Jesuit Fr. Greg Boyle cautions against looking at the tragedy of the Sandy Hook School from too distant a perspective.
Looking at this from "an aerial view of nonviolence oddly keeps us from solutions," Boyle, who has worked with gang members in Los Angeles since 1988, told NCR Dec. 20.
Welcoming in the new year, Pope Benedict XVI said that despite the injustice and violence in the world, every human being yearns for and is made for peace.
Death penalty opponents say 2012 showed capital punishment is on the wane, even though the number of death-row inmates executed remained unchanged from 2011 at 43.
Slate and a Twitter feed called @GunDeaths are teaming up in a social media experiment to create an interactive feature they call “Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown.”
As of Thursday afternoon, 13 days since Newtown, 242 people have died as a result of gun wounds.
The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace called on the White House's national security adviser to pursue negotiations with Iran on its nuclear research to head off the possibility of war.
Sick at heart, early Friday evening I went to the White House petition site, We the People. A news story had said there was a petition calling for gun control. There are several. The strongest call is, I think, "Today IS the day. Sponsor strict gun control laws." I was No. 5,468, and as of Wednesday afternoon, the petition has 35,541 signatures.
"Pro-life Christians who are a major political force in this country should be leading this movement [for saner gun control laws]," writes John Gehring, Catholic Program Director for Faith in Public Life, in a strong commentary about gun violence and the pro-life movement.
Resources for schools to tap into programs to help students find peaceful solutions and help teachers identify students who are isolated would be more useful than "having more locks on the doors."
The decision in October by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to remove longtime peace advocate Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers upset many Catholics.
National Catholic Reporter joins Catholic United in calling for President Obama to convene a national discussion on preventing gun violence.
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