing weapons. It is not an attack by foreigners on the "yanks" but a bit of thoughtful and no doubt painful self-reflection in a US Catholic magazine.

Can you provide a link to that Nicaraguan news, please?

Pope Francis, Ukraine and effective nonviolent resistance (NCR)

So much energy is being expended to urge Pope Francis to justify violent resistance. The latest episode of this is the war in Ukraine. Journalists, scholars, politicians and some religious continue to press the pope to join the chorus of people perpetuating the violent dynamic. My sense is that the pope is trying to shift our gaze. It is a shift that he senses Jesus models. A shift toward pastoral accompaniment and a focus on how we might break the violent dynamic. It is not about condemning or judging people in very difficult situations, like some Ukrainians who choose to take up arms in violent defense of their country. It affirms and admires their willingness to take a high-risk stand against injustice rather than to be passive. At that same time, it is also not about justifying methods of war and enabling the violent dynamic to perpetuate and spread... Such accompaniment is being done in a variety of creative, courageous, nonviolent ways by Francis as well as by Ukrainians and others. It also includes humanitarian resource provision, identifying credible messengers and persistent needs-based diplomacy, coalition building, consistent public statements, impacting Russian leaders' sources of power, prayer and shared physical risk... For Francis, accompaniment is about not perpetuating the violent dynamic... "Wars are always unjust, since it is the people of God who pay. Our hearts cannot but weep before the children and women killed, along with all the victims of war. War is never the way." At the same time, the pope is not calling us to passivity or surrender in the face of aggression... "The real answer is not more weapons, more sanctions, or more political-military alliances," but rather a different approach, "a different way of governing the world"... Francis invites our focus to center on accompaniment and breaking, interrupting the logic or dynamic of violence, rather than justifications for war. This is what will more likely prevent and limit war, as well as help us to prioritize abolishing war rather than regularly trying, futilely, to 'humanize' war...

An excellent article by a US Catholic theologian who recently visited Ukraine as part of an inter-faith solidarity delegation. It's well worth reading the whole article, not just the snippets I have highlighted. The role of the Church, while speaking out prophetically against injustice, is to provide pastoral accompaniment to those in violent conflict, not to justify and encourage violence.

Pope Francis says Ukraine war was ‘perhaps somehow provoked’ (Guardian)

Pontiff condemns ‘cruelty’ of Russian troops while warning against perception of conflict as good v evil... the pontiff condemned the “ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops” while warning against what he said was a fairytale perception of the conflict as good versus evil. “We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one,” he said. “Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined”... Francis added that a couple of months before the war he met a head of state, who he did not identify but described as “a wise man who speaks little, a very wise man indeed… He told me that he was very worried about how Nato was moving. I asked him why, and he replied: ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia. They don’t understand that the Russians are imperial and can’t have any foreign power getting close to them.’” He added: “We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was, perhaps, somehow either provoked or not prevented”...

Ukraine war 'perhaps in some way either provoked or not prevented,' says Pope Francis (CNN)

"What we are seeing is the brutality and ferocity with which this war is waged by the troops, generally mercenary, used by the Russians," the pontiff reportedly said... "But the danger is that we only see this, which is monstrous, and we do not see the whole drama that is unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps in some way either provoked or not prevented. And I register an interest in testing and selling weapons. It is very sad, but basically this is what is at stake," he said. The Pope said he is not "in favor" of Russian President Vladimir Putin but "simply against reducing complexity to the distinction between good and bad, without thinking about roots and interests, which are very complex." "While we see the ferocity, the cruelty of the Russian troops, we must not forget the problems to try to solve them," he added... the Pope said the invasion of Ukraine "has now been added to the regional wars that for years have taken a heavy toll of death and destruction." "Yet here the situation is even more complex due to the direct intervention of a 'superpower' aimed at imposing its own will in violation of the principle of the self-determination of peoples"...

The full text of the Holy Father's remarks can be found in Pope: ‘War cannot be reduced to distinction between good guys and bad guys’ (Vatican News)

The Catholic bishops support gun control. Why don’t we hear more about it? (Religion News Service)

Hardly anyone in the country knows about the strong and comprehensive position on gun control taken by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

In response to recent mass shootings, Pope Francis and the U.S. Catholic bishops have called for gun control measures that would save lives. This undoubtedly surprises some people who think that abortion is the only public policy concern of the church’s hierarchy. Sadly, the media and the bishops themselves give too little attention to the larger “life” agenda. While praying for the children killed and their families in Uvalde, the pope did not hesitate to say, “It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms.” Francis has frequently denounced gun trafficking, including in his 2015 address to a joint session of Congress. “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?” he asked U.S. lawmakers. “Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”

After the Uvalde shooting, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago did not mince words. “Who are we as a nation,” he asked, “if we do not act to protect our children? What do we love more: our instruments of death or our future?” “The Second Amendment, unlike the second commandment, did not come down from Sinai,” Cupich told NPR. “There is an understanding that we all have in our hearts, engraved in our hearts, a natural law about the value of human life. And there is no amendment that can trump that.” Cupich was not alone in speaking out. On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the chairs of four conference committees issued a statement urging all members of Congress to action in response to the killings. These were not liberal bishops, but four of the most conservative prelates in the United States: Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington...

Pope Francis: A world free of nuclear weapons is necessary and possible (Vatican News)

In a message read at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Pope Francis renews his call for an end to war and to the causes of conflict, and reaffirms that the use, and even possession, of nuclear weapons is immoral...

“Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World”

The videos of sessions from the Catholic Peacebuilding Network conference, “Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World,” are available on YouTube, including the two sessions explicitly on nonviolence with the participation of Catholic Nonviolence Initative colleagues – the plenary “Ethics of Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, and War: Future Challenges,” featuring Pat Gaffney, and the breakout session, “Nonviolence: An Essential Basis for Peacebuilding,” featuring Rose Berger, Loreta Castro, and Dam Moriarty.

The Magisterium of the Church has not made any pronouncements regarding ordinary people possessing firearms for defensive purposes, though the general ethos by Rome and US Bishops favors restrictions, therefore this is in the area in which we can in Joseph words say, " there maybe a legitimate diversity among Catholics".... Luke 22: 36, ccc2264-2265....JMJ....

>72 brone:

Indeed it has not yet crystallised into an ex cathedra teaching, because the Church is conservative (in the non-political sense of the word) and moves slowly, but there is a clear trajectory in the teachings of all popes at least since St John XXIII, and what is very striking is that your US bishops, including those whom you often quote approvingly, are firmly against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. This is the ordinary magisterium of the Church, and Catholics who wish to ignore it should have good theological reasons, as Church policy is not made according to political ideologies.

In an earlier incarnation of this Catholic Tradition group, there was a tendency by some posters who labelled themselves "faithful" or "loyal" or "traditionalist" Catholics (as if the rest of us aren't!) to label those with whom they disagreed "cafeteria Catholics", implying that we pick and choose which bits of Catholic teaching we follow, as one might pick and choose from a buffet in a cafe. It seems that nowadays it is a different group of Catholics who pick and choose, ignoring the teaching of the popes and their own bishops. An example would be the consistent ethic of life - the Church values the life and dignity of every human being and opposes death-dealing policies, but there is a noticeable group of Catholics who like to pick and choose which human lives to value. Or the liturgy. The Church has laid down the approved liturgy, as it always has done, and the vast majority of Catholics happily follow it, as they always have done, but a small but vocal group of Catholics wants to ignore that and pick and choose a different liturgy.

Considering Political Engagement with Al-Shabaab in Somalia (International Crisis Group)

What’s new? Al-Shabaab’s lethal insurgency continues with no end in sight. The group consistently stays a step ahead of local and regional military operations. Combined with dysfunction and division among their adversaries, the militants’ agility has allowed them to embed themselves in Somali society. It also makes them hard to defeat.

Why does it matter? The protracted war has cost countless lives and derailed Somalia’s state building project. There is growing domestic and international consensus that Al-Shabaab cannot be beaten by military means alone. Yet there is little appetite among Somali elites or the country’s international partners for exploring alternatives, notably talks with militant leaders.

What should be done? Putting off efforts to engage militants in the hope of gaining the upper hand militarily or forging greater unity among elites will prolong the conflict indefinitely. The government should seek discreet channels to Al-Shabaab leaders to test whether political negotiations and confidence-building steps might be feasible...

I post this as an example of how local communities and religious leaders are reaching out to groups such as Al Shabaab. The contradiction in the attitude of the international community is apparent in two little sentences, "There is growing domestic and international consensus that Al-Shabaab cannot be beaten by military means alone. Yet there is little appetite among Somali elites or the country’s international partners for exploring alternatives, notably talks with militant leaders." In other words, military options have been tried and have failed, yet they are still not willing to think outside the box and try nonviolent means. Fortunately the people on the ground, those who are actually suffering, have a more enlightened attitude.

I can pick and choose a number of different liturgies if I want Maronite ect.

Can we stop the violence against immigrants and their legacy's, A truck containing 50 dead bodies is discovered in Texas its doors locked and the people inside suffocated, in the 103 heat. 219,000 people funneled into Texas in May is a disastrous policy supported with over 500,000 thousand dollars from Peter's Pence to Catholic NGO's on the Border. Meanwhile on Irish mountain W Virginia St Colmans Roman Catholic Church a Historical landmark dedicated to legal Irish Immigrants is burned to the ground, the attacks by anti catholic bigots continue over 270 attacks since January, hierarchical silence on the left is deafening....AMDG....

>76 brone: hierarchical silence on the left is deafening

That's a very strange comment. Are you suggesting that the entire Catholic hierarchy is "on the left"? The Church is not a political party and is neither left nor right, it is the People of God, as the Holy Father said relatively recently and which I posted on this group although I can't remember exactly where.

>75 brone:

Yes, there are particular rites which remained in use because they belong to a particular geographic or cultural community, such as Maronite or Ambrosian. The Tridentine Rite was the universal rite, not the rite of a particular community, and hence when it was replaced by a new universal rite, it was expected that the Church would use the universal rite. But we're off topic; there's a thread dedicated to Traditionis custodes.

>73 John5918:

Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.

Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 25.

In this instance we are aware of the "mind and will" of six successive Roman Pontiffs, along with the vast majority of the bishops of the world, including those in the USA who are usually associated with the political right wing. It seems to me that the "manifest mind and will" of "Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff" is pretty clear here and should be "sincerely adhered to".

Ukraine: Separating Just Defence from Dangerous False Narratives (Political Theology)

It should be uncontroversial that the Ukrainians have a right to defend their people and their land. However, some have argued that Pope Francis is spearheading a rejection of the just war tradition, replacing it with a thoroughgoing pacifism that would in principle deny this right to the Ukrainian defenders. As an analysis of the Pope’s position, I think this is mistaken... The change in tone during Francis’s papacy seems to me more an issue of pastoral style than of substance...

most of em

"I believe it is time to rethink the concept of a just war": Pope Francis (ACI Africa)

“I believe it is time to rethink the concept of a ‘just war.’ A war may be just, there is the right to defend oneself. But we need to rethink the way that the concept is used nowadays,” Pope Francis said. “I have said that the use and possession of nuclear weapons are immoral. Resolving conflicts through war is saying no to verbal reasoning, to being constructive. … War is essentially a lack of dialogue”... the pope said that there is “an entire infrastructure of arms sales” that supports war today... Pope Francis described how he cried during visits to war cemeteries in Europe... The pope also said that the situation in Europe today shows that the United Nations “has no power” to stop a war. “After World War II, trust was placed in the United Nations. It is not my intention to offend anybody, I know there are very good people working there, but at this point, the UN has no power to assert,” he said...

The UN is an organisation of member states. It can only do what the member states want it to do, and give it resources to do it with. Generally the member states prefer that the UN doesn't do anything that would limit their own actions unless they want other states' actions limited even more.

>83 MarthaJeanne:

Precisely. I think what needs to be done is to modify or remove the veto power of China, France, Russia, UK and USA. Of course they would veto any attempt to do so, so I'm not sure what constitutional process could be used to achieve that aim. Compromises might include having a veto power which can then be overruled by a super-majority of either the Security Council or the General Assembly or both. Expanding the size of the Security Council might help.

>84 John5918: The veto power only involves the Security Council. The Security Council and the General Assembly are very political, with the problems in national political entities compounded by the interplay of different languages, cultures and political systems.

The rest of the UN does a lot to improve the world. And yes, UN employees are human beings and get a lot of things wrong. But in general, most of the people working there have high intentions, and often are at the frontline in crisis situations. WHO, FAO, Unicef, IAEA are among those whose work is often visible.

>85 MarthaJeanne:

Yes, definitely. I've worked a lot alongside UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP and the peacekeeping operation UNMISS. As you say, they are professional operations, largely unaffected by the politics, although in my experience they are hindered by bureaucracy, risk aversion and careerism, like many large organisations. But it's the political side of the UN that needs major reform if it is to be effective in advancing peace and stability in the world.

Fr Vitrus Borogo of Kaduna, Fr Christopher Odia , pray for us the latest martyred priests from Afica to die at the hands of Muslim radicals, In June the Islamic state terror group released a video showing the execution of 20 christians some as young as 5 in Borno Nigeria in a revenge killing for the killing of their leader by US Special forces in Syria. These murders add to the number of 4,650 christians killed from oct 21 2020 and the 2500 hundred Christians taken as slaves. The Vatican press release mentions the two priests murdered by unknown gunmen. Talk about the marginalized and people oppressed where is the outrage these people being murdered enslaved are the Igbo people long part of Chritian culture. Rome is silent as it is silent about the minority populations of China both Muslim and Catholic because of fear off offending Jihadists and Communists....JMJ....

>87 brone:

Yes, it's a very concerning situation. I'm seeing it mentioned almost daily in the African media, with statements from Nigerian Christian leaders and the Vatican, but I suppose it gets much less coverage in western news media.

Efforts to end this type of violence by military means (ie by using more violence) have failed dismally over many years, with large scale campaigns by the Nigerian army and police, and in the broader region by ECOWAS and the French military. In some of Nigeria's neighbours small scale dialogue at a local level, led by religious and traditional leaders, is having some success. Greater attention also needs to be paid to the motives of these disturbed young men - they often get radicalised as a result of poverty and lack of opportunities.

"Unknown gunmen" is a common euphemism, which is also widely used in South Sudan and elsewhere. In situations where there are many armed groups and splinter groups, often all wearing the same type of uniform and using the same weaponry, one might have a good idea who has committed a particular atrocity but it can be very difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt. Even if a group claims responsibility, that doesn't make it true, and there have been many cases where an atrocity is carried out by one group with the deliberate intention of blaming it on a rival group. There are occasions when it is simply bandits, or disgruntled government soldiers intent on rape and looting, again in both these cases trying to blame it on militants. Hence it's generally safer to speak of "unknown gunmen".

Canada now leads the way in a new Eco-friendly socialist service called yes its true "MAID SERVICE" or medical assistance in dying, catchie little term. the socialst system combined with medical authorities. even market franchises popping up to provide Eco friendly body disposal a sort of package deal. AS usual Mother Church is very quiet about these murders,resisting progress on this front. No matter how much she agrees with these socialists She cannot approve of murder, no matter how favorable or indifferent the public becomes, Catholic Churches to the south of Canada are being ransacked and firebombed its leading catholic judges are being threatened and intimidated for speaking out against these atrocities, while her "devout Catholic" politicians and most of her bishops stay silent. Catholic people however continue to cultivate the backward idea that human beings are significant, including the real marginalized, the ones out of view. Our Church we know down deep is a stickler for rules that are impossibly slow to change, that is why we stay Catholic even toward people we dislike....JMJ....

>89 brone:

Sounds intriguing, but not being Canadian, I have no real idea what it's all about. Would you care to post a link or two so we can all join you in a conversation about it?

"that is why we stay Catholic even toward people we dislike..."

What an absolutely unchristian thing to say. I cannot believe that someone who calls himself a Christian would ever say such a thing.

You are so angry and bitter that you forget what Jesus said:

1 John 4:20-21

The socialist President of Ireland has caused a bit of a stir after claiming 'climate change' had caused animistic Muslim terrorists to slaughter 50 Catholics in a Church founded by Irish Missionary's in Nigeria on Pentecost Sunday. His shocking and stupid comments disappeared out of the cycle of world wide news within in a day of making the remarks, Now they are back with an emotional interview with EWTN the Bishop of Ondo spoke defiantly and bravely in an explosive interview Bishop Jude Arogundade when asked about Higgins remarks The Bishop calmly stated climate change did not shoot his people, He blames the non response of the government to crack down on anti Christians, Higgins also ingnored the recent March for Life of thousands in Dublin inspired by the historical overturning of Roe/Wade in the US....AMDG....

>92 brone:

I think we would be doing a service to the people of NIgeria if we were to avoid using irrelevant terms such as "socialist" president and "animistic" Muslims and stick to the actual facts. I also think it would be useful if you could give us a link when you quote someone's words, so that we can see what has actually been said and in what context, but as usual you seem reluctant to do so. I've found this one in the Belfast Telegraph: Michael D Higgins denies linking Nigeria church shooting to climate change:

The Irish President Michael D Higgins has denied that he linked climate change to a church shooting in Nigeria... Mr Higgins’ statement strongly condemned the atrocity and said it was also wrong to “scapegoat pastoral peoples who are among the foremost victims of the consequences of climate change”. He also said that the neglect of food security issues in Africa had “brought us to a point of crisis that is now having internal and regional effects based on struggles, ways of life themselves”... a spokesperson for Mr Higgins denied conflating the attack with climate change. “The President has utterly and unequivocally condemned the attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria and expressed his particular horror that such an attack could happen in a place of worship,” they said. “The President’s comments with regard to climate change related to the plight of pastoral peoples in the region and the President made no link in his statement between climate change and the attack itself"...

Bear in mind that President Higgins comes from a long history of religious conflict which was often described in an over-simplistic manner which ignored many of the contributory factors, so the lens through which he views other religious conflicts is worth considering even if one disagrees with it.

You appear to have strong views on the Nigerian conflict. What do you believe should be done?

Higgins is a socialist who has publicaly supported Fidel Castro, XI Jinping and is a fan of none other than George Soros, meanwhile bishop Jude of Ondo is in the US getting support from the American Catholic community, giving an interview on prime time fox news... " on top of our churches they tell you to take down the Crosses, inside our churches a picture of Xi Jinping must be displayed as well as the red flag, we must also sing the national anthem". Cardinal Zen....AMDG,,,,

Higgins is a socialist who has publicaly supported Fidel Castro, XI Jinping and is a fan of none other than George Soros, meanwhile bishop Jude of Ondo is in the US getting support from the American Catholic community, giving an interview on prime time fox news... " on top of our churches they tell you to take down the Crosses, inside our churches a picture of Xi Jinping must be displayed as well as the red flag, we must also sing the national anthem". Cardinal Zen....AMDG,,,,

>94 brone:

Where to start in responding to this muddled post? Yes, Michael Higgins is from the Labour Party. I don't know what definition of "socialist" you favour, but remember that outside the USA, socialist is a term that people are proud of, not a pejorative. Pope Francis has said, "I thank God that Ireland has such a wise man" as president (Irish Post).

Many people have publicly supported Fidel Castro. He survived a US-supported invasion of his country, and brought literacy and health care to his people. Cuba supported many of the liberation struggles in Africa, while the west was on the wrong side of history supporting the colonial occupiers. Cuba has sent medical volunteers across the globe to assist poorer nations for many decades. At the same time, people have been critical of the more authoritarian side of Castro's rule. Today, for example, there is criticism of the lack of press freedom in Cuba by the Committee to Protect Journalists (see here, post #144). In the world outside of US culture wars things are not one-dimensional - there can be recognition that a person or a regime can have both good and bad sides to it, and that includes those who like to condemn others.

Personally I don't follow George Soros, but note that outside of the US right wing he is a respected thinker who has many "fans", as you put it.

" on top of our churches they tell you to take down the Crosses, inside our churches a picture of Xi Jinping must be displayed as well as the red flag, we must also sing the national anthem"

You don't say where this quote comes from. Is that what BIshop Jude Arogundade has said? I've been reading his statements almost daily and I haven't come across that one yet. I'm rather surprised that Islamist militants should insist on pictures of anybody, let alone a Chinese politician, as Islam generally opposes the use of images. Incidentally your reference to "animistic Muslim terrorists" in >92 brone: is factually wrong, whatever Islamists (as distinct from Muslims) are, they are certainly not animists. Not sure where Cardinal Zen comes into this particular little rant.

Since you follow the Nigerian situation so closely, you'll be aware of an up and coming Catholic presidential candidate who happens to belong to the Labour Party (a "socialist"). You don't say what you think the solution to Nigeria's religious and other conflicts is, but clearly national politics plays a role.

Peter Obi: The Labour Party candidate electrifying young Nigerians (BBC)

A wealthy businessman with a reputation for being frugal, Peter Obi has emerged as a powerful force ahead of Nigeria's presidential election next February, energising voters with messages of prudence and accountability that are amplified by an army of social media users. In a country that seems to always be on the lookout for a messiah to solve its myriad problems, young social media-savvy supporters have elevated Mr Obi to sainthood and are backing his largely unknown Labour Party against two septuagenarian political heavyweights... A devout Catholic from eastern Nigeria...

>96 John5918: Brone just plain isn't making sense in his post. As you point out, why would Bishop Jude Arogundade be talking about pictures of China's leader?

I think Brone searches for inflammatory articles so that he can argue in his mumbling and incoherent rage that Catholics are being persecuted, but never says a word about other religious groups being persecuted.

>97 MsMixte:

Thanks. Yes, I wish brone would cite links to his material so that we can read it for ourselves in context and get a better understanding of it, as the small parts that he quotes are often incomplete and very confusing.

other religious groups being persecuted

I spent many years living under an Islamist military dictatorship in Sudan, and certainly Christians (of all denominations, not only Catholics*) were oppressed. But so were followers of traditional African religion, atheists and, very noticeably, Muslims who followed Islamic traditions which were different to that of the ruling Islamists. People were also oppressed for non-religious reasons - their ethnicity, their race, their geographic origins, their politics, their gender, their sexual orientation, etc. It's important to show solidarity with any and all oppressed groups, but in my experience trying to deal with the root causes of the oppression (in my case a military dictatorship using Islamism as its ideology) is more important than over-simplistically concentrating on any single oppressed group. I'm no expert on Nigeria, but it is clear that it is a complex and multi-faceted dynamic which goes much deeper than just persecution of Catholics.

* That was part of the impetus for the churches in Sudan to develop such strong ecumenical cooperation as early as the 1960s. As one church leader said to me many years ago, it was a question of survival more than theology.

Edited to add: Having just used the words "complex and multi-faceted" in this post, I came across this excellent article which I think puts it far more succinctly: conflict is not ‘black-and-white' and ‘The world is bloody messy’!

‘The world is bloody messy’: Jacinda Ardern urges end to ‘black-and-white’ view of global conflict (Guardian)

Cardinal Parolin recently preached a homily in Juba, South Sudan, which contains a powerful message of nonviolence. I don't know how to post a link to the homily, as I received it only as an e-mail attachment, but I quote a few parts of it below:

So let us listen to Jesus, who in today’s Gospel shows us the way. It is a way that can surprise us. Jesus has no use for half-measures; he does not mince his words. He tells us not to think like everyone else, and not to be content with our usual and even traditional way of doing things, but instead to embrace the newness that he brings. He says: “You have heard that it was said…” (Mt 5:8), and then immediately adds: “But I say to you…” (v. 39). In this radical and sudden change of perspective, we see the revolution of the kingdom of God, which transcends human traditions and brings them to fulfilment. And what does the Lord ask of us? Not to regulate our relationships, on the basis of habit and received traditions, but to open ourselves to a new standard, that of his boundless love.

With respect to our familiar traditions, usages and customs, and in particular our usual ways of acting and reacting in the face of evil, Jesus calls us to take a step forward, to embrace the startling newness of the Gospel message. To love not only those who love us, to break out of our own small group, to refuse to repay evil with evil. To renounce revenge, to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies. To love and forgive always (vv. 38-48). Jesus says to us: you have to learn to think and act in a certain way, because the world has its own criteria, and the flesh drives you to respond to evil in certain ways. But I say to you: be different, take one more step, open yourself to the courage of love.

This, in a word, is the Christian difference. It is the courage of a love that is not imprisoned in the mentality of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth” (v. 38): It does not respond to evil with vengeance; it does not settle conflicts with violence; it does not love only its own, while standing aloof from others. Jesus asks us to be different: to be signs that run counter to the ways of a world torn by hatred and by violence. To love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (cf. v. 44).

At the same time, dear friends, this does not mean becoming passive victims, or being weak, docile and resigned in the face of violence. On the contrary, it means disarming evil, defusing violence and resisting oppression. How many times do we instinctively think that, to protect our rights, to defend our interests and the group to which we belong and to obtain justice after being attacked, we have to strike back at those who injured us. Yet the true power that triumphs over evil is not like that; it is different. It is the power of meekness and pardon. It is the strength that comes from knowing how to start over, refusing to respond to evil with evil and thus multiplying its effects. It is the power and strength that, even amid a history of violence and bloodshed, makes us say, as Christians: “I am not that way. I belong to Jesus and I have to be different.”

From the words of Jesus, then, we can draw an important lesson: the evil of the world cannot be vanquished with the weapons of the world. If you want peace, you cannot obtain it with war. If you want justice, you cannot achieve it by unjust and corrupt methods. If you want reconciliation, you cannot harbour revenge. If you want to serve your brothers and sisters, you cannot treat them as slaves. If we want to build a future of peace, then, there is only one road to take: to love one another and to live as brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters, when we leave too much room for resentment and bitterness of heart, when we poison our memories with hatred, when we cultivate anger and intolerance, we destroy ourselves. We continue to be, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, a people that walks in darkness. Instead, we are called to inaugurate a new history of justice and peace, in which we can take one another by the hand as members of one family, supporting one another, building a common future on the basis of dialogue and with the strength of meekness. That is what the Lord tells us to do: beginning with ourselves, with the courage of reconciliation and of fraternal love...

The time has come for the prophecy of Isaiah to be fulfilled... Now is the time to struggle against the shadows of evil and to journey towards the light. Now is the time when God, who always hears the cry of his oppressed people, asks us to be artisans of a new future. Now is the time of responsibility and of concrete actions, the time to tear down the walls of hatred, to break the yoke of every injustice, to wash in pardon and reconciliation garments soaked in blood and violence. Now is the time to lift our gaze once more to heaven, to God the Father of mercy, who “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Mt 5:46), to repent of our hardness of heart and to implore the gift of reconciliation. Now is the time to invoke the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of unity and peace. For to embody the Christian difference is not only a decision that we make; first and foremost, it is a grace, a gift of God to be sought insistently. Only if we are embraced by his love can we embrace one another and make rise up from the earth the new cry: no more violence, never again fratricidal conflicts, never again war!

May this be the time, dear brothers and sisters, for turning a page...

The Biden administration has been flying migrant minors out of Texas since Roe was overturned to more "abortion friendly states". Meanwhile the Devout Catholic" signed an executive order promoting abortion on demand up to and including birth....JMJ....

I was wondering about all the advancements to prolong life in the Divided States as opposed to I wonder what our infant mortality rate would be if we included the aborted.....AMDG.....

‘We can’t play God’: daughter opposes death penalty for mother’s killer (Guardian)

Hall and her sister – along with their uncle – oppose Alabama’s plan to execute the man who killed their mother... “We thought about it and prayed about it, and we found it in ourselves to forgive him for what he did. We really wish there was something that we could do to stop it”... “I did hate him. I did. And I know hate is such a strong-feeling word, but I really did have hate in my heart. As I got older and realized, you can’t walk around with hate in your heart. You still got to live. And once I had kids of my own, you know, I can’t pass it down to my kids and have them walk around with hate in their hearts,” she said... Hall realizes that asking the state to spare the life of the man who killed her mother may seem counterintuitive, but she is compelled by deeply held beliefs. “I know it may sound crazy. Like, you really want this man to live? But … I just feel like we can’t play God. We can’t take a life. And it’s not going to bring my mom back,” she said...

SECAM Leadership Urges Political Leaders in Africa to Realize Pledge to “silence guns” (ACI Africa)

The leadership of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has challenged political leaders in Africa to live up to their pledge to end violent conflicts on the continent that they said would be realized by the year 2020. In 2017, the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council adopted the Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silencing the Guns by 2020. The initiative recognized that “beyond the ongoing political and military efforts, there is a need for structural interventions in the area of socio-economic development, to allow for issues of governance, youth and women, employment and education, climate change and other pertinent factors to play constructive roles in the efforts to silencing the guns in Africa”... “it is now 2022 and wars and armed conflicts have intensified in Africa”...

The new issue of the Journal of Social Encounters, Volume 6, Issue 2 (August 2022) has the theme of "Peace Bishops: Case Studies of Christian Bishops as Peacebuilders".

The Journal of Social Encounters is an interdisciplinary, peer reviewed peace and justice studies journal published online by the Centre for Social Justice and Ethics at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, in collaboration with the Peace Studies Department at College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/

Full disclosure: I am the author of one of the case studies.

Hopefully they will take away the guns used at the Border crossing between Uganda and Congo where two were murdered by gunfire involving UN "peace keeping" thugs the other day....AMDG....

>105 brone:

Presumably this is the incident to which you refer? Terrible. Sadly this sort of thing happens all too often in a world where traumatised young men, whether civilians or in the military, have access to deadly firearms. As you say, guns should be taken away. Until the manufacture and availability of small arms and light weapons is drastically reduced throughout the world these tragedies will continue to occur.

Secretary-General Outraged over Deadly Incident by Mission Military Personnel on Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda Border (UN)

The Secretary-General is outraged by a serious incident that took place this morning, 31 July, in Kasindi, North Kivu Province, on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, in which military personnel of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) opened fire while returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from leave in their home country. The Secretary-General is both saddened and dismayed by the loss of life and serious injuries sustained during this incident. He expresses his deepest condolences to the affected families, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Congolese Government, and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. The Secretary-General stresses in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events. He welcomes the decision of his Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to detain MONUSCO personnel involved in the incident and to immediately open an investigation. He notes that the United Nations has established contact with the country of origin of the concerned personnel, with a view to urgently initiating judicial proceedings with the participation of victims and witnesses so that appropriate sanctions can be handed down.

"Doctor of the Church, Bellermine judged it "heretical" that Christians cannot in theory apply capital punishment" "... Pope Francis by contrast wants the catechism to teach that capital punishment ought never to be used.. he justifies this claim not on prudential grounds but to "better reflect development of Doctrine". the ole I know more than youse guys trick...AMDG....

>107 brone:

No, Francis is continuing a development in doctrine which includes at least his five immediate papal predecessors, and arguably Jesus himself. Saint Robert Bellarmine (I presume that's who you mean - I can't find a Bellermine) was teaching during a completely different historical context, as a pro-papal apologist when Venice was in a political dispute with the pope, denying his secular authority. That context no longer exists. I think it was Saint John Paul II who explained the differing contexts regarding capital punishment. There is never any justification for taking a human life, as you constantly remind us in the case of abortion, but apparently you don't feel the same about the killing of other human beings, created in the image and likeness of God. A "consistent ethic of life", which could actually be called "pro-life" in the fullest sense of that term if it hadn't already been appropriated for a narrow single issue, opposes all forms of killing. "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13), and "Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone" (John 8:7), as Jesus said when asked specifically about a capital punishment case. The implication is, of course, that even if Bellarmine's teaching about capital punishment "in theory" is widened beyond its narrow historical and political context, Jesus made it clear that there is no human being who meets the criteria necessary to carry out an execution, as none of us is guiltless. But why would any Christian want to do so anyway? We are called to love each other, even our enemies, and we are all sisters and brothers in Christ. Can you ever envisage wanting to execute your own brother? I can't.

>105 brone: On the subject of the Democratic Republic of Congo, you might find this article by John Prendergast interesting:

Turning Off Congo’s Looting Machine (Project Syndicate)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been pillaged by foreign governments and corporations for more than 500 years, and this sordid pattern continues to this day. Given this history, is it any wonder that the country suffers from massive corruption, perpetual conflict, and state capture?...

Abortion supporters in the US many of whom are "catholic" are in panic mode with 40 eugenic abortion horror mills closed since roe became history. The US senate many "catholics" are proposing a bill to allow abortion till birth the law of the land circumventing the Supreme Court, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution, thats what socialists and communists do but that cannot circumvent the Rosary which is what really overturned roe. JPII would have courageously congratulated US Catholics, would have asked the world to ring bells in thanksgiving. Francis on the other hand gives us stony silence, five days later is present at a Mass where the number one proponet of even partial birth murders recieves Holy Communion....AMDG....

You speak in riddles, my friend. What mass are you referring to?

Pope Francis has spoken on the new abortion law in the USA, and on abortion in general. It's all over the internet, to use a phrase you often come out with, but I'll save you the trouble of googling. Some examples:

Pope Francis respects US Supreme court decision and condemns abortion (Vatican News)

Pope: Abortion is murder, the Church must be close and compassionate, not political (Vatican News)

Respect Life: Pope Francis’ 8 strongest statements against abortion (CNA)

While papal observers may sometimes adopt differing interpretations of Pope Francis’ statements on controversial topics, on the issue of abortion the pope has been unambiguously clear that the humanity of an unborn child must always be protected...

Sept. 15, 2021: ‘Abortion is murder’...
Sept. 25, 2020: Speech to the United Nations...
Oct. 10, 2018: Abortion is like ‘hiring a hitman’...
June 16, 2018: Abortion of disabled is like ‘what the Nazis did’...
Feb. 18, 2016: Abortion is ‘against the Hippocratic oath’...
June 18, 2015: Care for creation is ‘incompatible with the justification of abortion’...
Aug. 16, 2014: The pope prays at South Korea cemetery for abortion victims...
Sept. 20, 2013: Every unborn child unjustly aborted has the face of Jesus...

{and previous popes}

Pope Benedict XVI, Dec. 3, 2005: ‘Intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion’...
St. John Paul II, March 25, 1995: The ‘Culture of Death’...
Pope Paul VI, 1974: First papal reaction to Roe v. Wade...
Second Vatican Council, Dec. 2, 1965: Abortion an ‘unspeakable’ crime...

Mean While back in Ireland, Higgins the darling of leftists all over the world has doubled down on his statement claiming the Massacre on Pentecost was because Islamic terrorists were suffering from climate change hot African sun you know. Maybe the current US congress could supply these poor sun stroked killers straw hats. His hero down latin America ole danny boy, just shut down the Catholic radio station claiming is was running illegally for years, Danny boy's thugs stormed the church where it was broadcasting from tear gassing the parishoners...Pelosi 5 days after roe was overturned received Communion at the Vatican with Francis present. Ah well we will continue to pray for the conversion of these socialists, anti lifers....JMJ....

>111 John5918:

Can't you disagree with any issue without an ad hominem attack on somebody? And I very much doubt whether Higgins is "the darling of the left"; there are probably very few people in the world, left or right, who can name the president of a small country like Ireland.

What has he now said which is different from his nuanced statement that you have referred to before? Who is "Danny boy", and who are his "thugs"? To which country in Latin America are you referring? If you just want to post political sound bites, please go to the LT Pro and Con group. If you want to have conversations with your fellow Catholics and others on the Catholic Tradition group, please try to post clear, detailed and rational posts which the rest of us can actually engage with in a conversation.

And now, back on topic:

Message of the Holy Father Pope Francis to His Excellency Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen President of the Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (New York, 1-26 August 2022)*

Mr. President and Distinguished Representatives,

In preparation for this Tenth Review Conference, His Holiness Pope Francis addressed a message to Ambassador Zlauvinen in his capacity as President of this important conference. I am pleased to read out the papal message as the Holy See contribution to this general debate.

“Mr. President,

We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Indeed, for half a century, the NPT has played a vital role in maintaining peace among nations and has succeeded in limiting nuclear proliferation.

Even so, the world faces several grave challenges in the fields of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Today represents both an opportunity and duty to reach consensus in this Review Conference on concrete actions in accordance with our joint goal to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, which is both necessary and possible. This vision is shared and enshrined in the NPT, but it requires us to promote dialogue and move with determination from a perspective of competition to one of cooperation.

A world free of nuclear weapons demands, first of all, a strong commitment to nuclear disarmament. While welcoming the five-year extension of the New START Treaty, it is important to recognize that active negotiations to reduce nuclear weapons have not taken place since 2011, and that achieving further reductions remains very challenging. The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty has lapsed, and both the United States and the Russian Federation have withdrawn from the Treaty on Open Skies. Reliance on deterrence continues to drive possessor States to increase their nuclear capabilities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The indefinite extension of the NPT in 1995 should in no way be interpreted as the tacit acceptance of the indefinite possession of nuclear weapons. We must move toward an agreed global ceiling, setting an upper limit from which nuclear arms can be reduced, thus advancing the cause of disarmament.

The war in Ukraine has also alerted the world to the heightened risk of a conventional armed conflict escalating to involve the use of nuclear weapons, representing another urgent reason to ensure action during this conference. To lessen the risk of inadvertent escalation, the Holy See urges States that possess nuclear weapons to take steps to decrease the operational readiness of their nuclear forces, and to decrease their nuclear arsenals, in line with commitments agreed upon at the 2000 and 2010 Review Conferences.

Mr. President,

The inertia in recent years has prompted many States to seek ways to accelerate the process of achieving a nuclear-weapon free world, based especially on the awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of their use.

As I noted during my 2019 visit to Hiroshima, “the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home. The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral. … Future generations will rise to condemn our failure if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about among the peoples of the earth.”1

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is a concrete example of efforts to bring about a nuclear-weapon free world. This treaty, which the Holy See promptly signed and ratified, demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons and mutually reinforces the nuclear nonproliferation regime, especially Article VI of the NPT, which calls for “effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.”

The TPNW constitutes such an effective measure, which supports the NPT, especially in light of the Vienna Declaration adopted at the First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) to the TPNW, which recognizes the NPT “as the cornerstone of the disarmament and nonproliferation regime”, deplores any threat or actions that might undermine the NPT, and reaffirms the complementarity of the TPNW and NPT.2 The entry into force of the TPNW should encourage this Review Conference to advance progress on nuclear disarmament and further explore how the TPNW and NPT can mutually reinforce one another. Collaboration between nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear-weapon States in the areas of nuclear disarmament verification, environmental remediation, and victims assistance provides us with a practical opportunity to do this.

Mr. President,

The reduction of the nuclear threat requires a renewed global ethic. Disarmament treaties are more than legal obligations, they are moral commitments.

It is important to recognize a pressing need for responsibility, solidarity, and cooperative security, since “international peace and stability cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power, any response to the threat of nuclear weapons should be collective and concerted, based on mutual trust.”3 Disarmament and non-proliferation education can play an important role in this endeavor, by raising awareness, especially among youth, of the risks and consequences of nuclear weapons for current and future generations.

We should ask ourselves what kind of security we want, and what are the most effective means to ensure such security. In the twenty-first century, security is threatened by phenomena such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, poverty, cybersecurity, and terrorism. Nuclear deterrence is an inadequate response to these threats.4 Therefore, the international community is called to adopt forward-looking strategies to promote the goal of international peace and avoid shortsighted approaches to national and international security problems.

Even before the entry into force of the NPT, Pope Saint Paul VI was long a proponent of a global fund, established with the money otherwise spent on weapons and other military expenditures, with a view to putting an end to hunger and favor development in the most impoverished countries.5 The pressing, universal needs exacerbated by the pandemic, affecting all aspects of daily life and claiming the lives of millions, are surely a summons to expend our energies as well as to use our talents and resources to make good on our solemn commitments enshrined in the text of this Treaty and to build a safer world, where solidarity and trust are employed for the integral development of all people.

Please accept, Mr. President, my cordial greetings and good wishes.

From the Vatican,

FRANCIS

1. Pope Francis, Address at the meeting at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, 24 November 2019.
2. Draft Vienna Declaration of the 1st Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of NuclearWeapons, First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, 23 June 2022, TPNW/MSP/2022/CRP.8.
3. Cf. Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti, (2011) 262.
4. Cf. Pope Francis, Message to the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards Their Total Elimination, 23 March 2017.
5. Cf. Pope St Paul, VI, Encyclical Letter, Populorum Progressio, (1967), 282.

* I haven't found this online - maybe it hasn't been posted yet - so I post it in full. I received it from a colleague at the UN by e-mail. However the MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO HIS EXCELLENCY AMBASSADOR ALEXANDER KMENTT PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST MEETING OF STATES PARTIES TO THE TREATY ON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS from about six weeks ago is online and probably contains some of the same points.

You are such a grouch! Francis has said " a life sentence is just the death penalty" Can some one tell us what the Vicar of Christ thinks is just punishment for a capital crime....AMDG....

Peace talks with Sahelian jihadists? It’s worth a shot (The New Humanitarian)

Since at least 2017, when Mali’s government organised a peace forum called the Conference of National Understanding, prominent voices in the country and the wider Sahel region have explored the possibility of dialogue with jihadists. After years of failed counterterrorism campaigns by France and local armed forces, any possible conclusion of the Sahel crisis – which has killed thousands and uprooted millions – will inevitably include a negotiated settlement with militants. Yet, while different kinds of local and national-level deals have been struck with jihadists in recent years, a definitive accord – national, permanent, and multi-issue – has remained elusive in the central Sahel, which includes Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. All three countries are in bad shape, and trend lines suggest things could deteriorate further. That’s why dialogue is worth trying, though the path forward is uncertain and a settlement might fit poorly with standard Western liberal peacemaking frameworks...

Stories of survival and self-sacrifice from Mali’s local jihadist dialogues (The New Humanitarian)

They are four individuals with very different lives: a village chief and peace activist; a long-serving local official; a cattle herder who travels far and wide; and a health worker who finds jobs for disadvantaged youth in his spare time. But these local leaders from central Mali – the country’s epicentre of unrest – share one point in common: they’ve all forged recent pacts with al-Qaeda-linked jihadists to try and stem violence following a decade of failed counterterrorism operations. “It all started when we realised we don’t have the means to face them with arms”...

>105 brone:

Since you appear to be very critical of the UN, you might find this interesting. There is wide agreement amongst the non-aligned states that one of the major problems with the UN is the veto power of five permanent members of the Security Council. There is a lot of discussion on how to amend this. Obviously the five privileged states would oppose such a move. A gradualist approach is underway:

The Veto Initiative’s First Tests: Is the Step Toward Reform Working? (Pass Blue)

“Quite often, when a permanent UN Security Council member votes ‘no,’ it is nothing more than a result of tactical struggle and a desire to disparage the opponent”...

In the never-ending struggle to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council, a new initiative may prove to be relatively successful in the quest by a range of countries to change the veto step by step. This modest but potentially significant act of reform is called the “veto initiative,” and Liechtenstein originated it in 2020 to strengthen accountability of the permanent members when they dismiss a draft resolution with a single swipe: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — the P5. The initiative was adopted by the General Assembly only two years after it surfaced, on April 26, 2022, under Resolution A/RES/76/262. If one or more of the P5 members casts a veto in the Security Council, an Assembly meeting is held within 10 days after the veto is cast. The member or members are invited to speak first on the matter at the meeting, and other countries can speak as well. The outcome is open...

The two sessions also showed that most countries do not favor the veto, which is not surprising. That position sends a strong signal to the international community and seeds a reputation loss for the veto powers. The initiative was not meant to strictly deter its use. Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein’s ambassador, said its purpose was to have the General Assembly receive an explanation of the vote and to discuss the matter openly rather than to put veto powers on the pillory of world politics... “It’s not about putting anyone on the spot, but about accountability... It’s about being given a voice in what we think are issues over which we have ownership. The Charter of the United Nations says clearly that the Security Council does its work on behalf of the membership.” Much more is at stake than an explanation. The initiative provides a litmus test for the particular narratives of the veto holders speaking before the Assembly. The meetings also give them a chance to persuade other countries of their rationale and open the argumentative arena of the Council to the Assembly. Such transparency and accountability could alter the cost-benefit calculation of the veto and weaken the elitist character of the veto powers...

While this is not a forum for job advertisements, the position of Secretary General of Pax Christi International is an important part of global Catholic peace efforts, so I post it here:

https://paxchristi.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/PCI-Secretary-General-2022.pdf

Marie Dennis’s Teacher of Peace 2022 acceptance speech (Pax Christi USA)

I am humbled, more than a little uncomfortable and deeply grateful for this honor... I am still asking what is the role of a white, middle class Catholic woman from the belly of the beast in response to these cries for justice and liberation. I knew 50 years ago and still believe that somehow I had to address root causes because I am responsible for so many of them; and that my lifestyle and location/where I spent my time had to be informed by the wisdom and experience of the people on whose backs I was standing every day — people at the peripheries, survivors of oppression, racism, economic violence. Fifty years later, the struggle seems the same, yet it is radically different. And that difference fills me with hope – not thin hope, but rich vibrant, thick hope. I believe that we are on the threshold of a new way of being, a new paradigm, a new logic for life. What we are birthing will be closer to the beloved community; it will be anti-racist and socially just. It will be built on right relationships with each other and with the natural world. It will be richly, beautifully diverse and decidedly nonviolent. It will not depend on weapons of war but on right relationships, a commitment to inclusive human dignity and respect for the integrity of creation...

the nonviolence that Pax Christi is learning to embrace. It is more than pacifism; it is a spirituality, a way of life, – let me say that again though you know it very well – it is a spirituality and a way of life, a new way of thinking. It is a potentially universal ethic that could guide the world, including in times of crisis, toward just peace rather than justified war; toward respect and inclusion rather than exploitation. And it is a proven, effective approach to deep peace seen through the prism of justice...

I see a paradigm shift led by Pope Francis’ vision, creativity and commitment to the cry of the earth and the cry of those forced to live on the margins of our world. I see a leaning toward nonviolence in Catholic social thought that is being enhanced by the synodal process; and I see a complex and troubled institutional Church that here and there, including in the Vatican, has been amazingly open to engaging with our Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. Five years ago in his 2017 World Day of Peace message, Pope Francis said, “to be true followers of Jesus today also includes embracing His teaching about nonviolence. …I pledge the assistance of the Church in every effort to build peace through active and creative nonviolence.” We are doing all that we can to take Pope Francis up on his offer, urging the Church to promote the necessary shift from an ethic of violence and war to an ethic of nonviolence — through Catholic universities, religious communities, diocesan and parish programs, Catholic communications and diplomatic efforts. To reclaim the centrality of Gospel nonviolence would require a radical transformation of the internal life of the Catholic Church, as well as the public face, voice and engagement of the institution. But the pushback to this proudly radical movement, of which you are such an important part, is ferocious and powerful; our work is not done and I am afraid it won’t be for a long time...

I know Marie personally and have worked with her on and off over many years. A truly humble and holy person who has made a great contribution to Catholic understanding of peace and nonviolence and who richly deserves to be recognised. The whole speech is well worth reading.

"If a Catholic were to b at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the church exhorts civil authorities to use discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to have recourse to Capital Punishment"...JMJ....

>120 brone:

It really is frustrating when you post quotes like that without telling us where it comes from, because the weight of that statement depends on who wrote it (and when and why, and what comes on each side of it - context is important). It's impossible to have a sensible conversation about it with you. But since receiving Holy Communion is not a reward for being good but is a source of grace to help us to be good, I certainly agree with it and you that there is no problem with people receiving Communion even if they are are at odds with parts of Church teaching. A very large percentage of Catholics in Europe and north America disregard parts of Humanae vitae and still receive Communion. Likewise in the abortion culture war in the USA, some prominent Catholics who oppose abortion but do not believe that imposing that belief on the whole population of a pluralistic secular democracy is the best way to deal with the issue also still receive Communion. Many people who kill also receive Communion, whether they are those officials who legally carry out the death sentence, soldiers (we even provide chaplains to them so they can receive Communion during breaks from killing) or criminal murderers. It's a pastoral issue, as the Holy Father has made clear. The move towards a nonviolent spirituality in society will not happen overnight, which is why the teaching on capital punishment has developed gradually along a trajectory through at least the last six popes.

Diplomats Without Borders: A New Niche Service Aims to Mend Our Frayed World (Pass Blue)

A new organization, Diplomats Without Borders, aims to offer new ways to mediate global crises, bringing fresh ideas from former diplomats to resolve intractable problems affecting every corner of the earth...

A group of former diplomats and experts from 13 countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Britain, Chile, Egypt, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Mali, Netherlands and the United States — met at the Bellagio Center this summer to attend a workshop sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Inspired by the example of the 13 doctors and journalists who in December 1971 created the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), the recent attendees at the workshop concluded that an organization bringing together former diplomats and supported by experts could provide fresh, niche services to strengthen international peace and stability efforts. These services would be offered not so much by the organization itself but by its individual members. They would contribute their professional skills and expertise to a given conflict, using the abilities they acquired during their careers working in diplomacy at headquarters or in the field. They would also offer networks of other experts they built up during their career. The services would focus on strengthening conflict prevention and resolution capacities, offering advice and training while providing a forum for worldwide dialogue... Diplomats Without Borders will set up a roster of its members available pro bono to assist in prevention and mediation work. The members could be called upon by parties in a conflict or by active mediation and peace-building players who are interested in a specific experience and network of a particular member...

Diplomats Without Borders also aspires to become a community of practice on diplomacy. By offering a global platform for discussions on diplomatic topics, we would also provide a much-needed independent, safe space in these times of growing polarization and us-versus-them rhetoric. Because of its global membership, the organization would give equal access to all schools of thought, stimulating dialogue and mutual understanding in a secure setting...

Cardinal Parolin: Church is pacifist because she believes in and fights for peace (Vatican News)

"The diplomacy of the Holy See is not linked to a state but to a reality of international law that has no political, economic, military interests. It places itself at the service of the bishop of Rome, who is the pastor of the universal Church"... the compass to follow is the Gospel – the “proclamation of peace, promise and gift of peace," Cardinal Parolin explains, adding that "all {the Gospels} pages are full of it.” The Cardinal notes that “the angels invoke it at the moment of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. He Himself wishes it to His own as soon as He is resurrected. The Church follows the example of her Lord: she believes in peace, works for peace, fights for peace, witnesses to peace and seeks to build it. In this sense she is pacifist". Concerning the use of weapons, Cardinal Parolin points out that “the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides for self-defense. Peoples have the right to defend themselves if attacked. But this armed self-defense must be exercised within certain conditions that the same catechism enumerates: that all other means of putting an end to the aggression have proved impracticable or ineffective; that there are well-founded reasons for success; that the use of arms does not cause greater evils and disorders than those to be eliminated." In the face of the disproportionate and reckless use of weapons in many parts of the world, Cardinal Parolin points out that “war begins in the heart of man {sic}” and “every insult pushes peace away and makes any negotiation more difficult”...

"We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of war, of hatred. If a Mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other". Meanwhile a massive Right to life March (the 1st) is to take place in New Delhi organized conjointly by the Latin Rite and Syro Malaba rite, will be fashoined after the example of the annual right to life march in the US. The Archbishop has said that he was inspired by the overturning of Roe and he wished to start the process in India where it has been legal for 51 years, Abortions in India are ten times the US, Pro Life Catholics in the US will line up to help him....AMDG....

“Break down walls of hatred, violence ... build bridges of love”: Cardinal in Burkina Faso (ACI Africa)

The Cardinal in Burkina Faso has called upon the people of God in the West African nation to “break down the walls of hatred, violence” and build bridges of love... “Religions never incite war or solicit feelings of hatred, hostility, extremism, or invite violence or bloodshed.” “These misfortunes are the fruit of the deviation of religious teachings, of the political use of religions and also of the interpretations of groups of men of religion who have abused - at certain phases of history - the influence of religious feeling on the hearts of men {sic} to lead them to accomplish what has nothing to do with the truth of religion, for worldly and blind political and economic ends,” Cardinal Ouédraogo said. He continued, “We must agree to do everything possible to break down the walls of hatred, hostility, misunderstanding, extremism, violence ... and to build bridges of understanding, mutual respect, tolerance, brotherhood and love”... “Peace is a gift from God and the fruit of human efforts. Let us persevere in prayer, individually, in the family and in the community.” “Every day, at every Eucharistic celebration, let us take up the prayer for peace. And to give wings to our prayer, we must extend it with gestures of solidarity and sharing”... “All that we are and all that we have are gifts from God and we must share with our brothers and sisters in need”...

Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action 2022: “Blessed is every step toward nonviolence” (Catholic Nonviolence Initiative)

2022 is the third year of the Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action, celebrated between 21 September, the International Peace Day and 2 October, the International Day of Nonviolence and Gandhi’s birthday... The theme for 2022 is: “Blessed is every step toward nonviolence.” Acknowledging that a life of nonviolence is a process that takes daily work, we invite you to take steps that broaden your understanding of its many facets, steps that deepen your faith in the nonviolent message of the Gospel, and steps that increase your engagement as we build a nonviolent world for all of God’s creation... Individuals, parish groups, Pax Christi sections, and religious communities are all encouraged to plan one or more actions between 21 September and 2 October that strengthen the Catholic Church’s understanding of nonviolence as an essential aspect of our faith. We ask everyone to join us on 2 October to celebrate International Day of Nonviolence with the Vow of Nonviolence — Invite your parish, youth group, catechist group, women’s group to take each of the four calls of the Vow of Nonviolence and talk about what it means to them.

James Foley's mother: 'Four hours with the militant who murdered my son' (BBC)

It was during their four hours together, she said, that she came to pity the terrorist who now faces spending his life in jail. "I wanted Kotey to be confronted with the horror of what he did," she said, telling him about the man he murdered, the eldest of her five children. "For him to understand the goodness he destroyed and why people like James were in Syria. It's because they cared and wanted to report the truth to the world"... "He said had been praying to his God for forgiveness. He shared a picture of his family, he has some young children whom he will probably never see again. It made me realise how much he's lost by following hatred and propaganda. It made me pity him"...

"I said to him that I hope at some point we could both forgive one another," she recalled... Her plea, she explained, is grounded in her Catholic faith - the foundation of her strength and what has kept her going. "I know he doesn't have to forgive me anything, but in that moment…I don't know." She paused, searching for the words. "I just feel like, as people, none of us are perfect. We all do things we regret." "If I hate them, they have won. They will continue to hold me captive because I am not willing to be different to the way they were to my loved one. We have to pray for the courage to be the opposite." "It's a hard journey to forgiveness, and it's not a done deal but it's what I aspire to"...

As part of the condition of their extraditions from British authority, neither Kotey nor Elsheikh will face the death penalty. "I'm glad about that," Mrs Foley said. "They have the rest of their lives to think about what they've done They've lost their freedom, their citizenship, their families. Their hatred did not win."

"Grounded in her Catholic faith". Beautiful. I also found myself thinking of my friend South Sudanese Catholic Bishop Emeritus Paride Taban, a paragon of forgiveness and reconciliation, who likes to share eight inspiring words and short phrases with all-comers: "I love you, I miss you, thank you, I forgive, we forget, together, I am wrong, I am sorry".

>105 brone:, >106 John5918: Not strictly relevant to this thread, but related to these two posts, perhaps.

Why we’re protesting against UN peacekeepers in DR Congo (The New Humanitarian)

‘Who will come to save the Congo? Only us young people’... hundreds of protesters who have demonstrated in eastern DRC in recent weeks against the UN mission in the country, known by its French acronym MONUSCO and one of the world's largest and most expensive peace operations. The New Humanitarian sat down with five protesters over the past two weeks. We tried to understand why they are calling for MONUSCO’s withdrawal, and who they think is best placed to protect them from armed groups. Their full answers follow below...

protesters – mindful of ruinous colonial rule and endless regional meddling – are wary of more outside interference... Our failure stems from dependence on other outside forces… My message to the president of the republic is this: If he continues to depend on foreign forces, we will never have security in Congo, but if he joins forces with the people, we will manage to restore peace and security!... The presence of MONUSCO {also} puts us to sleep instead of the Congolese themselves reflecting on their problems, notably insecurity. It must leave so that we are responsible for our own problems, and so that we can find solutions to the insecurity...

The comments on outside interference call to mind >109 John5918: and >117 John5918:. While many conflicts have their own local origins, they are often exacerbated and sustained by international interests. Many conflicts are resolved when the local stakeholders are able to take ownership of their peace process. On the other hand, there are also cases where impartial and objective outside mediation is helpful, with emphasis on the words "impartial" and "objective".

Edited to add: ‘A playground for colonial forces’: Unpacking the anti-UN protests in DR Congo (The New Humanitarian)

If MONUSCO really wants to improve its image, it should start by listening to the population’s genuine grievances... explanation for the protests should start with an analysis of current political events. Specifically, one must look at the resurgence of the once-dormant M23 armed group, which a leaked UN report indicates is being backed by neighbouring Rwanda. MONUSCO’s perceived inaction on the crisis – which has now displaced nearly 200,000 people – and its failure to clearly denounce Rwanda’s presence on Congolese soil has caused a great deal of local frustration... Distrust of outside actors has deep roots in DRC. From Belgian King Leopold II’s rubber regime to the illegal export of minerals today, the country is seen as a playground for colonial and neo-colonial forces seeking to enrich themselves...

Cardinal in CAR Cautions against “logic of war, supremacy” at Rimini Meeting in Italy

The Cardinal in the Central African Republic (CAR) has decried the numerous ongoing violent conflicts in the world and cautioned against the “logic of war and supremacy”, describing them as real threats to humanity... “The world today is really in need of peace. Peace is becoming the most precious good that humanity is seeking.” “The logic of war and supremacy is a real threat to the human race and to our world, which is suspended from the unbridled appetites of the nuclear powers”... In his August 20 presentation titled, “Artisans for Peace, a Passion for Conciliation”, Cardinal Nzapalainga said that with the war in Ukraine and the various armed conflicts in several African countries, “it is as if humanity is preparing for the last war against man.” “Our language today is full of words linked to war, violence, hatred, resentment, revenge”... “I am often irritated and outraged when I see speeches on television. They tend to fan the flames and call for weapons to be sent in.” “Let us not forget that violence breeds violence,” the Cardinal said, adding that humanity “must learn to get out of this spiral, and this logic of war by wanting to settle everything with weapons”... “True peace cannot be obtained through the use of force of weapons,” Cardinal Nzapalainga said, and added, “True peace comes once the causes of conflicts and wars are known. Conflicts usually arise from situations of systemic injustice”...

“The many conflicts in Africa today must challenge our universal conscience,” he said, and added, “The construction of walls and alliance blocks in the West must remind us of the need for solidarity in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and everywhere else in the world.” In order to reconcile people in conflict, Cardinal Nzapalainga said, “One must be a peacemaker in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.” “Beyond the simple etymological or definitional framework, peace is above all, a commitment. It's an existentialist determination to create a framework of life where living together is made possible,” the Cardinal said, adding that “this can only happen if we draw from the deepest depths of our humanity the required energies.” “To be a peacemaker requires a great capacity for judgment and analysis in order to be able to have a fair and objective hermeneutic of the situation and the belligerents in process,” he said. The peacemaker, Cardinal Nzapalainga continued, “Should not choose sides.” “They should be on the side of everyone, be impartial but without ever hiding or betraying the truth,” the Cardinal said, and added, “We must invent words that move boundaries, words that liberate, words that give forgiveness.” “When human language creates its own words for peace, for harmony, for living together for love, then our humanity will be restored and we can once again sing the hymn to love and let life flow through each of us”...

Religious Order in Nigeria “full of joy” after Four Kidnapped Nuns Regain Freedom Unharmed (ACI Africa)

Member of the Sisters of Jesus the Saviour (Saviourite Sisters - SJS) in Nigeria have expressed their joy following the “unconditional and safe release” of four of their members... “With hearts full of joy, the Sisters of Jesus the Saviour wish to announce the unconditional and safe release of four of our sisters who were abducted around Okigwe-Umulolo axis on the 21 of August 2022,” Sr. Zita Ihedoro says about the kidnapping in Nigeria’s Imo State. Sr. Ihedoro adds, “Today is a memorable day for us, therefore, we wish to share this joy with all men and women of Goodwill who in one way or the other have contributed to the quick and safe release of our dear sisters.” “We sincerely appreciate and thank you for your prayers and moral support during this difficult moment”...

An example of a violent situation which has ended well through nonviolent means. I myself was once captured and held hostage for 44 days by a violent militia group, but we were also released unharmed and unconditionally through nonviolent negotiations. In fact one of our greatest fears during that period of captivity was that the army would try to rescue us by force, which would certainly have led to loss of life, probably including our own.

>128 John5918: Further reflection on the violence in DRC:

East Africa’s DR Congo Force: The Case for Caution (International Crisis Group)

East African leaders have agreed to assemble troops to combat armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congolese authorities have announced the first troop deployment, but obstacles remain. Crisis Group expert Nelleke van de Walle explains the plan and its risks...

Again, not strictly on topic, but since we have been discussing the role of the UN in peace and nonviolence, I post it here.

Japan to push for Africa seat on the UN Security Council (Al Jazeera)

Japan will push for an African seat at the United Nations by using its place on the world body’s Security Council. “Japan reiterates its determination to redress the historical injustice against Africa of not being represented through a permanent membership on the Security Council,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Tunis, Tunisia on Sunday. “In order for the UN to work effectively for peace and stability, there is an urgent need to strengthen the UN as a whole through Security Council reform,” he said. The UN faces “a moment of truth”...

Vatican Archbishop calls law 194 Italy's legal abortion law "a pillar of society" In a televised interview Francis appointed Archbishop in charge of the Pontifical Academy of Life said, that this law is "absolutley not up for discussion". Here we have a high ranking Vatican official who is head of a foundation founded to protect life protecting a law which destroys life any other pope would have shown this guy the door....JMJ....

Hundreds of Burkinabè imams condemn religious intolerance (The Star, Kenya)

More than 700 imams in Burkina Faso have condemned religious and ethnic intolerance in the country following a spate of violent social media posts urging "native" Burkinabè people to attack members of the Fulani community. At a meeting of clerics in the capital, Ouagadougou, the head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of Burkina, Moussa Kouanda, warned that messages inciting religious and ethnic intolerance could spiral into civil war. Jihadist attacks in the West African country have led to accusations against the 1.5 million-strong Fulani community. The government has condemned the social media messages, saying the posts were direct calls for mass murder.

I think there are a number of key points in this news item. Perhaps first and foremost, it is one of many examples that give the lie to the assertion common in the western world that Islam is monolithic and violent. While I have lived under a violent oppressive Islamist military dictatorship, I have also worked alongside Muslim leaders in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa whose concern was peace, human rights and religious tolerance. I have seen Muslims who seek democracy and religious tolerance being persecuted by Islamists in Sudan, and I have seen a brutal rebel movement in Uganda which sought a theocracy of sorts, allegedly founded on Christian principles ("Christianist", one might say). Secondly, it's an example of trying to influence extremists, in this case "jihadists", through nonviolent means. Finally, it highlights the danger of hate speech, which can "spiral into civil war" and lead to "mass murder". Food for thought for all of us.

‘This is my duty’: Sudan’s anti-coup protesters overcome bullets and beatings (The New Humanitarian)

Sudan’s ruling junta has killed over 100 pro-democracy protesters and injured many thousands more amid widespread opposition to an October 2021 coup that upended a democratic transition and deepened a nationwide humanitarian crisis. Yet protesters – even those critically wounded by gunfire and gas canisters – have continued to stage rolling demonstrations around the country, calling for an end to military rule and for a full civilian government...

Another case of nonviolent struggle against an Islamist military dictatorship by ordinary citizens, led by women and youth, most of whom are Muslims because of the demographics of Sudan. I was really struck by the quote, "We are facing weapons, yet we are unarmed". That is their great strength - their protest is nonviolent.

The hatred of the Moslems against the west is hatred of Christianity itself. Church leaders, pacifists, Gov leaders have still not taken it into account, there is grave danger that the temporal power of Islam (Iran acquiring nuclear weapons) will return with the menace that it will shake the west which has ceased to be Christain and assert itself as a great anti-Christain power....JMJ.... Our Lady of Lepanto also known as Our Lady of Victory pray for us.

>134 brone:

There is no "hatred of the Moslems* against the west" nor against Christianity. Islam is not a single monolith. There are individuals and groups from all religions and none, including both Muslims and Christians, who hate the west, whether because of its colonial history, or as a hangover from the Cold War, or perhaps because they still see the west as a threat to their own cultures and ways of life. Putin seems to hate the west, and he's no Muslim. Likewise China has a strained relationship with the west, and they actively persecute both Muslims and Christains. And as you say, the west has ceased to be Christian, so being against the west is not the same as being against Christianity. It's complex, my friend, like most things.

But I do agree with you that the possession of nuclear weapons is a threat to everybody in the world, regardless of their nationality or religion, whether it be Iran, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea, France, Russia, China, UK or USA, and whether it be Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, or atheists. All should follow the enlightened example of South Africa and destroy their nuclear arsenals once and for all.

* Incidentally, "Moslem" is considered an archaic transliteration of the Arabic term مسلم, and "Muslim" is now preferred. Apart from anything else, there is no "o" nor "e" in the Arabic alphabet, and the vowels "u" and "i" are the ones that actually appear in the Arabic word.

Suellen Tennyson: Kidnapped US Catholic nun freed in Burkina Faso (BBC)

A US Catholic nun who was kidnapped by armed men in April in Burkina Faso has been freed, the bishop of the local north-east diocese of Kaya has said. "Sister Suellen is currently in a safe place and in good health," Bishop Theophile Nare said in a statement. Suellen Tennyson, 83, was taken hostage from a local parish in the middle of the night, leaving behind her glasses and blood pressure medication. The identity of the kidnappers is not known...

This release takes place in a country where hundreds of religious leaders have just condemned religious intolerance. Thank God. I myself have experienced being held hostage, so my thoughts and prayers are with all victims of such violence.

My thoughts are with Seal Teams trained to destroy hostage takers....AMDG....Cause of Our Joy Pray for Us.

Well, having been a hostage, one of the things we dreaded most at the time was that the military would come and try to rescue us. Lives would have been lost, almost certainly including our own.

Michael Foley would beg to differ....JMJ....Virgin Most powerful Pray for Us.

>139 brone:

That's his experience, and I respect it. I'm simply giving my own experience. Please also respect that.

Peacekeeping Desperately Needs a New Model, and a People-Centered Approach Could Work (Pass Blue)

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is in trouble. Some of its problems are chronic, some are acute, but at its heart is a breakdown in trust between the mission and the community with which it operates. What is needed now more than ever is a genuine people-centered approach to its work. It is timely, then, that a new report, Linked Up Peacekeeping, looks at how the UN mission, called Monusco, could engage better with the communities that it serves...

His experience was being beheaded....AMDG....Mary Mother of God Pray for Us.

>142 brone:

Ah, I see. As you didn't give any reference, I assumed you were quoting him. Since he is dead, RIP, we don't know what his opinion would have been, unless you can give us a reference for something he wrote or said?

Another Doctor of the Church Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellermine judged it "heretical" to maintain that Christians cannot in theory apply capital punishment.. Cases in which capital punishment is called for is "very rare if not practically non-existent" JPII catechism appeals to prudential consideration concerning what is strictly necessary in order to protect society. PF by contrast, wants the catechism to teach capital punishment ought never to be used and his justification is not on prudential grounds but"so as to better reflect the development of the doctrine on this point" Translation, we no so much more than those ole doctors and saints we have doctrine by evolution these days....JMJ.... Mary Queen of The Holy Rosary Pray for Us.

>144 brone:

I wonder why you are so much in favour of capital punishment, given that it no longer has any practical value - "very rare if not practically non-existent", as you say. The conditions under which the Church reluctantly allowed it be used in exceptional circumstances no longer exist. Aquinas and other great theologians and bishops did not allow either capital punishment or war because they thought they were good things desired by God, but simply as a reflection of the signs of the times, the sinful nature of humankind, the sort of society in which they lived. We should be trying to propagate good things, not bad things which were allowed under "very rare if not practically non-existent" conditions.

"Very rare if not practically non-existent" not my words JPII's words. so the murder of 15 people and injuring 13 more by two different people in different locations in Canada the other day would be a circumstance that is not exceptional . We should listen to you and propagate good things, how bout banning knives,scissors, srewdrivers, sharp pencils....JMJ....Our Lady Queen of Heaven Pray for us.

>146 brone:

No, you miss the point. The death penalty would not have prevented these murders. And once the perpetrator is found guilty, the Canadian jail system is perfectly capable of keeping them secure and preventing them from committing a similar outrage. Once we learn more about the perpetrator and their motives, we might begin to explore other ways in which the crime might have been prevented - both mental health and political radicalisation are often factors, although I have no idea whether this is the case in this instance. There is no value nor justification in adding another human life to the death toll.

In many countries knives, like guns, are already restricted. It helps to reduce certain types of violent crime, but doesn't stop it completely.

In Nigeria, “there is no problem between Christians and Muslims”, Catholic Bishop Says (ACI Africa)

There is no problem between members of the two major religious groups in Nigeria, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto in the West African nation has said in reference to Christians and Muslims... Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah attributed the challenges in Nigeria to “irresponsible leaders” who use religion as a tool of oppression rather than for liberation. “There is no problem between Christians and Muslims,” Bishop Kukah said, and added, “There is a problem between irresponsible leaders who don’t want to govern properly"... “The Nigerian state has proved itself to be incompetent, grossly malfunctioning, unable, and unwilling to commit the welfare of citizens as the principal basis of governance”... Under the current regime, “Nigeria operated as a democracy, not a theocratic government,” he said, and added, “The role of religion must be scientifically defined. The lack of definition emboldened leaders to privilege a religion or ethnic group over another.” “The constitution guarantees us freedom of religion and freedom to decide what we don’t want..." He added, “But if we have these unresolved issues as to the boundaries of the power of the state, how much can be appropriated in the name of religion, then you’re going to have the chaos that we have"...

This is an important contribution from a religious leader who is at the coal face, so to speak. He clearly identifies that what is often touted as a religious conflict is in fact far more complex, and has its roots in poor governance and irresponsible leadership. This echoes my own experience of Christianity and Islam in East Africa. There is no problem between ordinary Muslims and Christians. The problem is leaders who wish to manipulate religious (and ethnic) differences for their own vested interests, and who create the conditions for unrest by poor governance which itself creates poverty and disempowerment. This in turn can create radicalised extremist groups, both Muslim and Christian, such as Shabab, Boko Haram and the Lord's Resistance Army.

No it wouldn't but it would prevent a future knifing in prison....JMJ....Our Lady of Mt Carmel Pray for US.

Video Launch: A Retreat on Gospel Nonviolence

Description

Pax Christi International warmly invites you to a special video launch of a 20-minute Retreat on Gospel Nonviolence: Breaking Barriers, Binding Wounds, Healing Nations. Appropriate for individual or small group reflection, this retreat is based on the December 2020 virtual gathering that brought together more than 500 people from around the world for a three-hour retreat on gospel nonviolence.

Join us online for a half-hour on 14 September at 12pm (New York) / 6pm (Brussels) for the premiere of this video. It will also be shared on our YouTube and Facebook channels at the same time. Click here to register and for more information, including time zone conversions.

The video brings together the wisdom of distinguished speakers from many countries with deep experience in the practice of nonviolence as a spirituality and a way of life.

Time

Sep 14, 2022 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Seattle, USA Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 09:00 PDT
Lima, Peru Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 11:00 PET
Bogota, Colombia Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 11:00 COT
Washington DC, USA Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 12:00 EDT
Edinburgh, United Kingdom Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 17:00 BST
Geneva, Switzerland Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 18:00 CEST
Goma, Congo Dem. Rep. Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 18:00 CAT
Beirut, Lebanon Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 19:00 EEST
Nairobi, Kenya Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 19:00 EAT
Colombo, Sri Lanka Wed, 14 Sep 2022 at 21:30 IST
Manila, Philippines Thu, 15 Sep 2022 at 00:00 PHST
Seoul, South Korea Thu, 15 Sep 2022 at 01:00 KST
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Sydney, Australia Thu, 15 Sep 2022 at 02:00 AEST
Auckland, New Zealand Thu, 15 Sep 2022 at 04:00 NZST

"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" a popular tune among GIs fighting against fascism,and imperialism....AMDG....Health of the Sick Pray for Us....

>151 brone:

But very un-Christian. It was also sung by colonialists slaughtering Africans, I believe.

Speaking of slaughter, the BBC reports Sister Maria De Coppi was murdered along with 4 other Catholics with a bullet to her head, in a voice mail to Italy the 84 year old Nun Reported things are very tense here, we do not know where to go. This Nun had been serving in Mozambique for 60 years. The Islamic terrorist group (Islamic State) claims responsibility for the big brave deed, since 2017 4,000 people have been murdered and 800,000 left homeless. The reason these thugs put a buulet in the elderly Nun's brain was "she was engaged in excessively spreading Catholicism.... AMDG.... Saint Maria De Coppi Pray for Us.

Speaking on the occasion of the first World day against abortion, Archbishop Carlos Maria Vignano had this to say " The recent frantic declaration of the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, made during a television program having rightly scandalized the faithful as well as non-believers who ought to be able to look to the church as a garrison of good and a beacon of Truth. In Paglia's words one can sense the banality of evil, the cynical desire not to be a stumbling block, of not wanting to place oneself as a sign of contradiction in a world that has turned back to barbarism and paganism. The servile deference of the Bergoglian Sanhedrin to civil authority, the stolid obsequiousness of those who hope -by pleasing the powerful- to gain their own place in the New World Order. Paglia reveals himself as a gray bureaucrat who, exactly as he did for the Psycho-pandemic narrative does not even understand the inconsistency of what he is asked to say and ratify, limiting himself to accepting the new Bergoglian course, the globalist ideology, Trans-humanism, the great Reset, the green new deal, and agenda2030. As for Bergoglio and his multi covered caravan it seems that the rare utterances with strong media impact against abortion are part of the script to which he must some times conform in order not to be seen as he really is....JMJ.... Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Pray for Us....

Freed Catholic Priest in Nigeria Recounts Details of His Kidnapping by Insurgents (ACI Africa)

Reading Fr Stephen Ojapah's moving account brought back some of the memories of my own time as a hostage nearly forty years ago - long forced marches barefoot in the bush, threats, being drenched by rain, shortage of food, drinking dirty water, getting sick (in our case malaria and dysentery), constant fear of being killed, but finding solace in scripture and prayer. I was particularly struck by Fr Ojapah's words, “I didn’t think I could ever forgive my abductors, but after a few weeks, I did, and doing so deepened my love for Jesus... Religious people say God’s ways are inscrutable. God writes straight on a crooked line.” I too was able to forgive my captors, and indeed thirty years later I had the opportunity to meet the commander. He was delighted to see me again, like a meeting of old friends. Men from his tribe do not apologise directly, but he rather apologetically said things like, "Well, we were both young then, weren't we?" and "Well, there was a war on then, wasn't there?", and finally, "My house is your house", a very meaningful sentiment of welcome and hospitality, kinship even, in many African communities. His health was failing and he died not too long afterwards, and I like to think that our reconciliation brought him some peace, as it did me.

As South African Anglican priest Fr Michael Lapsley, who lost both hands and one eye to a letter bomb sent to him by the apartheid regime, tells us, failure to forgive damages only the victim, not the perpetrator. I paste here a few lines I wrote about Fr Lapsley's "Healing of Memories" a decade or so ago:

The current international focus on justice is understandable in light of the terrible crimes against humanity which have taken place all over the world.. It aims to stop leaders from acting with impunity, and attempts to put the victims at the centre. To some extent it does, especially when restorative justice is emphasised rather than retributive justice. It is often linked to truth and reconciliation. However it also has a downside. "Justice" and "vengeance" can look very similar. When watching western news broadcasts, we often hear victims say, “I will never be at peace until the perpetrator of this crime is brought to justice". In other words, my future peace and happiness are in the hands of others; I have no control over my life; I am helpless and disempowered, a perpetual victim.

How can victims take control of their lives again, especially when they have no control over states, courts, tribunals, fighters and leaders? "Healing of Memories" has been developed by, amongst others, Fr Michael Lapsley... It's about remembering, the suffering being recognised, honouring the memory – and letting go. It doesn't depend on others, because it's about "me dealing with my stuff, me dealing with what I have in me because of the journey that I have travelled."

It's not always easy or comfortable. "God helped me," said Lapsley. "The safe space was prayer, love and support that gave me the room to, if you like, spiritually manoeuvre because I realised if I was full of hatred, bitterness, self pity, desire for revenge, that I would be a victim forever. They would have failed to kill the body, but they would have killed the soul and I would be permanently their prisoner." Some victims spend their entire life in that prison, not realising that only they have the power to release themselves.

One of the great leaders of South Africa, Chief Albert Lutuli, once said, "Those who think of themselves as victims eventually become the victimisers of others." The healing of memories breaks that chain of violence and victimisation...

Pope: International law has been violated, nuclear risks worsened with war (NCR)

Europe and the entire world are being shaken by a war of great seriousness, Pope Francis told his papal nuncios who serve around the globe. It is "a particularly serious war, due to the violation of international law, the risks of nuclear escalation and the drastic economic and social consequences," he said. "It is a Third World War 'fought piecemeal' that you are witnessing"...

And the Apostate catholic just sent 45,000,000,usd to Mr green T, the commedian whose skits in drag, and simulation of playing a piano with his private member helped him to lead this third world war with help also from the CIA an St Obama....JMJ...Queen of the Apostles Pray for Us....

Cardinal Krajewski under fire near Ukraine's frontlines: ‘Jesus, I trust in you’ (Vatican News)

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, gets shot at as he delivers humanitarian aid in Pope Francis’ name near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, emerging unscathed and continuing his mission...

In Cameroon the Catholic bishops are in shock and horror in the latest burning , looting, Kidnappings of 5 priests,one nun, and several lay people. Where is the outrage?

Where is the only Cardinal of California McElroy when one of his fake catholic politicians (gruesome Newsom) takes out an advertisement ad, quoting Mk 12:31, the love your neighbor verse the ad states "need an abortion California is ready to help" the worst distortion of a bible verse I've ever read. That baby inside that womb is your neighbor, so now loving your neighbor means killing them, Commiefornia is so entrenched that it has effectively silenced the church by the church's own apathy....AMDG....

Silence Guns, Give Children Chance to Resume School: Cameroon’s Catholic Peace Commission (ACI Africa)

There is need to silence the guns in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon to allow learners to resume the academic year 2022/2023, members of the Commission for Justice and Peace (CJPC) in Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese have said... “Silencing the guns and giving our children the opportunity to pave their future through education will make the world a better place to live in,” members of CJPC of Bamenda Archdiocese say, and add, “We have had our chance to live and to be; let us not deprive them (children) of theirs”...

After Ethiopian Cardinal’s Call for Dialogue, Tigray Forces Agree to AU-led Peace Talks (ACI Africa)

Following the Ethiopian Cardinal’s call for dialogue and ceasefire after years of violence in the country’s Tigray region, members of the Tigrayan forces have said they are willing to engage in peace talks to be mediated by the African Union (AU). Tigrayan forces from the Northern region of Ethiopia have “called for an immediate cease-fire”, VOA has reported on Monday, September 12, adding that the forces “would join an African Union-led peace process after three weeks of renewed fighting ended a fragile truce”... The Tigrayan forces’ call for a truce and their readiness for an AU-led peace process came hours after the Catholic Archbishop of Addis Ababa called for dialogue to end the violence...

Pope Francis Urges Peace in "senseless and tragic war" in Ukraine (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis arrived in Kazakhstan... urging dialogue and peace in the face of Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine. In a speech to Kazakh civil authorities and diplomats in the capital city of Nur-Sultan on Sept. 13, the pope said he wanted to “echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace.” “I have come here as a pilgrim of peace, seeking dialogue and unity. Our world urgently needs peace: it needs to recover harmony,” Pope Francis said...

Pope Francis Appeals for the Release of Kidnapped Catholics in Cameroon (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis has appealed for the release of nine Catholics kidnapped in southwest Cameroon. “I join in the appeal of the bishops of Cameroon for the liberation of some people kidnapped in the diocese of Mamfe, including five priests and a religious sister,” the pope said on Sept. 25. Speaking in his Angelus address at the end of a Mass in the southern Italian city of Matera, the pope said that he was praying that the Lord may grant peace to Cameroon, where a civil war has been raging since 2017... Cameroon has been embroiled in a civil war known as the “Anglophone Crisis” in which armed separatists from the Anglophone regions of the country in the northwest and southwest have taken part in an uprising against government forces. Both sides have been accused of atrocities, including the murder and torture of civilians...

Pope Francis and the path to peace: A return to Helsinki Accords and dialogue (Vatican News)

“Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs. We need leaders who, on the international level, can enable peoples to grow in mutual understanding and dialogue, and thus give birth to a new ‘spirit of Helsinki’, the determination to strengthen multilateralism, to build a more stable and peaceful world, with an eye to future generations.” With these words, Pope Francis offered his thoughts about the future of the world, not giving in to the tremendous and dead-end logic of military escalation that threatens to destroy humanity. As always, he continues to point to concrete paths toward peace, paths that avoid the old logics of military alliances, economic colonization, and the overwhelming power of international powers...

Growing List of Successful Nonviolent Actions Used Instead of Wars (World Beyond War)

Studies find nonviolence more likely to succeed, and those successes longer lasting.

We’re building (use the contact form to help us) a list of largely successful, overwhelmingly nonviolent, action campaigns used instead of war, meaning campaigns used in situations like invasions, coups, and occupations in which wars are often used, and campaigns that are not a real mix of nonviolent and violent actions (there is a lot to learn from those too), and not campaigns that failed. These can be large or small, but need to demonstrate the power of nonviolent action / unarmed civilian defense / unarmed protection. We’ll be adding to this list and linking to more details.

● When French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in 1923, the German government called on its citizens to resist without physical violence. People nonviolently turned public opinion in Britain, the U.S., and even in Belgium and France, in favor of the occupied Germans. By international agreement, the French troops were withdrawn.

● In Lebanon, 30 years of Syrian domination was ended through a large-scale, nonviolent uprising in 2005.

● In Germany in 1920, a coup overthrew and exiled the government, but on its way out the government called for a general strike. The coup was undone in five days.

● In Algeria in 1961, four French generals staged a coup. Nonviolent resistance undid it in a few days.

● In the Soviet Union in 1991, Gorbachev was arrested, tanks sent to major cities, media shut down, and protests banned. But nonviolent protest ended the coup in a few days.

● In the first Palestinian intifada in the 1980s, much of the subjugated population effectively became self-governing entities through nonviolent noncooperation.

● Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia freed themselves from Soviet occupation through nonviolent resistance prior to the USSR’s collapse. See the film Singing Revolution.

● Nonviolent resistance in Western Sahara has forced Morocco to offer an autonomy proposal.

● In the final years of German occupation of Denmark and Norway during WWII, the Nazis effectively no longer controlled the population.

● Nonviolent movements have removed U.S. bases from Ecuador and the Philippines, and prevented the creation of a military training ground in Montenegro.

● Gandhi’s efforts were key to removing the British from India.

● When the Soviet military invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, there were demonstrations, a general strike, refusal to cooperate, removal of street signs, persuasion of troops. Despite clueless leaders conceding, the take-over was slowed, and the credibility of the Soviet Communist Party ruined.

● Nonviolence ended the occupations of towns in Donbass during the past 8 years.

● Nonviolence in Ukraine has blocked tanks, talked soldiers out of fighting, pushed soldiers out of areas. People are changing road signs, putting up billboards, standing in front of vehicles, getting bizarrely praised for it by a U.S. President in a State of the Union speech.

● Nonviolent Peaceforce has a long record of greater success than armed UN “peace keepers.”

● New Zealand Peacekeepers with guitars instead of guns succeeded where armed peacekeepers had repeatedly failed, in ending war in Bougainville, as shown in the film Soldiers without Guns.

● Example from Liberia: Film: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

● Tunisia overthrow in 2011.

● Overthrow of military regime in El Salvador in 1944, as recounted in A Force More Powerful.

● Overthrow in Serbia in 1990s.

● In Colombia, a community has claimed its land and largely removed itself from war. See here, here, and here.

● In Mexico, a community has done the same. See here, here, and here.

● In Ecuador, a community has used strategic nonviolent action and communication to turn back an armed takeover of land by a mining company, as shown in the film Under Rich Earth.

● In Canada, indigenous people have used nonviolent action to prevent the armed installation of pipelines.

● In South Africa, nonviolent actions played the key role in ending Apartheid.

They've missed the nonviolent popular uprisings in Sudan in 1985 and 2019 respectively which removed two different military dictators. Actually they've missed a lot - I once again recommend the book Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J Stephan for a fuller treatment of the subject.

Cardinal Parolin: Nuclear weapons threaten human existence (Vatican News)

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, reiterates the moral imperative to eliminate nuclear weapons, and calls on all parties to respond to the nuclear threat with a collective and concerted response. “As long as nuclear weapons exist, we cannot rule out the possibility of their use, which threatens 'any possible future for our common home' as well as humankind’s very existence,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, quoting Pope Francis, on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Grounding his speech in the current scenario in which the conflict in Ukraine has brought large-scale war back to Europe and triggered “the repugnant threat of the use of nuclear weapons,” the Vatican Secretary of State said this “illustrates just how close the world has come to the abyss of nuclear war”...

I'll be good dad....JMJ....

Canadian socialist heath care sysytem would make Mengele proud. They are murdering the poor and the elderly under the endearing term Euthanasia. Adam Nichols was recently murdered after waiting in line a whole month. his illness a sudden hearing loss which caused him to be deppressed, Nichols was 61, Where is the Church?

>168 brone: Where is the Church?

The Church is each and all of us. The Church is espousing a consistent ethic of life which opposes all forms of killing - euthanasia, abortion, war, capital punishment, weapons of mass destruction, small arms and light weapons, preventable diseases, poverty, lack of education, human trafficking, torture, authoritarian regimes and their security services... the list goes on and on. Where are you?

Pope Francis Appeals to Putin for an Immediate Ceasefire in Ukraine

Pope Francis made a direct appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for an immediate ceasefire on Sunday, imploring him to end the “spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine...

“Pray in solidarity” for Release of Priests, Nun, Others in Captivity: Bishop in Cameroon

The Catholic Bishop of Cameroon’s Kumba Diocese is calling on the people of God in the Central African nation “to pray in solidarity” for the release of the five Catholic Priests, a Catholic Nun, and three others who were abducted from a Parish of Mamfe Diocese last month. In a Sunday, October 9 letter addressed to Vicars General in Cameroon, Bishop Agapitus Enuyehnyoh Nfon calls upon Priests in Cameroon to offer Holy Mass for the intention of the “safe and sound” release of the nine...

Both from ACI Africa

Joe Biden has sent 100 billion to Ukraine to make sure he does call for a cease fire. Ronald Reagan once quipped to St Gorbachov give it up we will just out spend you....JMJ....

"Where are you?" so abstract but cunningly implicit....JMJ....

A homosexual man in Palestine was beheaded and his dismembered body paraded through the streets of Hebron last week, Gay people are thrown of buildings in Iraq, hung from cranes in Iran, tell someone you are gay in Saudi Arabia well you get the point. If this old bus driver hears about it and speaks out against it, why can't the BBC, AP, Reuters, NBC, Fox, did I mention the Vatican, Cardinal Marx, James Martin, Belgian Bishops so brave in the West. Is it that they can't speak out against the religion of Peace or are they awaiting the usual leftist spin that, somehow the Jews are at fault here....JMJ....

The devout "catholic" President of the US comrade Biden announced yesterday that the murder of babies in the womb will be codified as law in the US effectively nullifying The Supreme Court decision to send it back to the states, silence from most bishops of the US and Vatican....JMJ....

Fr. Enrique Martinez Gamboa was kidnapped in Managua by Daniel Ortega's communist thugs, on Monday at 5:00pm from his parrish rectory of St Martha's church.Another exiled priest in Italy tweeted, EL dia se ayer a la 5:00pm, fue secestrado el Sacerdote Parroco de la Parroguia Sant Martha, Managua. El Padre Enrique Matinez G. Los Sacredotes y la Iglisia Catolica, enigimos la liberacion y el cese de la persecusian contra la Iglesia y el clero justica, libertad y democ! Danny boy is clearly not impressed with the Holy See's admonitions....AMDG....

Let’s Continue Praying for “a shared peaceful future”: Catholic Bishop in South Sudan (ACI Africa)

The Catholic Bishop of South Sudan’s Rumbek Dioceses has urged the people of God in the East-Central African nation to continue praying for peace, unity and reconciliation towards “a shared peaceful future” in the country... Bishop Christian Carlassare underscored the value of prayer in the search for lasting peace in the world’s youngest nation. Bishop Carlassare called “on the people of God and Christian community, especially the Catholics of South Sudan, to pray for unity, peace and reconciliation so that the spirit of God will lead the people of this great nation towards a shared peaceful future that we are yearning for.” He added, “Without prayers, there will be no peaceful future because it's only prayers that will bring you closer to God and to have what you want in life and the country”...

>173 brone:

As far as I am aware, all the abuses that you mention have been reported and roundly condemned by most of the people, institutions and media that you mention, and rightly so. However condemning abuses committed by a few is very different from condemning a whole religion followed by 1.3 billion people. But I'm glad you recognise that Islam is fundamentally a religion of peace.

the usual leftist spin that, somehow the Jews are at fault

Sadly anti-semitism is to be found in many places, although I would say that anti-Islam sentiments are still much more prevalent than anti-semitism in the western world. Most recently in UK it is the far right which has made it into the news with anti-semitic comments by the likes of Nigel Farage and his ilk (cf Jewish groups criticise Nigel Farage for calling Grant Shapps ‘globalist’ and similar stories).

Here's another example of a violent situation which often receives rather one-sided reporting in the west. As the Catholic bishops amongst others have said, rather than stereotyping one community or the other, what is needed is good governance.

Nigeria election: Dangers of being religious in a religious nation (BBC)

"We don't have freedom to worship. If you dress like a Muslim, you are in trouble. We are just hiding our religion in fear of not being attacked," Ibrahim Bello, a Muslim living in south-eastern Nigeria, told the BBC. Obinna Nnadi, a Christian who once lived in northern Kaduna state felt similarly fearful: "I felt it was not safe to practise my religion there. I had to pack my family and leave"...

Muslim Leaders in Senegal Resisting External Extremism, Committed to Fraternity: Bishop (ACI Africa)

Religious leaders from different faith groups in Senegal have maintained a commitment to live in harmony with each other, a Catholic Bishop in the West African nation has said, adding that Muslim leaders in particular have expressed a commitment to resist the influence of extremism that is reining in the country’s neighbors... “Senegal is a country with a strong Islamic majority,” Bishop Mamba says in the Wednesday, October 12 Agenzia Fides report. He adds, “We strive to promote the spirit of dialogue in daily life, which we share with our brothers of the Islamic faith. It is not uncommon to see families in which different faiths coexist; members who adhere to the traditional faith alongside Muslims and Christians. In this context, we not only share daily life, but also celebrate holidays together and mourn together.” The Senegalese Catholic Bishop told Agenzia Fides that Muslim leaders work with the state to maintain cohesion between the various Islamic brotherhoods and “prevent them from being influenced by extreme tendencies outside Senegal that could lead to divisions or violence”...

Embrace Servant Leadership and “a lot will change”: Cardinal to Nigerian Political Actors (ACI Africa)

There is need for political actors in Nigeria to adopt servant leadership as lived by Jesus Christ, John Cardinal Onaiyekan of Nigeria has said. Cardinal Onaiyekan who was speaking during his visit to St. Francis Catholic College in Nigeria’s Oyo Diocese on Thursday, October 13 said that embracing servant leadership will guarantee positive change in the West African nation. “In the Nigeria that we have today, we are very much in need of leaders who will serve our needs; leaders who will adopt the method of Jesus of servant leadership,” the Nigerian Cardinal said. “If we really want our country to be great for our children to enjoy in future, all those who are leaders must be servants,” he said, and added, “If just half of our leaders embrace this idea of servantship, a lot of things will change.” Cardinal Onaiyekan said that through servant leadership, vices such as “money laundering and impunity will be minimized”...

More than 840,000 Responded to the Pope’s Call to Pray the Rosary for Peace (ACI Africa)

More than 840,000 people from 140 countries joined in praying the rosary Oct. 18 to ask for peace and unity throughout the world. The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) organized the annual prayer initiative, which saw parishes, schools, and families from around the globe take part. At his Angelus prayer last Sunday, Pope Francis lent his support to the effort and encouraged parents to join their children in praying for the people of Ukraine in particular. “Let us join them and entrust to the intercession of Our Lady the martyred Ukrainian people and other peoples who suffer due to war and every form of violence and poverty,” the Holy Father said...

Abducted Priests, Nun in Cameroon Released, Diocese Directs “Rosary in Thanksgiving” (ACI Africa)

The nine people who were Kidnapped on September 16 from St. Mary's Catholic Nchang Parish of Mamfe Diocese in Cameroon, including five Catholic Priests and a Nun, have been released. In a statement shared with ACI Africa Monday, October 24, the Local Ordinary of Mamfe Diocese announces “with great joy the release of all nine who were abducted” and directs the people of God under his pastoral care to pray a decade of the Holy Rosary “in thanksgiving to God”... “Permit me to use this opportunity to commend your collective efforts at prayer,” Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo says in his statement dated Sunday, October 23, and adds, “Following what has ensued, we too can confidently declare with the English hymnodist, John Ellerton, that the voice of prayer is never silent”... “I am sincerely grateful to all those who joined us in this collective effort in praying for the safety and release of our brothers and sisters,” the Cameroonian Bishop says, and adds, “Words will only do scant justice in expressing my sentiments of gratitude to all those who collaborated with us in the process of negotiating for their safety and release”... “Taking away the freedom of our fellow brothers and sisters in order to make money at all cost is inhuman, and should be desisted from whoever engages in such... For those who make utterances - categorical or implicit - which fuel such actions, I suppose it is time to rethink your approach and ensure that the dignity of the human person is upheld in every way possible”...

"Let us be free from the nuclear nightmare ": Pope Francis (ACI Africa)

the pope underlined that he was making a plea for peace at a time when it has been “gravely violated, assaulted, and trampled upon … in Europe.” “Today, in fact, something we dreaded and hoped never to hear of again is threatened outright: the use of atomic weapons, which even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki continued wrongly to be produced and tested,” Pope Francis said Oct. 25. Francis highlighted how St. John XXIII pleaded with all government leaders to spare the world the horrors of war in 1962 at a time “when military confrontation and nuclear holocaust seemed imminent” and said that he wanted to make this appeal his own 60 years later...

"This single-minded extremism must end, and we implore Prisident Biden to recognize the humanity in preborn children and give genuine care needed by women in this country" Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori....JMJ....

SUDAN, SOUTH SUDAN: PAX Christi to Start New Project with Religious Sisters on Peace Building (AMECEA)

Hiroshima survivors plead for nuclear-free world as global tensions rise (Guardian)

“Guard against violence, hate speech”: Catholic Bishop in Nigeria to Politicians (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis Calls on Catholics to Become Peacemakers (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis on Tuesday called on Catholics to “disarm their hearts” and become peacemakers. “Peace is not achieved by conquering or defeating someone, it is never violent,” the pontiff said before praying the Angelus on the Solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1. All Saints’ Day is celebrated in honor of all the saints of the Church — known or unknown...

Biden urges Americans to take a stand against political violence: ‘We’re facing a defining moment’ (Guardian)

Joe Biden has issued a rallying cry for the preservation of democracy and a dark warning that America could face political violence as it barrels toward next week’s midterm elections...

Pope Francis Cautions Nigerian Youth against Passivity amid “fundamentalism, terrorism” (ACI Africa)

Note his caution against "passivity". Nonviolence is not inaction nor is it passive.

Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch has cancelled all his appointments for the time being after recieving death threats for his opposition to the synodal path. keyword cancel....JMJ....

Pope Francis Calls for End of Death Penalty during Bahrain Visit (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis spoke out against the death penalty and the need to guarantee the right to life for all during his trip to the Kingdom of Bahrain... “stressing in particular the themes of respect, tolerance, and religious freedom,” he said... “These are, above all, commitments that need constantly to be put into practice so that religious freedom will be complete and not limited to freedom of worship; that equal dignity and equal opportunities will be concretely recognized for each group and for every individual; that no forms of discrimination exist and that fundamental human rights are not violated but promoted.” These commitments begin, he said, with the right to life. “I think in the first place of the right to life, of the need to guarantee that right always, including for those being punished, whose lives should not be taken,” he continued...

Pope Francis Urges Muslim-Catholic Collaboration for Peace during Visit to Bahrain

Pope Francis met with Muslim leaders in the Gulf-kingdom of Bahrain on Friday with a message that Catholics and Muslims alike are called to work to promote peace in the world. Speaking at the Grand Mosque on the grounds of Bahrain’s Sakhir Palace on Nov. 4, the pope told the Muslim Council of Elders that he wanted to “journey together in the spirit of Francis of Assisi.” “God is the source of peace. May he enable us to be ‘channels of his peace’ everywhere,” Pope Francis said. The pope added: “The God of peace never brings about war, never incites hatred, never supports violence. We, who believe in him, are called to promote peace with tools of peace, such as encounter, patient negotiations and dialogue, which is the oxygen of peaceful coexistence”... Pope Francis told the council: “We who are descended from Abraham, the father of peoples in faith, cannot be concerned merely with those who are ‘our own’ but, as we grow more and more united, we must speak to the entire human community, to all who dwell on this earth”... Al-Tayeb and Francis both issued calls for peace in Ukraine...During the pope’s second trip to the Arabian Peninsula, he spoke about the importance of religious freedom and the role of women in public life.

Bishop in Nigeria Advocates for “culture of a strong legal basis” to Address Extremism

There is need for governments, including those in Africa, to have in place a “culture of a strong legal basis” to address the challenge of religious extremism, a Catholic Bishop in Nigeria has said. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah who was addressing the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia on Thursday, November 3 in prelude to the Group of 20’s meeting later this month emphasized the need to put an end to crimes “in the name of faith”. “Governments must develop the culture of a strong legal basis for common citizenship with the Constitution as the supreme law of the land,” Bishop Kukah said in his presentation titled, “The Weaponization of Religious Identity in Contemporary West Africa”. The Nigerian Catholic Bishop added, “Innocent citizens cannot lose their lives due to cultural or religious claims that are contrary to the laws of natural justice, or subjected with impunity to spurious religious claims when we are not in a theocracy. “ “As we see in Nigeria and elsewhere, no citizen should have the right to take the life of another or cause injury on grounds of any sort of divine claim”... “Decisive punishments must be meted out to those who kill in the name of faith.” He appealed to faith leaders to be prophetic and reach out to their respective governments to adhere to legal frameworks, saying, “Religious leaders of the faith being used must put pressure on their states to follow the rule of law and not be afraid of being targeted by extremists.” “Silence in this case is taken for approval, whether intended or not”...

Two different articles published by ACI Africa which both illustrate aspects of peacebuilding in general, and Catholic Social Doctrine and the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative in particular. Although it might be tempting to dismiss these as being related only to the Middle East or Africa, the current war in Ukraine and the assault on democracy in the USA show that the Global North, on both sides of the Pond and both sides of the former Cold War, has no room for complacency. As the good bishop says, faith leaders need to be prophetic and reach out to their respective governments to adhere to legal frameworks, whether in Nigeria or the USA, while the Holy Father's exhortation, “The God of peace never brings about war, never incites hatred, never supports violence. We, who believe in him, are called to promote peace with tools of peace, such as encounter, patient negotiations and dialogue, which is the oxygen of peaceful coexistence” is true for all times and all places. In the words of a prayer attributed to another Francis a thousand years earlier, "Make me a channel of your peace..."

!st Amendment?

My husband plays organ in church once a month, and this week one of the hymns was to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers. I had to ask that he not practice it around me, as I had such a negative reaction to it. That seems to me to be the wrong message in these days. Even if you have set different words to the tune.

>198 MarthaJeanne: The lyrics were written in 1865, just after the Civil War in the United States. I imagine it appealed to those who had just gotten out of the military, even though the battle is ostensibly with Satan, and not with one's fellow human beings.

It really does sound quite jarring to the ear and mind nowadays, and my understanding is that there are many churches out there which have removed it from their hymnals.

>198 MarthaJeanne:, >199 MsMixte:

I think I've posted elsewhere that we recently sang it in an Anglican mass with the words, "Onward Christian pilgrims, Christ will be our light, see the heav'nly vision, breaks upon our sight". It's certainly a rousing tune that everyone can join in with, but I much prefer the new nonviolent lyrics. The image of pilgrims illustrates who we are, particularly as we nowadays view ourselves as a Pilgrim Church, and removes the militaristic and triumphalist connotations.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic thats one we used to sing as kids in church and Faith of Our Fathers, speaking of fathers these were the guys who defeated facism, and Japanese agression, these patriots would be cancelled today along with their hymns....JMJ....

>201 brone:

Faith of Our Fathers is a stirring old hymn, but I think it refers to interdenominational religious persecution and not to geopolitical wars between Great Powers, and it has little if anything to do with patriots - indeed Catholics in UK were at times accused of being unpatriotic because they put their faith over and above nationalistic political considerations.

Where I come from "Faith of our Fathers Holy Faith" was Catholic and Patriotic....JMJ....

White poppies gaining acceptance in UK, say campaigners (The Guardian)

Concerns about conflicts and more young people becoming politicised thought to be behind increasing use of peace symbol...

I'm in UK at the moment and I haven't seen anyone selling red poppies, which is unusual, although I have seen people wearing them. White poppies are usually ordered by post rather than being sold on the streets, I believe.

Edited to add: For those on the other side of the Pond, 11th November is the day UK, and I think much of Europe, remembers the dead from various wars. At 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month the armistice which ended the Great War was signed, and that's now the moment when there are ceremonies at various war memorials, including a two minute silence. It's often shifted to the nearest weekend. In UK from the 1920s it became the custom to wear a poppy, reminiscent of the poppies that sprang up in the disturbed earth of the World War I battlefields. Red poppies, sold to raise money for the Royal British Legion, an ex-service personnel charity, are the more common, but white poppies from the Peace Pledge Union have also been worn since 1933 to hold on to the key message of remembrance, 'never again'. As this article suggests, they are becoming increasingly popular.

Many Americans lay buried beneath the green fields of France, Flanders, Holland, Luxembourg. No American killed in either war was ever returned home to lay in National Cemeteries or family plots, they will remain forever young (Dylan) where they fell....JMJ...

Now speaking for those who never get to be young. Thr Roman Catholic Church has decidedly thrown its red hats into the abortion ring, One of its Academy's, The Pontifical Academy for Life, or should it be against life, corporate America, media throughout the world, are in a frenzy that Roe be overturned, the idea that a women does not have the right to slaughter a child in the womb and now even outside of it has caused fire bombings, an assassination attempt on a SCOTUS justice, desecration of Catholic churches. All those mentioned above have thrown chum in this water, however Catholics who oppose the industrial slaughter of innocent life remain committed to protect the lives of the unborn and fight against the evil of our enemies who extinguish innocent life. It has been estimated that over 100,000 babies are now living because of the Roe decision....JMJ....

>206 brone:

Catholics who oppose the "industrial slaughter" of any and all human life indeed remain committed to nonviolence, but we don't have "enemies", we have sisters and brothers, and we rarely describe one of our fellow human beings who sincerely disagrees with us as "evil", although we do oppose acts which we consider evil, which includes any taking of human life.

> 206 Language like "slaughter a child in the womb" is not really useful as an invitation to discussion, but you already know that?

An invitation to discussion, What would you call it?....AMDG....

>206 brone:

Since you are obviously so focused on the abortion issue, rather than the broader approach to nonviolence and a consistent ethic of life which runs through this thread, you might be interested in the dedicated Childbirth, contraception and abortion thread, which focuses on that narrower topic. I don't think there are any posting guidelines there apart from LT's general Terms of Service, so you might find that thread suits your posting style better than here.

Oh! please let me stay, as much as I see its just you and me here and an occasional guest who agrees with you. If you keep censoring me and trying to coerce me to leave who else is gonna tell the emperor, he is naked....JMJ....

>212 brone:

You are actually a guest, as you are not a member of this group as far as I can see, whereas most of the people who only post occasionally are in fact members. I was only trying to be helpful, to both you and them. As a guest, you might want to consider respecting the group that you are visiting.

There is an online Zoom conference on Nonviolent Resistance in the World Today on Saturday, Dec. 3rd (11am Pacific/ 12pm Mountain/ 1pm Central/ 2pm Eastern time), when well-known peace activist Fr John Dear will welcome Maria Stephan to speak on the methodology of Gandhian/Kingian nonviolence and resistance as it is being used around the world today. Maria is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades and one which I often refer to, which details how nonviolent resistance works. She will talk about recent global movements of nonviolent resistance, how it can be used with peacebuilding approaches, and how we can build global solidarity for a more just, democratic and peaceful world. You can read more about her here.

Register here. If you have any questions, email Kassandra at beatitudescentermb@gmail.com.

Full disclosure: I know and have worked with both John and Maria.

>216 brone:

The Group Admin has no reason to hide or remove posts which respect the group guidelines. However snide comments unrelated to the topic have no place in a conversation on a serious matter like nonviolence, nor indeed on the more specific topic of abortion which you have raised. You are welcome to contact me by private message if you wish to discuss off-topic issues surrounding your posts and I will always respond privately and try to help you, but let's try to remain on-topic on the public forum. And just to remind you, there is a thread on abortion here which you might like to contribute to.

Dozens of countries sign deal to curb bombing in urban areas (Guardian)

Eighty countries led by the US, UK and France have signed a declaration in Dublin pledging to refrain from urban bombing, the first time countries have agreed to curb the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The international agreement is a product of more than three years of negotiation – predating the war in Ukraine – but was not endorsed by several major military powers, including Russia, China, Israel and India. Campaigners said they hope the agreement will help change military norms, with two-thirds of Nato members expected to sign up, and lead to a taboo similar to those against chemical weapons or cluster bombs... Critical to the success of the negotiations was persuading the US to sign up this summer, which has paved the way for other Nato members, including Germany and Turkey, to make the commitment. Many lobbyists and NGOs highlight the work of Ireland, as the coordinator of the initiative... The key passage in the text commits signatories to ensure their militaries engage in “restricting or refraining, as appropriate, from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, when their use may be expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects”...

A positive step, but one recalls the famous appeal by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 1st September 1939 to "the Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and His Britannic Majesty" on the same topic:

The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centres of population during the course of the hostilities which have raged in various quarters of the earth during the past few years, which has resulted in the maiming and in the death of thousands of defenceless men, women, and children, has sickened the hearts of every civilised man and woman, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity. If resort is had to this form of inhuman barbarism during the period of the tragic conflagration with which the world is now confronted, hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings who have no responsibility for, and who are not even remotely participating in, the hostilities which have now broken out, will lose their lives. I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every government which may be engaged in hostilities publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event, and under no circumstances, undertake the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified cities, upon the understanding that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents. I request an immediate reply.

Sadly, Roosevelt's appeal had no effect on the governments of Britain and Germany, and a mere two years later he reversed his own position and the USA joined the ruthless aerial bombardment of civilians in Europe; a few years later his successor approved the additional slaughter of "hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings" with the atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities. And eighty years later, it has become the norm for civilians to be deliberately targeted by virtually all belligerents in wars, by both state and non-state actors. One hopes that it could now again be said that this form of barbarism "has sickened the hearts of every civilised person, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity", and that it really is time for it to be declared "taboo".

"We raise our prayers to God for peace in Ukraine": Vatican Secretary of State (ACI Africa)

Cardinal Pietro Parolin offered Mass for peace in Ukraine on Thursday in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. The Vatican secretary of state said in his homily on Nov. 17 that “there is no situation so compromised that the Spirit of God cannot resurrect.” “This evening’s prayer for peace, which unites all our hearts, is rooted in this trust. We are witnessing the horror of a war which after so many months continues to sow destruction and death. We also see the failure of attempts to restore peace or find solutions that lead to it, while blood and tears continue to flow, in the increasingly painful grip of cold and darkness,” he said. “Nonetheless, we raise our prayers to God for peace in Ukraine and in every country suffering from war, so that faith in his promises of life may not be lacking and that they will soon find fulfillment. In spite of failing human wills and efforts, let us ask God to pour out his Spirit on our humanity longing for peace, to be freed from the scourge of armed strife”...

Let me wish everyone a blessed feast of Christ the King. I was struck by two antiphons in today's Daily Office, "He will be called the 'Peacemaker'" (first psalm of Evening Prayer I) and "he will speak of peace to the peoples" (first psalm of Morning Prayer). Amen! May we also be called peacemakers and speak of peace to the peoples!

I'd like to draw everybody's attention to a paper entitled The prophecy of nonviolence: Hope for the future by Marie Dennis and Ken Butigan, published last week in preparation for a conference on "Pope Francis, Nonviolence and the Fullness of Pacem in Terris” to be held in Rome next month. I will be at the conference and will be giving a short presentation. This paper gives a good scriptural, theological and spiritual overview of nonviolence not as some sort of modern niche fad, but as something at the very heart of Christianity at least since Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It's only 78 pages long, but if you can't face reading that much, I highly recommend reading the first half up to page 36 or so, as the second half is mainly practical applications which might not be of such great general interest.

>224 brone:

Please see >221 John5918:

>225 John5918: Thank you for doing your job.

Note: Attacks on the group moderator are attacks on another LT member and against the terms of service.

“I pray for their redemption”, Catholic Girl Tortured by Boko Haram in Nigeria Says (ACI Africa)

A Nigerian Catholic girl who was forced to watch as his {sic} father was beheaded, after which she was captured and tortured for days has forgiven his tormentors, saying that she prays for the militants’ redemption... “They did the unthinkable to us,” Janada says in the report, and explains... “It’s hard to forgive and forget, and with all that I have gone through at the hands of Boko Haram I can’t even believe that I am the one saying this, but I have forgiven them in my heart, and I pray for the redemption of their souls,” she says...

God bless her.

I pray that the pope will speak out more forcibly about the genocide committed by Jihadist extremists....JMJ.... How can you know they are attacks big brother won't post them.

>228 brone:

I find the response of this courageous young woman in forgiving and praying for the redemption of her attackers sends a far more striking message than any public condemnation. They are condemned by their own actions. No sane human being, whether Muslim, Christian or any other religion (or none), can find justification for what they tried to force her and her father to do - "unthinkable", to use her own words. Yet they were forgiven by their victim. A remarkable inspiration to us all. I humbly pray that I may have the strength to forgive those who harm me, and I pray for forgiveness and redemption for all those who are misguided enough to believe that violence is a solution to their problems.

Having said that, I think you'll find that the Holy Father and many other Church and civic leaders are constantly speaking up about the violence in Nigeria and elsewhere, but with the understanding that bringing peace and justice is a far more complex issue than simply speaking our forcibly against "jihadist extremists" or any other violent group.

"Big Brother" is a very popular TV show in Nigeria, and you're right, they don't speak about political violence, but fortunately people don't rely on such shows to get news. However local and global media are full of reports about these attacks, and religious and civic leaders in Nigeria are very visible speaking regularly and publicly about the situation. I've posted a number of articles in which Nigerian bishops speak about the wide range of issues which need to be addressed.

Well all that is good stuff, myself and ilk minded would arm ourselves and defend our families from these thugs....AMDG.....

>230 brone:

In which case you and your family would probably all be dead. Those are brave and, dare I say, foolish words from safety far away. I don't know what your personal experience is of attacks by armed insurgents, but in my own personal experience of many such incidents, if I had had a weapon I would have been dead many times over, long ago. There were always more of them than there was of me, and they were hyped up and ready to shoot at the least provocation. I might have been able to kill the first one or two, but the rest would have overwhelmed me. By being non-aggressive, non-threatening, nonviolent, by talking to them calmly and respectfully, by being compliant, I have survived so far, thanks be to God.

Over here, having a weapon also makes you a target for thieves who would like to get their hands on it. When I was in South Africa at a time when there was a spate of hijackings, the three most common items stolen were the car itself, the driver's mobile phone, and the firearm which the driver was carrying in the misguided belief that it would protect them from hijackings.

There is a lovely passage in Heinlein's Tunnel in the sky where the older sister recommends not having a firearm, because when you have a gun you feel big and strong and aggressive and look for trouble. If you don't have it you feel small and weak and scared and run away to hide. Both Heinlein and the fictional sister were military. They were not primarily nonviolent types.

Arm myself and protect my family from the safety of afar are foolish words you think... Church teaching would support me. "The prohibition of murder does not abrogate the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. Legitimate defense is a grave duty for whoever is responsible for the lives of others or the common good....JMJ....

>233 brone:

Could you please cite the source of that quote from Church teaching so that we can read it in context and see what else it says?

But no, I am saying it is foolish to co-opt a tragic example of armed insurgency in Nigeria into your worldview from the safety of the USA, far from the action in question. Do you really believe that if a peaceful Nigerian family had been armed, that incident would not have occurred? And once again, I wonder what has actually been your personal experience of armed insurgents?

Might be worth drawing attention to post #78 in the Mass Shootings thread in LT's Pro and Con group.

For what it's worth, let's note that man who stopped the shooter in Colorado was not armed - and when he got hold of the shooter's weapon, he used it to bludgeon the guy into submission. Meaning of course that there are still almost no examples of the "good guy with a gun" theory propounded the the pro-mass-shooting lobby

The shooter was stopped by a bystander who was not armed, and even when he got possession of the perpetrator's gun, he did not use it to shoot anyone but used the minimum force necessary to subdue and apprehend the criminal. Apart from the lives which were saved by subduing the shooter, another human life, that of the disturbed young shooter himself, was spared and he will be brought to justice, which almost certainly wouldn't have been the case if firearms had been used against him.

I give you authentic Church teaching and you imply "there has got to be more" Legitimate defense has always been church teaching or has that being revised also....AMDG

" Pro mass shooting lobby" wow and you call me inflamatory!

" and once again I wonder" again your implication screams of "what do you know". Myself, my father, brother, and children have plenty of "experience"but why tell you, you would use some implication to condemn our experience as unjust....AMDG....

>236 brone:

So you're not willing to help us to understand what you are saying? I don't understand your resistance to sharing sources. Any text needs to be read in context, not in isolation. OK, I've now googled it, but you could have saved me the trouble. It's #2321 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"{T}he right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm". As we saw in >235 John5918:, an unjust aggressor was rendered unable to inflict harm without the use of lethal force. Or, as Pope Francis said about the Yazidis in Iraq, the genocide against them must be stopped, but not by escalating the conflict, not by bombing, not by killing more people. As always, the basic teaching of the Catechism is interpreted by the pope and bishops according to the "Signs of the Times". Volumes have been written on this, and it has been carefully studied by bishops, priests, nuns, theologians, academics, "just peace" experts, peacebuilders, victims, survivors and others within the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. In >223 John5918: I mentioned a paper which summarises some of the conversation. And even in the traditional "just war" theory there are strict conditions to be met before violence may be considered licit. What's more, "licit" is not the same as "desirable". But I'm repeating what has been said often before but appears to fall on deaf ears.

>237 brone:

That was part of a direct quote from the Pro and Con group where inflammatory language seems to be the norm. The Catholic Tradition is not the place to generate new inflammatory language.

>238 brone:

If you think that your experience has some relevance to the Nigerian situation, please feel free to share it. If you think it has some relevance to the wider issue of nonviolence, again please feel free to share it. Vague hints don't make for a fruitful conversation.

Since "jihadist extremism" surfaces from time to time in this thread, I quote at length from this article demonstrating the complexity of the situation and challenging some of the accepted narratives which might be of interest to our group.

Sahel insurgency: What policymakers need to do differently (The New Humanitarian)

The power of jihadist extremists in the Sahel has been on the rise for the past decade... There are lessons to be learned in better tracking their expansion and predicting what they may do next...

There are three main problems with the current status quo. First, there is a default assumption of the state being in control of territory. In reality, the state may be only one among many actors vying for control – and they may not even be the dominant one. Armed groups may exercise as much or even more influence. Secondly, armed group control is as much about controlling populations as territory. Indeed, armed groups often seek to control people before they seek to dominate territory. Enforcing the contours of what populations can and can't do permits control without a permanent presence. Third, control is not zero-sum. Instead, these conflicts are frequently characterised by overlapping layers of control and fluid forms of influence...

Based on our extensive research across various conflicts, there are three essential elements to understanding control. The first is to identify and understand jihadist strategy across the political, economic, and social spheres of civilian life. Often, there is an overemphasis on the violence these groups enact or on territorial dividing lines, without a more systemic understanding of their operations. The second is identifying the practices and techniques they are applying to exert control over the population. Again, this should include violence but also “softer” tactics like the provisions of services, the use of informal courts, regulation of aid, and any “rules” or social strictures they expect people to obey. The third and final piece is gauging their capacities, coercive as well as financial (i.e. where do they get their money? How do they allocate funds?) and organisational (i.e. do they have a clear chain of command, and coherent shadow governance structures?). This, in turn, allows us to better predict what they can or might do next...

their approach now focuses on “competitive control”. This is not a new idea: Bernard Fall described how the Viet Cong used it to entrench themselves in Vietnam, and David Kilcullen writes about how the Taliban used it to gain a foothold in villages across Afghanistan. It engages civilians in a way that can seem – to some extent – benign. Militants may provide food, loans, and legal rulings. Equally, they may provide protection against threats (bandits, corrupt officials) and even rudimentary healthcare. These tactics are designed to exploit civilian frustration with the government... However, these tactics sit alongside extreme violence and punishment... there is a discernable pattern: Assassinations of notables (religious or political elites who might pose a challenge), and low-key efforts to infiltrate communities using “carrots” (providing “justice” and controlling economic resources are common ones), precede or accompany an intensification of insurgent violence and restrictions. Control of the population, rather than territory, is the objective...

Militarised security-centred approaches have shown their limitations in West Africa. Anti-Western (read French) sentiments are growing, and democracy backsliding, with six military coups in the last two years. It’s about time to seriously reflect on local populations’ needs, which include inclusive mechanisms of access to resources, provision of services, and paths to fair justice... Tensions over natural resources may provide the opportunity for insurgents to establish parallel systems of justice, which some come to view as more effective than the state...

A striking quote from a civilian in Ukraine in this BBC article: Ukraine war: Facing a harsh winter on the front line

"At war," says 71-year-old Anatoliy, "you don't get accidentally killed. You accidentally survive."

Speaking of violence in Africa children as young a four are working in mines in the "Democratic" republic of Congo. so that YOU (plural) can all be driving electric cars by 2050. These kids are daily breaking rocks looking for the tell tall signs of colbalt an ingredient essential to the batteries of electric cars, smart phones, ect....JMJ....

>242 brone:

Yes, that is true, and thanks for mentioning it. An appalling human rights atrocity which is a direct result of consumerism and capitalism mainly in the Global North and an indirect hangover from the atrocities of Belgian colonialism. Many people and organisations are working to halt this violence. It would be nice to see the Church in the USA put more effort into pro-life cases such as this, given that the USA is a major user of such minerals in its military-industrial complex as well as its non-military manufacturing industries. Incidentally, I can highly recommend King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism by Adam Hochschild, although I warn everybody that it is not a pleasant read.

Edited to add: Here's an example of an African Church speaking out against the extractive industries which you rightly oppose, albeit in this case not quite as appalling as the Congolese example.

Take “uncompromising stance” against Iron Ore Mining in Ghana: Catholic Bishop to Chiefs (ACI Africa)

The Catholic Bishop of Jasikan in Ghana has called upon traditional leaders in Oti and Volta regions to take “a determined and uncompromising stance” demonstrating their opposition to the mining of iron ore and other minerals “yet to be discovered”... Bishop Gabriel Akwasi Abiabo Mante says the mining of iron ore, which was discovered in five districts in Oti region will be destructive to the environment and livelihood of the people of God in the West African nation... Akwasi says mining of the mineral will have implications that “outweigh the benefits that could be derived from mining the mineral resources.” “Mining may generally create employment opportunities for local people. However, the obvious reality we know is that the quality of life of the people has been reduced due to denial of access to farm lands, leading to hunger and its related challenges,” he says... in some excavation areas in the West African nation, the “inordinate quest for wealth” has enabled the use of chemicals and hazardous methods of mining, which harm the environment...

>243 brone:

You wish to speak about Chinese communism and the measures taken by the US and Chinese governments and the Church in the face of the COVID pandemic. Fair enough. Can you please do so without ranting, and without unfounded insinuations and inflammatory labels? Otherwise posts will be removed. The Catholic Tradition group is not the place for political rants - there are other parts of LT where you are free to post such material.

As Nigeria's problems seem to gain a lot of attention in this thread, here's another "considered view" from a Nigerian archbishop about the complex situation:

Nigeria Needs Leaders Who Can Manage Cultural, Religious Diversity “very well”: Archbishop (ACI Africa)

Nigeria is in need of leaders capable of managing “very well” the cultural and religious diversity of citizens, the Catholic Archbishop of the country’s Kaduna Archdiocese has said... Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso says the West African nation’s diverse cultures and religious affiliations is “a blessing from God”. “Nigeria is a very diverse country; we all come from different cultural and religious backgrounds and our diversity is not a curse but a blessing from God,” Archbishop Ndagoso says. He adds, “We need leaders who can be able to manage our diversity very well. Therefore, if our cultural and religious backgrounds should be properly managed, it will enrich our country.” The Nigerian Archbishop says that it is regrettable that the West African nation currently has leaders who “are so nepotistic” and do not value the cultural and religious diversity. In his considered view, the lack of attentiveness to the diverse culture and religions in Africa’s most populous nation is behind the “agitation for self-determination.” “If any candidate or political party dismisses other people’s sensitivity, I think they are sending a message to them”... Archbishop Ndagoso further says that the challenges, which Nigerians have been experiencing since 2015 stem from leaders who refuse to embrace diversity, and urges the electorate to vote for political candidates who are mindful of the country’s diversity during the 25 February 2023 general elections. “Any candidate who does not care about our religious sensitivity, why should we vote the person into power? It is a waste of votes”... He adds that political candidates vying for leadership in the West African nation “must give every Nigerian a sense of belonging and what is happening now is not giving every Nigerian a sense of belonging”... “Many Nigerians barely eat two square meals a day”...

Edited to add: And another West African nation which suffers internal conflicts:

Holy Mass, Conviviality with Conflict Victims among Planned Prayer Day Activities in Chad (ACI Africa)

The celebration of Holy Eucharist in all Parishes in Chad and reaching out to those who have suffered as a result of violent conflicts in the country are among the activities Catholic Bishops in the North-Central African nation have directed for the planned Prayer Day. In a statement circulated Tuesday, November 22, the leadership of the Episcopal Conference of Chad (CET) gives directives of Chad’s Catholic Bishops and underscores the need for “spiritual deepening” in the search for lasting peace in the country... The Local Ordinary of Chad’s N’Djaména Archdiocese encourages “all initiatives that go in the direction of a spiritual deepening of this day and the possibility of finding a time of sharing or conviviality with the families that have suffered or with our brothers and sisters of different religious denominations”...

>247 brone:

For what it's worth, it is neither "censoring" nor "bullying" to point out to you that you are posting certain things on the wrong part of LT and to politely and helpfully point out to you where is the appropriate public platform on LT. You are perfectly free to post your views, but please respect the posting guidelines for each group.

>247 brone: Please do not attack our admin.

Nigeria: Priests and sisters in Rome praying for change (Vatican News)

On Saturday afternoon, the Association of Nigerian priests, religious and seminarians in Rome (NIPRELS) held a rosary procession in Saint Peter Square to intercede for their country, Nigeria... This "is not an act of protest or anything political. Not at all. It is just a people of God at the feet of the Lord on this sanctified ground of Saint Peter's Basilica, smeared by the blood of martyrs and Apostles to pray to God to intervene in the life of our nation, Nigeria... We want God to readily and rightly intervene to bring about change and radical transformation for good"... After the rosary in Saint Peter Square, the Nigerians proceeded to the Church of Sant'Anna di' Parafrenieri in the Vatican for the second part of their programme -a period of Eucharistic Adoration...

Pax Christi International hosts conference to explore Pope Francis’ practice and example of nonviolence

Theologians, grassroots activists, church officials will gather in Rome, 5-7 December

28 November 2022

Rome, Italy – Pax Christi International, along with the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the Union of Superiors General/International Union of Superiors General, has invited approximately 75 people, including theologians, church officials, and grassroots activists from around the world, to a conference entitled “Pope Francis, nonviolence, and the fullness of Pacem in Terris.” The gathering takes place in Rome at Casa La Salle from 5 to 7 December.

“By his many messages for peace, by his own example and, explicitly in his 2017 World Day of Peace message, Pope Francis has advanced the spirit, teaching, and way of active nonviolence,” said Marie Dennis, program chair of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International and the lead organizer of the meeting. “We have invited people who are grappling with nonviolence, those who are studying its many dimensions and how it applies to our Catholic faith and to our personal and collective actions, and those who are engaging with it on a daily basis in areas of conflict. We anticipate rich and challenging conversations, and a deeper understanding of how Pope Francis has been leading on this critical issue.”

Participants from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East will explore how Pope Francis has called the Church and the world to understand and adopt the nonviolent life, which is central to the survival of life on earth and to the healing of our planet.

“Pope Francis engages the catastrophic violence which plagues our world through a consistent practice that is absolutely nonviolent,” said Sr. Teresia Wamuyu Wachira, IBVM, co-president of Pax Christi International and a professor at St. Paul College in Nairobi (Kenya). “His words and actions are innovative, prophetic, and shaped by the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s tragic events, like the war in Ukraine, show us that we have an urgent need to shift our thinking and our priorities.”

The goal of this two-day encuentro is to foster a deeper understanding across sectors of the Catholic Church of Pope Francis’ teachings on the contribution of active nonviolence in divesting global violence of its deadly power, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in fostering the well-being of the whole Earth community. Examples will suggest a way forward for developing Catholic Social Teaching and an effective Catholic contribution to the Church and the world, referencing the importance of Pacem in Terris and building on what Pope Francis has envisioned in Laudato Si, Fratelli Tutti and more.

Read more about the conference here on the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative website.

For more information, contact:
Marie Dennis, marie.dennis@paxchristi.net, (+1) 202-257-1583
Erin Green, e.green@paxchristi.net

I will be participating in this conference.

Catholic Bishops in Chad Decry Violence, Call for “true inclusive national dialogue” (ACI Africa)

Catholic Bishops in Chad have decried “endemic violence” in the North-Central African nation and are urging authorities to call for “a true inclusive national dialogue”... “We cannot fail to denounce the risk of settling into this state of endemic violence if nothing is done to engage in a true inclusive national dialogue”...

‘Hell is coming’: The Ugandan army’s heavy-handed crackdown in Karamoja (The New Humanitarian)

The army’s aggressive response to a surge in cattle raiding has prompted allegations of indiscriminate detentions, killings, and torture... Torture allegations include beatings, water deprivation, and the tying of limbs and testicles... The insecurity has triggered a hunger crisis, with people too nervous to farm, and livestock losses impoverishing communities... The army says its methods are justified, and Karamoja is now “more secure and safe”... By the security forces’ own reckoning, since July 2021, security forces have arrested more than 18,000 people and killed over 300 others – all of whom the government contends were raiders shot in gunfights. More than 600 guns and around 30,000 stolen animals have also been recovered... But resentment was palpable during the recent round-up of suspects on 1 November in Moroto, the region’s largest town. Women clustered outside the fence, bringing identity cards for their loved ones. Others pleaded with the soldiers, many of whom had ripped off their name badges so they couldn’t be identified. After hours in the searing heat, most of the detainees were screened and released. One of the first to come out was a 72-year-old man who had been on his way to hospital when soldiers accosted him. “If you question, they will beat you,” he said...

An example of what actually happens on the ground when you try to resolve a problem of violence by using more violence.

Reminds me of an incident in South Sudan ten or twelve years ago when I was assisting the Anglican archbishop to resolve community conflicts in a particularly isolated and inaccessible part of the country. People were asking the local army commander to provide security in the face of attacks by opposing armed groups. The commander was surprisingly honest. "Be careful what you ask for," he said. "Yes, I can mobilise my troops, but they are not trained for law enforcement and the resolution of conflicts. They are trained to kill the enemy!"

Pope Francis: With war we all lose (Vatican News)

The Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano” anticipates the release of Pope Francis’ preface to the book “Un’enciclica sulla pace in Ucraina” (“An Encyclical on Peace in Ukraine”) in which he reiterates the senselessness of war, which, he says “offends the most holy Name of God”...

I'm not a great one for webinars and recorded Zoom calls, but I can highly recommend a conversation between my friends John Dear and Maria Stephan on "Nonviolent Resistance in the World" which can be found here. There is a passcode to watch it, MariaStephan2022! It's long - a 45 minute presentation by Maria followed by 45 minutes of conversation - but it's well worth watching, particularly the first half, Maria's presentation.

Oregon governor commutes sentences of everyone on death row in state (Guardian)

The governor of Oregon, Kate Brown announced on Tuesday that she is commuting the sentences of all of the state’s 17 inmates awaiting execution, saying all of their death sentences will be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole... “I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people – even if a terrible crime placed them in prison,” Brown said in a statement... Like Oregon, some other states are moving away from the death penalty...

Africa Well-represented in Catholic Non-Violence Initiative on “just peace” in Rome (ACI Africa)

Africa was well-represented at a recent Rome conference that explored the concept of the gospel of nonviolence and “just peace”, interrogating Catholic “just war” teaching in the present day as an example of Vatican II's call to “scrutinize the signs of the times” referenced in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 4. Members of the Clergy, women, and men Religious, and Laity from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda were among the participants in the three-day conference that concluded on December 7. Organized by Pax Christi International under the theme, “Pope Francis and the Fullness of Pacem in Terris”, the conference that brought together some 70 activists, peacebuilders, theologians, academics, war victims and survivors, Clergy, Consecrated, and Laity was a follow up to previous meetings in 2016 and 2019...

Full disclosure: I provided most of this material to ACI Africa and, as you'll see if you read it, I am extensively quoted in it.

Edited to add two further articles, from NCR. The first is Bishop John Stowe's address to the conference. I'm afraid I'm also quoted in the second one.

Bishop Stowe celebrates Pope Francis' renewal of peacemaking in the church

We recently observed the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council: a watershed event whose meaning, import and legacy is still a matter of contentious debate even as its fruits have been enjoyed for decades... Catholics across the globe have become more familiar with the word of God in sacred Scripture, have cherished "full, conscious and active participation" in the liturgy, have slowly recognized a need to be evangelizers, have appreciated the importance of a well-formed conscience, have engaged in deep dialogue with fellow Christians and other religious traditions, have rediscovered baptism as the foundational sacrament and enjoyed many other gifts that resulted from the council. Each of these developments, from the restoration of the ancient kiss of peace in the Mass to elevated role of the laity, can be a doorway to renewing the priority of working for peace in the mission of the church...

Rome meeting focuses on grassroots efforts to promote nonviolence

While many people involved with the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative continue to hope Pope Francis will issue an encyclical promoting nonviolence as a spirituality and way of life, they also know that Catholics already are engaged in teaching and supporting nonviolence in situations of conflict and exploitation around the globe. Nonviolence "points to another way of being in relationship to each other and the planet," said Marie Dennis, program chair of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. "It is not only what we are trying to accomplish, but it is how we get there"...

Yet another example of how problematic capital punishment is, truly a "cruel and unusual" punishment.

‘Surreal spectacle’: US botched 35% of execution attempts this year (Guardian)

As 2022 draws to a close, a new grim distinction can be attached to it: in America it was the year of the botched execution. In its annual review of US capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals the astonishing statistic that 35% of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic. Several were agonisingly drawn out as officials tried to secure a vein through which to inject lethal drugs, leading lawyers to describe the process as a form of torture. Others were carried out in violation of state protocols. Some went ahead even though there were defects in those protocols themselves...

Catholic Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, is one of the nominees for the Arms Control Association's 2022 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year, 'for preaching the nuclear disarmament gospel in a religious context, including through his 52- page pastoral letter Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace - A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament, published on Jan. 11, 2022. Wester’s letter affirms that U.S. citizens, recognizing the United States as the nation that created and has used nuclear weapons, “must be the people to dismantle them and make sure they are never used again,” by taking “concrete steps toward abolishing nuclear weapons and ending the nuclear threat.” Wester’s letter notes the Catholic Church has a long history of speaking out against the threats posed by nuclear weapons and has expressed its support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Also see: See: Making the Case That Nuclear Weapons Are Immoral: An Interview With Archbishop John C. Wester, in Arms Control Today.'

Anybody from any country can vote on this award - here.

I had the privilege of meeting the archbishop at the recent Catholic Nonviolence Initiative conference in Rome. I'm told that a prestigious award such as this could enhance his credibility as a leader on nuclear weapons issues and could perhaps galvanise efforts in the Catholic Church in the USA and beyond, plus national and international interfaith leaders, toward nuclear disarmament. It also could bring more public attention to bear upon the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories that are located within the Santa Fe Archdiocese, and in general to the $2 trillion US nuclear weapons modernisation programme.

Papal message for World Peace Day: War, hunger, turmoil are connected (NCR)

The interconnected "moral, social, political and economic crises" facing the world cannot be solved if individuals and nations continue to focus only on their own, immediate interests, Pope Francis said in his message for World Peace Day 2023. "The time has come for all of us to endeavor to heal our society and our planet, to lay the foundations for a more just and peaceful world, and to commit ourselves seriously to pursuing a good that is truly common," the pope wrote in the message, which was released at the Vatican Dec. 16...

Catholic Bishop in Nigeria Disputes Assumption Religious Diversity Dividing Country (ACI Africa)

Even without religious diversity, Nigeria will still have problems, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has said, disputing allegations that the challenges that the west African country is facing stem from the conflicts between Christians and Muslims... Bishop Kukah noted that Nigeria’s inability to manage her diversity is the source of her conflicts... “Our inability to manage our diversity has accounted for the tragedy that we find ourselves in today as a country,” Bishop Kukah said during the December 1 conference. He explained, “Rather than facing some terrible choices that the political class has made in managing our differences, we have ended up with the wrong diagnosis. These wrong diagnoses have led us to the popularization of ill-conceived ideas to which we now ascribe our differences and problems.” The Nigerian Catholic Bishop continued, “For example, it is common to hear Nigerians say that Religion has become a problem for our country. We follow through with this falsehood by suggesting that the problems of Nigeria centre around an inherent conflict between Christians and Muslims.” “At the elite levels, we also say that there are problems between northerners and southerners. At another level, we hear that there are problems between minorities and the majority. At another level, we say that Ethnicity is what is killing our nation and so on,” he further said. “In my view, these ideas may be popular but they are more a symptom than a disease,” he said. The solution to the challenges that Nigeria is facing, Bishop Kukah observed, lies in managing diversity in the country. “I call on our politicians to develop the required skills for managing diversity because its mismanagement is killing our country,” he said, and added, “We will never be good Muslims or Christians if we do not embrace, respect, and honor one another and our faiths”...

Once again challenging the assumption that violence in Nigeria is related to religion. Conflict is almost always far more complex than knee-jerk populist assumptions.

“Let us keep our weapons silent in favor of dialogue”: Cardinal in Burkina Faso (ACI Africa)

The Cardinal in Burkina Faso has called upon the people of God in the West African nation to put aside weapons of violent conflict and give dialogue a chance... “Our country, Burkina Faso, has been caught, since 2015, in a spiral of violence and murderous terrorist attacks with dramatic humanitarian consequences,” Cardinal Ouédraogo laments in his message issued December 22. He adds, “In all camps, we record and deplore the loss of human life. Community conflicts, stigmatization, marginalization, exclusion, injustice and bad governance are fertile grounds for terrorism.” “The world is suffering with the war in Ukraine; Africa is suffering because of terrorism. But everywhere, the common thread that leads to this violence is the same: the loss of the meaning of human life, of the common good, because of the search for selfish personal or group interests,” Cardinal Ouédraogo decries. He emphasizes the need to end the violent conflict in the West African nation, saying, “Let us keep our weapons silent in favor of dialogue for a fraternal living together.” “Let us not be selfish or egocentric. Let us have the courage to ask God for forgiveness, the courage to ask him to enlighten us to seriously take the path of repentance, the path of unity and reconciliation,” the Cardinal says, and adds, “Together, let us break down the walls of hatred and selfishness and build bridges of understanding, forgiveness, brotherhood, and true love”... “We are all sons and daughters in the image of God, we are sons and daughters of God; we are each endowed with the will and courage to build peace.” “May God touch our hearts, the hearts of those who die, the hearts of those who cause death, so that we all commit ourselves to non-violence and social dialogue, because all human life is sacred”...