Peace and Non-violence

To see our opponents as neighbors

By Kathy Kelly
When we encounter an enemy as a person, like ourselves, then we can believe in and appeal to that person's capacity for goodness. How can we apply this belief to the escalating warfare in Afghanistan and Pakistan where, we are told, groups of Taliban fighters pose a threat to U.S. security and abuse people in areas they control? Who are these people we’re now being taught to fear and hate?
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Teaching the 'golden thread' of Gospel nonviolence

Here’s the challenge: When you’re enrolling your child in Catholic school for the coming year, or perhaps for parish religious education classes, take a moment to look through the curriculum to see how many classes are spent on the topic of Gospel nonviolence.
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Alternatives to war in Afghanistan

The discussion so far has been mostly about troop levels
By David Cortright
The problems in Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means alone. Even General David Petraeus agrees with that. But what are the alternatives? If the president is serious about developing more effective strategies, he needs to de-militarize the mission and prioritize political reconciliation efforts.
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Archbishop O'Brien: 'Nuke abolition a moral imperative'

The former head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services delivered remarks to 500 U.S., foreign officials
By Dennis Coday
With a message aimed at the heart of the U.S. nuclear command, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore July 29 called for a world free of the threat of such weapons. The former head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services spoke to an audience of U.S. military and diplomatic officials.
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Lent in a warmaking empire

Mar. 12, 2010
By Art Laffin
(CNS file photo)

Commentary

We live in a warmaking empire, where war is being waged indiscriminately in order to control and acquire resources -- namely oil in Iraq, and natural gas and oil in Afghanistan and the Caspian Sea. The U.S. continues to create mass violence in Afghanistan, bringing death to countless innocent Afghan civilians and nearly 1,000 U.S. soldiers.

The United States has also increased its military intervention in Pakistan and Yemen. According to the Pakistani newspaper, The News (Feb. 2, 2010), U.S. drone attacks killed 123 civilians in January 2010.

Japanese bishops speak out against nuclear arms

Feb. 28, 2010
By UCA News
The A-Bomb Dome, the nearest building to survive the Hiroshima bombing (Photo by Jesse Wilson)

TOKYO -- Bishops from Hiroshima and Nagasaki have called on world leaders to work towards the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and the Japanese Government, the bishops said it was time to take the "courageous step."

Nagasaki's 'Bombed Maria' to visit Spain

Feb. 19, 2010
By UCA News
Nagasaki's 'Bombed Maria'

TOKYO — A Marian statue, damaged during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, is set to meet its counterpart in Spain as part of a "peace pilgrimage" marking the 65th anniversary of the bombing.

The two-meter-high statue, known locally as "Bombed Maria", which was shipped from Italy in the 1930s, was damaged when Urakami Cathedral was destroyed during the atomic bombing of Aug. 9, 1945. The head was later found amid the rubble.

Murdered abortion doctor's church prays for peace

Feb. 03, 2010
By Adelle M. Banks

WICHITA, KANSAS -- The church where abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot to death reacted to the guilty verdict Jan. 29 in the killing by praying that houses of worship be places of peace.

Bishops still hold to view of 1983 pastoral

Jan. 22, 2010
By Joshua McElwee

Since the burgeoning of the U.S. nuclear force during the Cold War, Catholic ethicists and experts have offered all kinds of analysis of U.S. nuclear weapons policy -- from outright acceptance to outright condemnation, and everywhere in between.

U.S. nuclear weapons policies headed in opposite directions

Weapons projects undermine Obama’s disarmament vision, critics say

Jan. 22, 2010
By Joshua McElwee
On Sept. 16, nuclear arms policy critics demonstrate outside the Kansas City Plant in Missouri. They were protesting plans for construction of a new nuclear weapons plant to replace that facility. As NCR went to press, the City Council was set to approve the construction, including a controversial $65 million tax abatement. (Photos courtesy of Jane Stoever)

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the development of new nuclear weapons components at three key weapons facilities at the same time it is conducting a sweeping review of U.S. nuclear weapons policies that could lead to further slashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

For the moment, U.S. nuclear weapons policies appear to be running in contrary directions, and while some critics of U.S. nuclear policy are cautiously optimistic, they are also worried President Obama’s nuclear disarmament vision is not yet being supported by concrete policy actions.

A realistic idealist at Oslo

Jan. 09, 2010
By Thomas J. Reese
U.S. President Barack Obama holds his medal and certificate after accepting the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize at City Hall in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10. (CNS/Reuters/John McConnico)

Viewpoint

Many on the political left have become disillusioned with Barack Obama because of his escalation of the Afghanistan war, his bailout of the financial industry, and his failure to advance his domestic agenda. As a result, they read his speech in Oslo, Norway, through the lens of disillusionment. Pacifists (who must not have been listening during the presidential campaign) are appalled by his defense of the just-war theory. Others argue that he has not proved that the Afghan war truly is a just war.

Such criticisms failed to see the speech for what it was: not a detailed defense of the Afghan war, but a comprehensive overview of the role of the United States in international affairs, a view that is principled and realistic, not ideological or naive.

The Nobel War Lecture

Jan. 09, 2010
By David Krieger

Viewpoint

In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, President Obama, one of the world’s great orators and purveyors of hope, gave a speech that must reflect the divisions within himself and his personal struggles to reconcile them. It was a surprising speech for the occasion. Rather than a speech of vision and hope, it was a speech that sought to justify war, and particularly America’s wars. It was largely an infomercial for war, touting not only war’s necessity but its virtues, and might well be thought of as the “Nobel War Lecture.”

Peacemakers also see the world as it is

Jan. 09, 2010
By Colman McCarthy
A U.S. Army soldier from Task Force Denali Platoon 1-40 CAV fires a mortar during a patrol at Nadir-Chawcod district in Khowst province, Afghanistan, Dec. 16. (CNS/Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

As with a berg of ice in a shipping lane, Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech in Oslo, Norway, was a collision between peacemaking and war-making.

Several times he mentioned Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. “There’s nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naive in their creed or lives,” he said. But the praise was faint, the tone patronizing. “I face the world as it is,” said the nation’s latest war president, implying that Gandhi and King were dwellers in another world where they and the rest of dream-driven pacifists have their heads either in the clouds or in the sand. “There will be times,” Obama said, “when nations, acting individually or in concert, will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”

Afghanistan: Speaking Truth to Power

Jan. 09, 2010
By Kathy Kelly
Young students in school in Kabul

Commentary
There’s a phrase originating with the peace activism of the American Quaker movement: “Speak Truth to Power.” One can hardly speak more directly to power than addressing the Presidential Administration of the United States. This past October, students at Islamabad’s Islamic International University had a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One student summed up many of her colleagues’ frustration. “We don’t need America,” she said. “Things were better before they came here."

The students were mourning loss of life at their University where, a week earlier, two suicide bombers walked onto the campus wearing explosive devices and left seven students dead and dozens of others seriously injured. Since the spring of 2009, under pressure from U.S. leaders to “do more” to dislodge militant Taliban groups, the Pakistani government has been waging military offensives throughout the northwest of the country. These bombing attacks have displaced millions and the Pakistani government has apparently given open permission for similar attacks by unmanned U.S. aerial drones.