Tag: Peace and nonviolence

Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue

NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference

For Immediate Release
August 30, 2005

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – “Called Together to be Peacemakers,” a document issued after five years of dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church and representatives of Mennonite World Conference, was the topic of an ecumenical dialogue at the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference here on May 20, 2005. Continue reading “Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue” →

Eucharist Is “God’s Absolute ‘No’ to Violence”

3rd Lenten Sermon by Father Cantalamessa

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Thanks to the Eucharist, “God’s absolute ‘no’ to violence, pronounced on the cross, is kept alive through the centuries,” said the Pontifical Household preacher in a Lenten meditation.

With his sacrifice, “Christ defeated violence, not opposing it with greater violence, but suffering it and laying bare all its injustice and uselessness,” said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa today as he led the third in a series of weekly meditations during Lent.

The meditations, held in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, are attended by members of the Roman Curia and other cardinals, bishops and religious close to the Vatican.

Full story

World Needs “The Spirit of Assisi,” Peace, Not Violence

VATICAN CITY, SEP 8, 2004 (VIS) – Made public today was a Message from Pope John Paul to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, asking him to greet the representatives of Churches, ecclesial communities and the great religions of the world who met in Milan from September 5 to 7 on the theme “Religions and Cultures: The Courage of a New Humanism.” The Pope also saluted the organizers of this meeting, including Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan and the community of Sant’Egidio. Continue reading “World Needs “The Spirit of Assisi,” Peace, Not Violence” →

The challenge of being a “pro-life” progressive

Living in the Twin Cities as I do, I cross back and forth over the Mississippi River that divides Minneapolis and St. Paul fairly often.  Crossing one bridge, I can usually look across the water and see parallel bridges.

So it is that many of us in Bridgefolk who are “sacramentally-minded Mennonites” or “peace-minded Catholics” and are finding ways to bridge our traditions will easily recognize the challenge of living on another kind of bridge.  This is the bridge between “pro-life” commitments often associated with conservative politics and “social justice” commitments often associated with progressive politics.  It is a challenge that Catholics in the United States are especially feeling this electoral year. (Apologies to Bridgefolk in Canada and Europe!)  But if Mennonite debates around a churchwide resolution on abortion a year ago are any indication, it is a challenge at least some Mennonites may be feeling too.

We haven’t talked much yet in Bridgefolk about the challenges and possibilities in what Catholics call the “seamless garment” of moral and social issues that Christians need to hold together in order to maintain a “consistent ethic of life.”  If we are going to continue an honest and fruitful dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics we should expect to take this up too.   A recent cover story in Sojourners magazine seems to be a good place to start.

“No Place to Stand” is by Heidi Schlumpf, managing editor of U.S. Catholic magazine.  As the editors of Sojourners say in introducing the article, “When you’re Christian, progressive, and ‘pro-life,’ voting your conscience is often easier said than done.”  To find the article, click here.

Gerald Schlabach

No Place to Stand

When you’re Christian, progressive, and “pro-life,” voting your conscience is often easier said than done.

by Heidi Schlumpf

Sojourners

What does it mean to be “pro-life”? For some, the term is understood very narrowly as the opposition to abortion, particularly through legal sanction. Others are committed to reducing the number of abortions, truly making them rare, but favor policies that don’t criminalize abortion—and prosecute women and/or their doctors—to do so. And as U.S. Catholic’s Heidi Schlumpf explains in this article, many people, on both sides of the legality question, see a genuinely pro-life stance as one that embraces respect for the human person at every stage—a position that’s hard to find in today’s polarized politics, and one that cries out for broad (and civil) dialogue across our various divides. —The Editors

It’s an election year, and once again Jennifer Roth is wondering if she might as well flip a coin. The 31-year-old systems administrator is one of those “swing voters” who could go either way—a demographic highly coveted by both Democrats and Republicans as the key to winning in 2004. But neither the Dems nor the GOP does much to inspire or excite Roth.

The problem? Roth is a self-described liberal on nearly all issues except one: Abortion. It’s a view that she—and countless other “pro-life progressives”—finds entirely consistent. “In my view liberalism is all about looking out for the little guy, the people who don’t have power, money, or protection,” she says.

But where does that leave her when it comes to the political process? Continue reading “No Place to Stand” →

“Enough to Go Around”

by Eric Massanari

“We are all standing in a river of Christ,
and we are being carried along by currents we cannot comprehend.”

Those struck me as very wise and timely words when I heard them spoken a few weeks ago by a former Mennonite, and now Catholic, Ivan Kauffman. Ivan was speaking to a group of sixty of us (roughly half Mennonites and half Catholics) who had gathered for discussions on peacemaking and spirituality at St. John’s Abbey in  Collegeville, Minnesota.  We are all standing in a river of Christ, and we are being carried along by currents we cannot comprehend.

They were appropriate words to begin our time together because we soon realized that although many different life experiences (or, “currents”) had brought us to that place, we could find a common place on which to stand because of our common faith in Christ. Continue reading ““Enough to Go Around”” →

Meeting with Sant’Egidio community, pope urges proclamation of the gospel of peace

To a World Marked by Tensions, Proclaim the Gospel of Peace

VATICAN CITY, FEB 8, 2003 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall, the Holy Father received 300 bishops, priests and friends of the Community of Sant’Egidio who are holding a meeting on the theme “The Gospel of Peace” to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the founding of the community by Prof. Andrea Riccardi. Continue reading “Meeting with Sant’Egidio community, pope urges proclamation of the gospel of peace” →