Tag: Peace and nonviolence

Pope Benedict releases 2013 World Day of Peace message

In releasing his 2013 World Day of Peace message, Pope Benedict XVI has called for for “communitarian” not individualistic development, and insisted that true religion fosters reconciliation not fundamentalism:

It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism. In addition to the varied forms of terrorism and international crime, peace is also endangered by those forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism which distort the true nature of religion, which is called to foster fellowship and reconciliation among people.

All the same, the many different efforts at peacemaking which abound in our world testify to mankind’s innate vocation to peace. In every person the desire for peace is an essential aspiration which coincides in a certain way with the desire for a full, happy and successful human life. In other words, the desire for peace corresponds to a fundamental moral principle, namely, the duty and right to an integral social and communitarian development, which is part of God’s plan for mankind. Man is made for the peace which is God’s gift.

All of this led me to draw inspiration for this Message from the words of Jesus Christ: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ (Mt 5:9).

Click here to read entire 2013 World Day of Peace message.

Ivan Kauffman in America magazine: “There are three options open to us, not just two—left, right and Catholic”

Ivan Kauffman, Bridgefolk co-founder

After Ideology: What Catholics can contribute to the political debate

by Ivan Kauffman
America, 10 December 2012

Growing up Protestant and Republican in Kansas, I began life as a political conservative. But when I was in college, John F. Kennedy changed that. He and Pope John XXIII opened the door to the Catholic Church for me, and for most of my adult life I considered myself a Catholic political liberal. I am still very much a Catholic, but my political leanings have changed again. I no longer consider myself a liberal—or a conservative.

Click here to read more. 

Benedict XVI reaffirms interreligious “pilgrimage toward peace” in letter to Sant’Egidio meeting in September

“Peace needs to be supported by hearts and minds that seek truth”

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 11, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope’s secretary of state, sent in the name of the Holy Father to the archbishop of Vrhbosna-Sarajevo, on the occasion of the 26th International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, organized by Sant’Egidio Community. Continue reading “Benedict XVI reaffirms interreligious “pilgrimage toward peace” in letter to Sant’Egidio meeting in September” →

Catholic youth conflicted about war, reports US Catholic magazine

Conflicted generation: Millennials and the war on terror
by Ruth Graham
US Catholic, August 21, 2012

Caleb is a 22-year-old Navy veteran who headed to boot camp as soon as he graduated from high school and quickly found himself in Iraq, where he spent most of his time patrolling rivers. He’s also a devout Catholic; he and his wife attend Mass every week and serve as lectors at their parish. Caleb is a confident, experienced man, but when asked to speak about both of these things at once—his support for the war and his faith—he wavers.  Read more.

 

Salvation and peace: bridging another divide

An artificial divide

by Darrin Snyder Belousek

[The following article by Bridgefolk’s Executive Director appeared recently in PeaceSigns, the online magazine of the Mennonite Church USA Peace and Justice Support Network]

 

There were several things that attracted me to the Mennonite-Christian tradition-discipleship, community, simplicity, service, and, of course, peace. In my fifteen years among the Mennonites, however, I have observed two disconcerting tendencies in the Mennonite peace ethic.

First, too often we practice peacemaking as if peace were the fruit of our good intentions and hard work. We thus neglect two things: the reality of the persistence of sin in ourselves and our world despite our best intentions, and the need for divine grace to sustain the spiritual fertility of human effort. Consequently, Mennonite peace activism can often be a cause of frustration (when our intentions falter) or an occasion for pride (when our efforts “succeed”).

Second, too often we think and talk about peace in ways that reflect our national contexts and reveal our political commitments. We thus forget two things: that our hope for peace is to be set on God’s purposes for the world, and that our commitment to peace is to be aligned with the priorities of God’s kingdom. Consequently, Mennonite peace rhetoric can often be hardly distinguishable from a national “peacekeeper” identity (Canada) or a left-wing partisan agenda (United States).

Naming the pain: a Lenten reflection on transforming the wounds of war

Carolyn Holderread Heggen

chapel address
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
February 28, 2012

 

Carolyn Holderread Heggen
Carolyn Holderread Heggen

PeaceSigns, a publication of the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA, recently published the following chapel address by Carolyn Holderread Heggen, psychotherapist specializing in individual and communal trauma healing.  The article caught our eye because Holderread Heggen dedicated her address to Fr. William Mahedy, a former military chaplain who experienced a “profound crisis of conscience and dedicated the rest of his life as a social worker in San Diego, starting Veterans Centers and writing profound pieces about the spiritual woundedness of Veterans.”  Her talk does more than illustrate a profound “exchange of gifts” between Mennonites and Catholics seeking peace and reconciliation in the world.  As we enter more deeply into the Paschal mystery during Holy Week, it also serves as an appropriate Lenten reflection.  


Years ago a Vietnam Christian Vet came into my therapy office, carrying a Bible, and he said, “If you want to know what it feels like to be me, read these verses.” He started pointing to some of these verses Michele read this morning (Psalm 38). I don’t know specifically what precipitated the Psalmists despair that caused him to write these verses, but I do know that I have been told by numerous Vets that it’s a good description of what they feel like. Thousands of years after those words were written psychiatrists and psychologists came up with an official diagnosis, and a new name for an old malady, a malady as old as war itself. And in 1980 the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD as we commonly call it, was coined and since then has become part of our medical and lay vocabulary.

Throughout history, different names have been used to describe the effects of the emotional and spiritual pain people who have been asked to kill experience. Continue reading “Naming the pain: a Lenten reflection on transforming the wounds of war” →

American Benedictine Academy to “Seek Peace and Pursue It”

The American Benedictine Academy has chosen as the theme of its 2012 annual meeting, “Seek Peace and Pursue It: Monasticism in the Midst of Global Upheaval.”  The conference will be held at St. Scholastic Monastery in Duluth MN.  Bridgefolk board member Weldon Nisly will be one of the featured speakers.  (Those planning to attend the Bridgefolk conference in Minnesota in late July should note that the ABA conference is the following weekend, approximately three hours away.)

For more information and registration forms, go to http://www.osb.org/aba/2012/.

Margaret Pfeil and Gerald Schlabach suggest fresh Lenten practices in America magazine

Two Bridgefolk board members, Margaret Pfeil and Gerald Schlabach, are among four writers who suggest positive practices to “take up” for Lent in order to move beyond typical practices of “giving up.”   Schlabach suggests ways to “Love the Enemy in Your Pew” by inviting fellow Catholics with whom one most disagrees to share their back story face to face.  Pfeil invites readers to “Feed the Hungry with Local Food.”  In her article she recounts how the Catholic Worker community in South Bend, Indiana, has created a grocery co-op in  its mostly African-American community and made baked goods from nearby Amish communities a popular item.

The article is in the February 20 issue of the Jesuit magazine America and is available online to subscribers at http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13259.

MWC requests prayer for Honduran church following murder of pastor

Mennonite World Conference has issued the following press release in the wake of the murder of Rafael Erasmo Arevalo, a Mennonite pastor in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras.  Bridgefolk participant Joetta Schlabach has been traveling in Central America and had recently talked with other church workers in the Copán area.  Motives for the murder are not known, but Schlabach reports that tensions are high in the area.  In many parts of the country, gang and drug-related violence are exacerbating a repressive climate continuing in the wake of a 2009 coup in Honduras.  Further tensions in the Copán area surround efforts to organize miners working for Canadian mining companies.  

On Sunday, January 22, Rafael Erasmo Arevalo, a Mennonite pastor in Honduras, was attacked and killed after leading an evening worship service. Arevalo, from Santa Rosa de Copán, drove about 20 kilometres north to Veracruz, where he had led worship services for the past 10 years.

According to a report in a Honduran newspaper, La Prensa, Arevalo parked his car at the home of a Veracruz city councilor and then walked to the church. When he returned to his car after the worship service, he was attacked by “unknown persons.” His body was not discovered until the next morning, about five kilometers from the scene of the attack. Continue reading “MWC requests prayer for Honduran church following murder of pastor” →