{"id":172276,"date":"2020-11-09T12:01:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T12:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=172276"},"modified":"2020-11-07T05:22:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-07T05:22:22","slug":"message-to-pax-christis-peacemaker-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/11\/message-to-pax-christis-peacemaker-of-the-year-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Message to Pax Christi\u2019s \u2018Peacemaker of the Year\u2019 Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

2020 Pax Christi Peacemaker of the Year Award Presented to Malachy Kilbride<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

7 Nov 2020 – <\/em>I am very happy to join you by video link and to send you all greetings to your Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore online event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I would like to thank my friend Marie Denis for giving me this opportunity to greet you.<\/p>\n

I would like particularly to offer my congratulations to Malachy Kilbride on receiving the Pax Christi Peacemaker of the Year Award. \u00a0I believe as a lifetime peace activist and with the national campaign for nonviolent resistance you have been arrested on numerous occasions for civil disobedience so your example will inspire others to work for peace.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Malachy, for your courage in challenging the military industrial complex and speaking up for truth that weapons and war are not acceptable as they kill humans and destroy the environment.\u00a0 US wars displaced 37 million people in the past 19 years according to a new study by Brown.\u00a0 We must ask, \u2018who bears responsibility for repairing the damage inflicted on those displaced and their countries?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

As you all know, we are in the midst of a pandemic and the Coronavirus is spreading around the world and has stalled humanity in its tracks. Scientists are working to find a vaccine but in the meantime fear is spreading and causing enormous suffering.\u00a0 The pandemic has shown us all how fragile and vulnerable we are and how much we need each other.\u00a0 No one person alone can deal \u00a0\u00a0with this life-threatening pandemic as we need the collective efforts of everyone to join in solidarity to help save lives. \u00a0\u00a0But we can take inspiration and hope when we witness the generosity of spirit as people, including children, reach out to community, local and international, to offer solidarity and help.<\/p>\n

This pandemic has given us all time to reflect and ask ourselves \u2018where are we going?\u2019 and is what I am doing deepening my humanity and really helping make the world a better place?\u00a0 Every act has its consequence and I have to ask myself \u2018what are the consequences of my actions?<\/p>\n

I believe pre-Covid19 we all knew humanity was on the wrong track. \u00a0Violence, which is always wrong, was like a pandemic spreading everywhere in our world.\u00a0 Violent militarism, wars, poverty, racism, environmental destruction, greed (personal and corporate), selfishness, individualism.\u00a0 As a peace activist, you know that violence has its roots in injustice and inequality.\u00a0\u00a0 You are aware your government policies need to change and I thank you for working to change them.<\/p>\n

I have always been inspired by the American peace activists many of whom have, and are, paying a very high price through protesting and are now in American prisons.\u00a0 But we have to ask ourselves why after so much peace organizing both in USA and around the world have we still got a world on the brink of self-destruction and extinction? Does it take a Covid-19 pandemic to force us to change our thinking? From militarism and war to peace and disarmament?<\/p>\n

LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

But there is hope, and we must have faith in ourselves and in each other.\u00a0\u00a0 I do believe we, as the human family, are entering a new consciousness.\u00a0 We are becoming more aware that love and friendship, is what really matters and makes life worthwhile and joyous.\u00a0 Love is a mysterious and beautiful truth and it is the spirit of god living in the heart of every man woman and child and in the whole of creation and the cosmos. Violating a person, to injure or kill them, is the same as to do violence to the spirit of God Who lives in every human being.<\/p>\n

However, instead of violence we can choose nonviolence. \u00a0Nonviolence does not mean passivity.\u00a0\u00a0 No, nonviolence is the most challenging creative and courageous way of life and it is the only hope for the world. The science of peace nonkilling and nonviolence are the third way that will save humanity and the cosmos.<\/p>\n

In this time of great uncertainty, people are looking for voices of wisdom to give leadership.\u00a0 I believe Pope Francis is such a voice and his universal message of love will help unite humanity.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis in his 3 Oct 2020 Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti<\/em><\/a>, gives moral and ethical guidance to all men and women thirsting for truth.\u00a0\u00a0 He points out that each human being is sacred and inviolable and we must respect the truth of our human dignity and submit to that truth. He calls for the abolition of the death penalty, prison reform, ending the arms race and the total elimination of nuclear weapons.\u00a0\u00a0 The Pope in this Encyclical Letter goes very close to shelving the \u2018Just War Theory<\/a>,\u2019 and I do hope and pray that the Catholic Church may someday very soon go the full way and abolish it (I am fully in agreement with the writing of the late Fr. John L. McKenzie, when he says the \u2018Just War Theory is a phony piece of morality\u2019).<\/p>\n

Still in today\u2019s fog and mist of confused ethics and morality, Pope Francis is to be thanked for his Encyclical which gives many of us a ray of hope that a universal ethic and morality, based on peace, nonviolence, love of humanity and the cosmos, is possible.\u00a0 \u00a0It is an inspiring document which in its ethos of kindness, compassion and mercy, reminds us to \u2018stay gentle\u2019 and \u2018be tender\u2019 towards ourselves and each other.<\/p>\n

I believe women have an important role in building this new consciousness and freedom.\u00a0\u00a0 For too long humanity has tried to fly on only one wing operating out of the head and the rational, resulting in a \u00a0the male dominated society.\u00a0 Now we have to find a balance between the head and the heart, we have to balance our male and female selves.\u00a0 Our feminine self will put the children first and ask if society is providing for all the children\u2019s\u2019 needs for their whole development and happiness.<\/p>\n

Millions of children are facing violence of all kinds and surely it is time we put children first and before military security we need to have government policies which provide human security.\u00a0 A fearful, punitive society is not a healthy society and it will have fearful, unhappy children.\u00a0 \u00a0Building a community of love for the children is the biggest challenge we face wherever we live, and the peace movement must start at the grassroots and build upwards and outwards embracing all of humanity and the cosmos.<\/p>\n

I thank Pax Christi for all your work for peace.\u00a0 I am always struck when in the \u2018Sermon on the Mount\u2019 Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers<\/em>.’\u00a0 There can be no greater or more joyous challenge than to be peacemakers for the sake of the all the world\u2019s little children.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Peace and love,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>_________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Mairead Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of <\/em>Peace People, is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. She won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book <\/em>The Vision of Peace (edited by John Dear, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com<\/a>. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020 Pax Christi Peacemaker of the Year Award Presented to Malachy Kilbride – Thank you, Malachy, for your courage in challenging the military industrial complex and speaking up for truth that weapons and war are not acceptable as they kill humans and destroy the environment. US wars displaced 37 million people in the past 19 years according to a new study by Brown. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":134996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[1817,1868,1253,487,504,291,1105,91,1056,444,1243,1864,109,287,95,70,126,118,492],"class_list":["post-172276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nobel-laureates","tag-anti-militarism","tag-covid-19","tag-demilitarization","tag-human-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-military","tag-military-industrial-complex","tag-nato","tag-nonkilling","tag-nonviolence","tag-nonviolent-action","tag-pandemic","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}