The Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) approved a major resolution focusing on Gospel Nonviolence. They offer a substantial supplemental resource for communities working on the formation and implementation of a similar resolution or movement toward peacemaking and nonviolence.
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.Holy Week 2017, London. Catholic Workers demonstrate the non-violent love of Jesus through demonstrating the Stations of the Cross in London, including Passionist Fr Martin Newell CP. JPIC Committee, Passionists of North America just signed our support of The Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference statement: An Appeal to the Catholic Church to re-commit to the centrality of Gospel nonviolence. To reflect on the statement and consider signing for your community, as well as learning about the Conference future plans, go to their website here.
In a directly related initiative, JPIC Committee, Passionists of North America is also signing on as a supporter of A Global Day of Action and Prayer for Syria: A Shift to a JustPeace Approach. It is a powerful statement which keeps nonviolent solutions and prayer central. This initiative coincides with the World Day of Peace on September 21. Eli S. McCarthy, Director of Justice and Peace with the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, offers this powerful reflection. "...the Catholic Church should embody Gospel nonviolence by articulating an explicit Just Peace approach with specific criteria, virtues, and practices to be more faithful to Jesus, better build just peace, better prevent violence, defuse ongoing violence, heal well after violence, draw society away from war sooner, and make a clearer commitment to Catholic social teaching’s explicit call to outlaw war." Read his whole article here. Finally, Alex Steinmiller, CP in his "The Word of Life" reflection from August 12th, 2016, says that "nonviolence is a methodology for positive social change that works, whether in our personal lives, in communities and within nations; and that the time has come for the church to apply non-violence at every level." Read Fr. Alex's full reflection here. Continue reading for more on the Vatican Conference on Gospel Nonviolence Vatican conference rejects just war theory, asks for encyclical on nonviolence Kyle Kramer, the executive director of the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center, reflects on the the need not only to make the systemic changes to curb violence, but also to explore the "shadowlands" of our interior world. "We must also pay attention to the inner landscape, exploring the shadowlands of our own hearts and the darker side of our culture, so that we don’t keep generating the violence that plagues us. That is the good but hard interior work of spiritual growth and of actually learning from these tragedies." Read Kyles full essay here. Fr. Rick Frechette, CP, also speaks of moving forward in dark days and the relentless presence of poverty and dehumanization in Haiti.
“There is a lesson in all these things that we are living. If we cannot fully prevent either sophisticated or crude terrorism, if we cannot at all prevent the terror that life itself inflicts on us, we need to define ourselves by what means most to us, as people and as children of God, precious to God and to each other, and never recoil from this out of fear.” Read his reflection here. |
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