{"id":72368,"date":"2016-04-25T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72368"},"modified":"2016-04-20T14:31:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T13:31:55","slug":"an-appeal-for-pope-francis-to-share-with-the-world-an-encyclical-on-nonviolence-and-just-peace-and-for-the-church-to-stop-teaching-just-war-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/04\/an-appeal-for-pope-francis-to-share-with-the-world-an-encyclical-on-nonviolence-and-just-peace-and-for-the-church-to-stop-teaching-just-war-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"An Appeal for Pope Francis to Share with the World an Encyclical on Nonviolence and Just Peace, and for the Church to Stop Teaching \u2018Just War Theory\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"peace<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Press Release – 19 April 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire said from Rome,<\/em><\/p>\n

\"bpic<\/a><\/em>\u201cI believe we are at an important and hopeful turning point in human history from violence to nonviolence \u2013 from war to peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a joy for me to join eighty people from around the World meeting in Rome 11\/12th<\/sup> April 2016 to contribute to the important discussion \u2018Nonviolence and Just Peace Contributing to the Catholic Understanding of and Commitment to Nonviolence\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the three-day event co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the international Catholic peace movement organization, Pax Christi, strongly called on Pope Francis \u2018to share with the world an encyclical on nonviolence and Just Peace, and on the Church to no longer use or teach Just War Theory and continue advocating for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appeal to the Pope also said that \u2018we believe there is no \u2018just war\u2019.\u00a0 Too often the \u2018just war theory\u2019 has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war.\u00a0 Suggesting that a \u2018just war\u2019 is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gathering in Rome consisted of lay people, theologians, members of religious congregations, priests, bishops from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. The welcoming address was given by Cardinal Turkson of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who read a Statement from Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Final Statement entitled \u2018An Appeal to the Catholic Church to re-commit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence can be read on Pax Christi\u00a0 www.paxchristi.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was indeed a historic gathering and the participants made a brave and history-making call to Pope Francis and the Church. It calls upon Pope Francis to give strong spiritual leadership to the world\u2019s Christians rejecting war for peace and nonviolence. We are all conscious of the growing militarization of our societies and countries and the myth being perpetrated that militarism, nuclear weapons and war are acceptable.\u00a0 I hope that Pope Francis calls Catholics not to join the military and so reminds them that killing cannot be with Christ.\u00a0 I believe the misguided age of \u2018blessing wars, militarism and killing\u2019 must be abolished and the responsibility lies with Pope Francis and religious\/spiritual leaders to be true shepherds of peace and nonkilling\/nonviolence following the command of Jesus to love our enemies and not kill each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope also that Pope Francis will unambiguously proclaim that \u2018violence is always wrong, it is not the way of Jesus and reject militarism thereby calling upon Catholics not to join armies and take up arms to kill people, thus becoming a true peace church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appeal is in the hands of Pope Francis. We can now work, fast, pray for a Nonkilling\/Nonviolence Encyclical , and hope that Pope Francis will continue to show\u00a0 courage, be brave and bold,\u00a0 a true prophet, a loving shepherd and a bright light in these dark days for all the human family, which he has so rightly described as \u2018this unique and terrible world war in installments\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"mairead_maguire\"<\/a>__________________________________<\/p>\n

The Peace People began in 1976 as a protest movement against the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland. Its three founders were Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. Over 100,000 people were involved in the initial movement and two of the founders, Mairead and Betty, received the Nobel Peace Prize for that year. Since its inception, the organization has been committed to building a just, peaceful society through nonviolent means \u2013 a society based on respect for each individual, and that has at its core the highest standards of human and civil rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of <\/em>Peace People, is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and 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":"

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire from Rome: \u201cThe appeal to the Pope said that \u2018we believe there is no \u2018just war\u2019. Too often the \u2018just war theory\u2019 has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war. Suggesting that a \u2018just war\u2019 is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict\u2019. I hope also that Pope Francis will unambiguously proclaim that \u2018violence is always wrong, it is not the way of Jesus and reject militarism thereby calling upon Catholics not to join armies and take up arms to kill people, thus becoming a true peace church.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobel-laureates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72368","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=72368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}