The tradition of Catholic peace begins with its biblical and classical origins against current practice in the 21st century. Due to its long history and vast geographic and cultural diversity, this Catholic tradition includes many tensions and influences from religious and secular peace and many aspects of Christian pacifism, only war and nonviolence.
The Catholic tradition as a whole supports and supports peace efforts. Peace is an integral part of Catholic Social Teaching.
Video Catholic peace traditions
Definition
The history of peace in the Catholic tradition reflects the religious significance of peace, linked to positive virtues, such as love, and personal and social work of justice. The Greek word for peace is eirene ; Roman pax , and in the Hebrew Bible, shalom .
For the earliest Romans, "pax" means living in a covenant state, where disputes and wars do not exist. In his book Reflections , or For Himself, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius expressed peace as an uninterrupted state of tranquility. The English word "peace" comes from its roots, the Latin "pax".
It is a word for peace in the Hebrew Bible ( Tanach or Hebrew: ?? "? ?), and has other meanings that are also related to well being, including being used as a reminder.
Eirene
The Greek meaning for peace, embodied in the word eirene, evolved during the Greek-Roman civilization of agricultural significance such as prosperity, fertility, and home security contained in Hesiod's Work and Day for more internal meanings of peace formulated by Stoa, such as Epictetus.
Eirene is the word normally used by the New Testament for peace, one of the twenty words used by the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible used in the mostly Greek-speaking Jewish community throughout Greece-the Roman world. This is primarily through the use of Greek by the Septuagint that the Greek word eirene becomes impregnated with all the religious images and richness of the word shalom in the Hebrew Bible which has evolved over the history of the Jews. Furthermore, the use of the Greek Bible as the basis for the translation of St. Jerome's Vuggate into Latin then brings all new meaning of eirene to the Latin word pax and transforms it from a term to a forced sword command , Pax Romana , into the main image of peace for Western Christianity.
Maps Catholic peace traditions
New Testament
The Gospel presents the birth of Jesus as delivering in the new age of peace. In Luke, Zechariah celebrates his son John:
And you, son, will be called the Most Holy Prophet, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the remission of their sins, because of the tender mercies of our God where the Dawn from above will visit us to illuminate those who sit in the darkness and shadow of death, to guide our feet into the peaceful path.
And then the angels appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem, "And suddenly there were many dwellers of heaven with the angel, praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest and the highest peace of the earth for those who are profitable'" - different peace of Pax Romana.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 1-16) and the Sermon on the Plain (Lk 6: 20-45) are combined with the call to "love your enemies" (Mt 5: 38-48) to wrap up Jesus' teachings about peace. According to Gabriel Moran, the Sermon on the Mount does not advocate surrender to the oppressor, but a strategy to "dodge the enemy to win".
The healing story of the centurion's servant gave John Eppstein the impression that Jesus did not view military service as sin, because instead of rebuking the soldier for his profession, Jesus praised him for his faith. Nor did Peter demand Cornelius to resign from his duties or to leave him when he was baptized. John the Baptist's counsel to the soldiers is, "Do not practice blackmail, make no accusation of accusing anyone, and be content with your reward."
Initial Church
Early Christianity was relatively pacifist. Clement of Alexandria writes, "" If you register as one of God's people, heaven is your country and God your lawgiver. And what is the law? You will not kill, you must love your neighbor as yourself. For him who attacked you on one cheek, turn to him the other as well. "(Protrepticus 10)
The early Christians anticipated the remarkable coming of the Lord in glory, even to the extant that Paul had to send some of them back to work. Generally they are not deeply involved in the larger community. When it became clear that a more nuanced understanding was called, Christians began to realize that if they survived socially they could not remain within the confines of their own communities.
Christians in the Roman Army
St. Paul writes, "Let every man be subordinate to the higher authority, for there is no authority except from God, and those who are established are by God... This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities of the Lord, dedicate themselves to this.Pay for all their dues, taxes for whom taxes are due, the toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect matures, honor to whom the honor comes. "
The early Christian church believed that Christians should not take up arms in any war, and strive to balance the obligation to become a good citizen and the question of whether it is allowed to lift weapons to defend the state. Some are developing gaps between the reasons for moral theorists and the practice of private citizens.
At the beginning of the second century, Christians began to participate in the military, police, and Roman government in large numbers. Military service is one of the available ways to earn a living, and on the borders of the empire there is a need to defend against barbaric attacks. When soldiers came to take more tasks in the field of police work: traffic control and customs, firefighting, arresting criminals and bandits, keeping peace, putting out street fights, and performing engineering, permitting, and other jobs. the building where Roman soldiers are famous, this option becomes less problematic. The number of soldiers counted among later martyrs shows that many Christians serve in the military, even though they hate war.
From about the middle of the second century, officers in the Roman army were expected to participate in Imperial Cult and sacrifice to the emperor. During the reign of Diocletian, this obligation extended to a lesser extent, as a test for those suspected of being Christians. Therefore Christians are counseled not to register so as to avoid unnecessary blood guilt and the risk of idolatry, but must continue to pray for civil authority.
Among the more famous holy soldiers are Saint Marinus, Marcellus of Tangier, and Maximilian of Tebessa, and Martin of Tours.
Martyrdom as nonviolent protest
The oppression was sporadic and third century, largely local. The Roman government generally did not pay much attention to Christianity.
Christians are trying to keep the command to love their enemies while fighting their evil, even if it involves persecution and death: they are martyrs. The word "martyr" is Greek for "witness." The early martyrs followed the old tradition; John the Baptist was beheaded for "speaking the truth to power". They also have examples of St. Stephen, the apostles of James, Philip, and Matthew, and others.
The suffering of martyrs is therefore not a suicide or masochistic form of passive weakness that finds its fulfillment in torture and death at the hands of the Romans. They are committed acts committed in the public arena, designed to show the enemy that what is worthy to live is also worth fighting for. According to Josephine Laffin, martyrdom shows everyone that Christ has overcome death, and that the Holy Spirit supports the Church in its struggle against darkness and evil.
Martyr of Cordoba
The Martyrs of the CÃÆ'³rdoba are forty-eight Christian martyrs living in the 9th century ruled by Al-Andalus Muslims. Their hagiography describes in detail their execution for deliberately seeking violations of Muslim legal capital in Al-Andalus. The martyrdom recorded by Eulogius occurs between 851 and 859; with some exceptions, Christians invite executions by making public statements tactically elected to invite martyrdom by appearing in front of Muslim authorities to condemn Islam. The martyrs cause tension not only between Muslims and Christians, but within the Christian community. In December 852 Church leaders called a council in Cordoba, who honored those who fell but asked Christians not to seek martyrdom.
The recent historical interpretation of the martyr movement reflects questions about its nature. Kenneth Baxter Wolf saw the cause in the "spiritual anxiety" and the repentance aspect of the 9th century Iberian Christianity. Clayton J. Drees sees their motive in "the hope of pathological death, the undisclosed product of hatred against a society that has turned inwardly against themselves" and other "innate psychological imbalances". Jessica A. Coope states that it reflects protests against the assimilation process, and that the martyrs show a determination to assert Christian identity.
Age of Constantine
With Constantine's victory as the only Roman emperor in 313, the church of the martyrs now finds itself as a accepted and favored religion, soon becoming the official religion of the state. Constantine has a symbol inscribed on his soldier's shield which has been described as representing "The Invincible Sun" or as Chi-Rho. Eileen Egan quotes Burkhardt's observation that this is "a symbol that everyone can interpret as he pleases, but which Christians will refer to themselves."
As an imperial religion, its survival is linked to the fate of the Empire. The threat of increasing barbarian attacks therefore threatens both, and the Imperial defense deserves to protect Christianity. The initial tendency toward pacifism became muted.
Ambrose of Milan, a former Prefector Pretorian from northern Italy before being elected bishop of Milan, preserves Christian presuppositions against the use of force, unless necessary to protect important social values. While refusing to use violence in self-defense, he argues that charity requires one to protect one's neighbor. "He who does not fend off injuries from his partner, when he is able, is just as guilty as he who did the injury."
When Queen Justina tried to get a new basilica in Milan handed over to the Arians, Ambrose, supported by the faithful, occupied her own in what Egan identifies as an example of nonviolent resistance.
Augustine of Hippo
Following Ambrose, Augustine thought that Christians, imitating Jesus, should not resort to violence in self-defense, but nevertheless, have an obligation to help the victim be attacked.
Augustine of Hippo strongly agreed with the conventional wisdom of his time, that Christians should be philosophically pacifist, but that they should use defense as a means of maintaining peace in the long term. He routinely argues that pacifism does not prevent the defense of innocent people. In essence, the pursuit of peace may require a struggle to defend it in the long term. Such wars must not be preemptive, but defensive, to restore peace.
Augustine draws on Roman tradition to see "just war" as one that is prosecuted under legitimate authority for a just cause, that is, rejecting aggression or injury, taking back something that is wrongly confiscated, or to punish wrongdoing. Later, other theorists have expanded this. War must be a last resort, have a reasonable chance of success, and produce more good than harm. The Church also believes that non-combatants should be protected.
Augustine did not draw the distinction between offensive and defensive wars, as tackling the wounds was the only reason other than defense. Against the threat of chaos and destruction of the civil order, one can fight justly but mourn the unavoidable task.
Barbarian Invasion
During the last days of Augustine, Vandal invaded North Africa. The Barbarian assault which later swept Europe over the ensuing centuries resulted in the fall of learning and culture, and the decline of the population. There is a long historical tradition that has garnered considerable evidence to show that the Roman Empire itself was undergoing profound social, economic and spiritual changes accelerated only by the invasion. When the Western Empire undermined the Church into a stable power for order and peace.
The peacemakers of Christianity in this period were not the dominant cultural or political forces of their day, but either a marginalized minority - as in the case of the Roman Empire or - as in the case of missionaries who evangelize barbarians - are actually reaching out from the oppressive world and collapsed into an anarchist world that offered the seeds of a new society. Among the more important figures of active peace or intellectual life worthy of further study are Martin of Tours, Salvian of Marseilles, Nicetas of Remesiana, Germanus of Auxerre, Severinus of Noricum, St. Patrick, St. Genevieve from Paris, Columban, and St. Boniface of Crediton.
Monasticism
It is no coincidence that the appearance of the first bhikkhus came within a few years from the assumption of Constantine's power and the fellowship of the church and the empire he wrought. Thomas Merton identifies one of the reasons why people are looking for deserts. is that they "refuse to be ruled by men, but have no desire to govern others themselves." Others try to imitate Jesus' own time spent in the desert.
Monasticism, in a sense, the continuation of martyrdom, reaffirms the contradiction between the Church and the world, by escaping the corruption of civilization in search of greater property.
Christian monasticism began in Egypt, then spread to Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and finally to Italy and southern Gaul. Anthony the Hermit (c.251-356), founder of monasticism, and Pachomius (c.290-346) were his prototypes.
Penitentials
The regrets, written by Irish monks, are a series of handbooks designed for pastors who hear confessions that set certain penalties for certain categories of sin. This "Penitential" borrows the inspirations and special rules of the early church councils, monastic rules, and letters of papists and bishops. Many of these regulations were initially aligned aimed at securing the special status of the clergy, including nonviolence, but gradually extended to the general population. Pensions range from fasting on bread and water for a week, paying compensation to victims in money, property or property, exile, pilgrimage, and excommunication. Reception back to the Christian community is possible only after the completion of the prescribed penance.
These manuals proved to be concise and effective methods for conceptualizing and standardizing the ideas of sin and repentance that they spread from Ireland to the Continent in various collections enshrined in the official collection of 12th century church law. This regret is invaluable for studying the early medieval concepts of violence, its seriousness and its consequences in the various acts, circumstances, and classes of victims.
The texts commissioned repentance to kill in wartime, even under the legitimate command of the legitimate authority. Penalties that last for forty days to a year for killing someone in combat, not infrequently. After Augustine, war was seen as an inherent sin, and at least the lower of the two evils.
Medieval
The Carolingian period saw the emergence of an updated Western Roman Empire and the beginning of a new barbarian invasion of the north and east and the rise of Islam. The internal effort to regulate the Christian Republic's life is therefore matched by external defense against invasions by Vikings, Magyars, and Saracens. Problems and conditions are in many ways similar to the thinking of Christian thinkers under the late Roman Empire when the state was identified with the Christian community. The Carolingian Empire thus brought the militarization of an updated society that seeks to protect the Christian world from external threats, while using the hierarchical ties of feudal oaths and vassalage to bring a new class of militant movers, militants, to some similarities from the central authorities. War takes on the religious dimension as evidenced by the liturgical formula for the blessing of soldiers and weapons.
The close identification of the Carolingian Empire with the level of Western Christianity revived the final Roman association of Christianity with the Roman orbis of the Roman world or the oikoumene (Roman world). At the most official level, Christian peace requires its defense against the attacks of external enemies.
Christian peace involves a monastic or ascetic peace of a pure heart and a life devoted to prayer; episcopal peace, or pax ecclesiae, of a functioning, free, united church; and social peace or the world empire. This often overlaps.
Carolingian theory forms two separate, ecclesiastical, and secular spheres of authority within Christian society, one to lead the body and one spirit. The monastic life is supported, and encouraged; while the final Roman ban against the clerical participation in the army was repeated again and again. Among the thinkers and writers on issues of peace and peace are Alcuin of York, Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, Paschasius Radbertus, and Hincmar of Rheims. According to their time, it offers various interpretations of peace as inner calm, legal guidelines for war and restraint of military violence, or the image of peace as an ideal Christian country.
The Cain Adomnan
The CÃÆ'¡in AdomnÃÆ'¡in (AdomnÃÆ'¡n Law), also known as Lex Innocentium (Law of Innocents) is enacted between a meeting the Irish, DÃÆ'¡l Riatan and Pictish at the Synod of Birr in 697. His name was taken from the name of his initiate AdomnÃÆ'¡n of Iona, the ninth monk of Iona after St. Columba. As the successor of the Columba of Iona, AdomnÃÆ'¡n has enough prestige to assemble a conference of ninety-first Irish chiefs and clerics, DÃÆ'¡l Riata, and Pictland in Birr to disseminate new laws. As well as being the site of a significant monastery, linked to Saint Brendan of Birr, Birr is close to the border between northern half of Northern Ireland which is predominately half Dutch, and the southern half, where the kings of Munster ruled. Therefore, it is a neutral place where rival kings and scholars from northern and southern Ireland can meet.
This series of laws is designed, inter alia, to ensure the safety and immunity of various types of non-combatants in combat. The law provides sanctions against the killing of children, clerics, clerics and peasants in the clerical lands; against rape, against the indignity of a noble lady, and forbids women to take part in the war. Various factors, including the seventh and eighteenth-century devotion of Ireland in Ireland, may have contributed to inspiring AdomnÃÆ'¡n to introduce these laws. Many of these things are already crimes, under Irish Brehon Law. The law describes the secular fines that the criminals must pay, and the ritual curse that is the subject of the offenders.
The indigenous Brehon law committed to parchment around the 7th century, most likely by the clergy. Most scholars now believe that secular law is not organized separately from monasteries. Adomnan will have access to the best legal thinking of his generation. Adomnan Cain combines aspects of traditional Brehon law with an ecclesiastical approach. Following Ambrose and Augustine, observers who do nothing to prevent crime are as dangerous as the perpetrator. "Stewards of the Law" collects fines and pays them to the nearest victim or family.
The AdomnÃÆ'¡n initiative seems to be one of the first systematic attempts to reduce the barbarity of wars among Christians. In it he provides a local expression, in the context of the Gaelic legal tradition, to a wider Christian movement to withstand violence. This is an early example of international law that must be enforced in northern Ireland and Scotland, as kings from the regions are present and signed as guarantor of the Act.
Peace of God
As the Carolingian authorities began to erode, especially on the periphery of power, as in southern Gaul, the episcopate took steps to protect their congregation and their possession against the disturbance of the local nobles. The peace of God comes from the conciliar councils of the late Carolingian period. It begins in Aquitaine, Burgundy and Languedoc, areas where the central authority has been completely fragmented.
A confined Pax Dei was decided at the Synod of Charroux in 989 and spread to much of Western Europe during the next century, persisting in some form until at least the thirteenth century.
Large crowds of people (populist) gathered from Poitou, Limousin, and the surrounding area. The relics of the saints are displayed and respected. Massive and enthusiastic mass participation marked it as one of the first popular religious movements of the Middle Ages. In the early phase, a mixture of relics and crowds, and enthusiasm marked the movement with a very popular character.
The Peace of God or Pax Dei is a proclamation issued by a local priest who decides immunity from armed violence for non-combatants who can not defend themselves, beginning with the peasants ( agricolae ) and scholars. That includes the scholars and their treasures; the poor; woman; farmers along with their tools, animals, factories, vineyards, and labor; and then the pilgrims and merchants: in short, most of the medieval population who do not have guns, nor have the right to bear it. Children and women are added to the initial protection. Merchants and their goods are added to the protected group in synod 1033.
The Pax Dei ningrat is banned from attacking churches, beating up the helpless house, and burning. Excommunication would be a punishment for attacking or robbing a church, for robbing a farmer or a poor man from livestock and robbing, attacking or confiscating a priest or a clerical man who does not carry a weapon . Making compensation or reparations can avoid the curse of the Church.
After a pause in the first two decades of the eleventh century, the movement spread north with the support of Robert the Capetian. There, the Nobleman-sponsored Peace Assembly throughout Flanders, Burgundy, Champagne, Normandy, Amienois, and Berry. By 1041 Peace had spread throughout France and had reached Flanders and Italy. From c.1018 Peace extended to Catalonia and reached Barcelona, ​​Girona, and Urgel. Sessions were repeated throughout Western Europe in the 1060s.
Truce of God
The Armistice of God or Treuga Dei originated in Normandy in the city of Caen. It comes from the eleventh century.
While the Armistice of God is a temporary cessation of temporary hostilities, different from the permanent Peace of God, the jurisdiction of the Armistice is wider. God's peace is forbidden to fight on Sundays, and ferial days (feast days where people are not required to work). It was the sanctification of Sunday that gave birth to the Armistice of God, for it was always agreed not to fight on that day and to postpone disputes in the courts.
It affirms permanent peace for all their churches and lands, monks, clerks and goods; all women, pilgrims, merchants and their maids, cattle and horses; and men working in the fields. For all others, peace is necessary throughout the Advent, the Lent season, and from the beginning of the days of Rogation until eight days after Pentecost. This prohibition is then extended to certain days of the week, ie, Thursday, in memory of the Ascension, Friday, the Passion, and Saturday, the Day of Resurrection (council 1041). By the middle of the 12th century, the number of forbidden days was extended to the remaining eighty days for combat.
The truce immediately spread from France to Italy and Germany; the oecumenical council 1179 extends the institution to the whole Church by Canon xxi, "de treugis servandis", inserted in a collection of canonical laws, Decretal of Gregory IX, I, tit., "de treuga et pace". Aquinas challenged the Armistice, arguing that it was lawful to wage war to protect the common good on holy days and feast days.
Thomas Aquinas
In his book The Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas expands Augustine's argument to define the conditions under which war can be simply:
- The war must take place for a good and just cause rather than pursuing wealth or power.
- War should only be carried out by properly instituted authorities such as the state.
- Peace must be the primary motive even in the midst of violence.
Crusade
Religious thinkers and secular writers sought to combine the control of the Peace and Truce of God into the existing soldier ethic by "Christianizing" it into the Crusades and the cult of chivalry. Beginning in the 11th century, the knights developed a religious character. Prospective knights undergo rigorous religious rituals to be initiated. An initiate must fast, confess his sins, be given a symbolic bath, cut his hair to represent humility, and he spends the night praying, his weapon on the altar representing his dedication to the Church and God. Progress in metallurgy allows inscriptions and images of sacred symbols to be carved on helmets, swords, shields, and other equipment. The symbols allow physical reminders to warriors and military men that God supports their efforts, provide protection to the soldiers and guarantee victory over their enemies.
Louis IX of France is also famous for his failed struggles and for the settlement of disputes and peacekeeping in Christian lands. He issued the first borderless ordinance forbidding war in France, a text dating from January 1258 that prohibits guerrilla warfare and arson, and disruption of carts and to agricola working with carts or plows. Those who violate this prohibition should be punished as a breaker of peace (fractores pacis) by the king's officers and elected bishops Le Puy-en-Velay. Louis IX enacted this text as a simple royal act on the basis of his authority as king.
Alternative to the Crusade
Christian missionary work is presented as a viable alternative to crusader violence. Mayorcan Franciscan Blessed Ramon Llull (1232-1315) argued that the conversion of Muslims should be achieved through prayer, not through military force, and urged to learn Arabic to prepare for missionary candidates. He traveled through Europe to meet with popes, princes, and princes, trying to set up a special college to prepare them. Renaissance Renaissance and Reformation Humanism
Erasmus laid the foundation for religious tolerance. In De libero arbitrio , he notes that religious disputes must be temperate in their language, "because in this way the truth, which is often lost in the midst of too much argument may be more definitely felt." Gary Remer writes, "Like Cicero, Erasmus concludes that truth is generated by a more harmonious relationship between your interlocutors." Although Erasmus is not against heresy, in individual cases he is generally grounded for moderation and opposes the death penalty. He wrote, "It's better to heal the sick than to kill him."
Age of Exploration
Francisco de Vitoria is a Spanish Dominican philosopher, considered one of the earliest founders of international law. He was educated at the Saint-Jacques College in Paris, where he was influenced by the work of Desidarius Erasmus. In 1524 he served as Chair of Theology at the University of Salamanca, where a number of missionaries returning from the New World expressed concern about the treatment of indigenous populations. In three lectures held between 1537 and 1539, Vitoria concluded that the Indians were the legitimate owners of their property and that their leaders legitimately exercised jurisdiction over their tribes. A proponent of a fair war theory, at Folii's baptisms, suggests that the underlying predicate conditions for "just war" are "entirely lacking in the Indies". Vitoria adopted from Aquinas the concept of Roman law on ius gentium ("the laws of the nations"). His defense of American Indians was based on a scholastic understanding of human intrinsic dignity, the dignity he found violated by Spanish policy in the New World.
Dominican Pedro de CÃÆ'³rdoba OP (c.1460-1525) is a Spanish missionary on the island of Hispaniola. He first criticized the forced labor system known as Encomienda, imposed on indigenous people.
Other notable figures include BartolomÃÆ'Â © de Las Casas and Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur
Catholic Universalism
Meric Crucà ©  © is a French monk who takes the position that war is the result of international misunderstandings and community domination by the knight class, both of which can be reduced through trade, therefore unifying the people. The origins of the idea of ​​meeting representatives of different countries to earn with the peaceful arbitration of the settlement of differences have been traced to CrucÃÆ' © 's 1623 work entitled The New Cyneas , a discourse that demonstrates the opportunities and means to build peace general and freedom of conscience to the whole world, addressed to the king and the sovereign prince of the moment. He proposes that the city, preferably Venice, should be chosen in which all Powers have ambassadors including everyone.
The Modern Church (to c.1945)
Kulturkampf
From 1871 to 1878, Chancellor Bismarck, who ruled the German Empire and the Prussian Kingdom, launched "Kulturkampf" in Prussia to reduce the strength of the Catholic Church in public affairs, and keep Polish Catholics in control. Thousands of priests and bishops are harassed or imprisoned, with large fines and the closure of Catholic churches and schools. Germany is declared the only official language, but in practice the Poles only adhered to their traditions more closely. Catholics are angry over the systematic attacks. Unanimously in their resistance, they organize themselves to fight politically, using their powers in other countries such as Bavarian Catholicism. There was little or no violence, and the new Roman Catholic Central Party won a quarter of the seats in the Reichstag (Empire Parliament), and its central position on most issues enabled it to play a decisive role in majority formation. Cultural war gave secularists and socialists an opportunity to attack all religions, a result that saddened Protestants, including Bismarck. After the death of Pope Pius IX in 1878 Bismarck opened negotiations with Pope Leo XIII, which led to his gradual abandonment of Kulturkampf in the early 1880s.
Caritas
The first Caritas organization was founded by Lorenz Worthmann on November 9, 1897 in Germany. Other national Caritas organizations were soon formed in Switzerland (1901) and the United States (Catholic Charities, 1910). It has since grown into "Caritas Internationalis", a confederation of 165 Roman Catholic aid, development, and social support organizations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Caritas Australia is involved in peace and reconciliation programs in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere, including Movimento de Defesa do Fevelado (MDF), which trains youths to become peacebuilders in Sao Paulo, Brazil in response to an increasing number of children become involved in drugs, organized crime and murder. It is expected that these trainees will be the next generation of leaders in their community.
In an attempt to overcome many prejudices and fears between various nationalities, ethnic groups and religions. The Salzburg Branch of Caritas Osterreich sponsors a Peace Camp for disadvantaged children of various religious denominations from across the Middle East. Camps take place in different countries of the region every year. Since 1999 nearly 900 children and youth from nine different countries and eighteen different denominations have participated in the program.
Fascism and Nazism
Bishop Konrad von Preysing was one of the most determined and consistent senior Catholics against the Nazis. He and Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, together with Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, were part of a committee that drafted the encyclical 1937 Mit brennender Sorge that warned Catholics that the growing Nazi ideology, which elevated race over all others, are incompatible with Catholic Christianity.
Austrian Bishop Gfoellner of Linz has read the encyclical from his diocesan pulpit. Bishop Gfoellner points out that the danger of German Catholics is also the danger of Austrian Catholics: "What I wrote in my pastoral on January 21, 1933. 'It is impossible to be a Catholic and a good National Socialist,' is confirmed today." > Mit brennender Sorge accelerated the Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany. With the death of Provost Cathedral Bernhard Lichtenberg while en route to Dachau, Margarete Sommer took over overseeing the work of the Preysing Welfare Office. Sommer coordinates Catholic help for victims of racial abuse - providing spiritual comfort, food, clothing, and money. He gathered information about the deportation of the Jews, and living conditions in concentration camps, as well as in SS shooting squads, writing several reports on these topics from 1942.
The Belgian cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, strongly opposed to Nazi Germany, once said, "With Germany we step a few degrees down and reach the lowest depth possible, we have an obligation of conscience to fight and fight to overcome this danger. Reason and good reason lead us to trust, toward resistance ". Cardinal van Roey intervened with authorities to rescue Jews from the Nazis, and encouraged institutions to help Jewish children. One of his rescue actions is to open a geriatric center where Jews are housed, where the halal Jewish chefs will be asked who can be granted special permission to protect them from deportation. Papal Nuncio Angelo Roncalli used a diplomatic courier, papal representative and Our Lady of Zion Sisters to transport and issue baptismal certificates, immigration certificates and visas - many of them falsified - to Hungarian Jews.
Pallottine priest Franz Reinisch was beheaded by SAC for refusing to take allegiance of allegiance to Hitler. When his offer to serve as a medical officer was denied, the tertiary Franciscan Franz Jaegerstatter was executed as a repellent of conscience. The two met a priest who thought that they failed in their duty to their country.
Contemporary Catholic (c.1963 -)
Europe
Pope John XXIII (1958-63) embarked on a revolution in Roman Catholic thought and life that returned to the previous period for its model and inspiration and brought the church into a new age. Through its policy of aggiornamento , the pope opened the church to the modern world. Russell Hittinger describes the encyclical of Pacem in Terris as a kind of magna charta from the position of the Catholic Church on human rights and natural law. " The successors of John Paul VI and John Paul II continue this agenda while preserving traditional church teachings in many areas of individual and social morality.
In the 1980s the Polish Solidarity movement grew from a labor strike at the shipyard in Gda? Sk. This was the first labor union controlled by the Communist Party in the Warsaw Pact country, and became a widespread social movement, using civil resistance to advance causes of workers' rights and social change.
The English historian Timothy Garton Ash, observed immediately after the death of Pope John Paul II, "... without the Polish Pope, there was no Solidarity revolution in Poland in 1980; without Solidarity, there was no dramatic change in Soviet policy towards Eastern Europe under Gorbachev; without that change, there was no velvet revolution in 1989.
Latin America
Under the guidance of Archbishop HÃÆ'Â © lder CÃÆ'Â ¢ mara, the Catholic church in Brazil became a blatant critic of the 1964-85 military dictatorship and a strong movement for social change.
LÃÆ'Â © onie Duquet and Alice Domon were French religious nuns who were kidnapped in December 1977 by the Argentine death squads for their support of Plaza de Mayo Mothers in their attempt to study the fate of those lost by the ruling military regime. Later that month a number of corpses were stranded on the southern coast of Buenos Aires and then buried secretly. Duquet among them is then disinterred and identified.
In El Salvador, Father Rutilio Grande spoke out against injustice at the hands of oppressive governments, and devoted his life to organizing poor and marginalized El Salvador rural farmers as they demanded respect for their rights. Father Grande and two others were killed by machine-gun fire while on the way to say Mass.
Africa
Denis Hurley O.M.I. is South African Catholic bishop of South Africa in Durban. Hurley was one of the first church leaders to denounce apartheid, condemning the policy as an affront to human dignity. In the late 1970s, Hurley held a daily silent protest, standing in front of the central Durban Post Office for a period each day with placards expressing his opposition to apartheid and the removal of people from their homes. He received many death threats and sometimes became house arrest. According to Gerald Shaw writing for The Guardian, "It is partly because of the ongoing moral struggle and that of other churches that the transition to democracy, when it came in 1994, was accepted by the white people in peace and good order. "Hurley is remembered for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid, his concern for the poor and his commitment to a more just and peaceful society.
Asia
Jaime Sin is the cardinal of the Bishop of Manila, who "plays a key role in the transition of the Philippines to democracy following the long dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.The Associated Press calls Sin" the moral compass of the Philippines. "Despite its impact on the Philippines, Marcos's peace expulsion has been touted as an important milestone in the movement towards popularly elected governments around the world.
United States
During World War I, Ben Salmon was an avid repellent of conscience and critics of war theology. The US military accused him of desertion and spread propaganda, then sentenced him to death, a sentence then changed to twenty-five years of forced labor.
During World War II, out of a total of 21 million Catholics, only 223 claimed the status of IV-E CO, consciously conscription of conscription; 135 finally classified. Most Catholic opponents choose the status of I-A-O, non-combat military service, generally as unarmed medical personnel on the front lines. In addition to 135 opponents of this Catholic conscience, 61 Catholics reject induction and imprisonment.
Originally established as a War Support Service, the initial goal of the Catholic Aid Service is to help refugees in war-torn Europe. Continued support from American Catholics helped CRS expand operations and in 1955 its name was officially converted to Catholic Relief Services. Over time, agencies learned that to provide emergency assistance without addressing the underlying problem could prolong the conflict by providing new resources for the conflicting parties. Therefore, CRS has re-evaluated the best way to focus their activities. In some countries CRS works to provide peace education for children in refugee camps or improve relations between refugees and local residents. He works in ninety-three countries in programs that deal with hunger, water supply, and health issues.
After the war, Catholic peace forces narrowed to very few institutions, including the Catholic Workers Movement, and individuals, including Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, and Thomas Merton. After the war, activities were carried out by individuals such as Joseph Fahey and Eileen Egan who were instrumental in the creation of Pax Christi.
Whale diplomacy and arbitration
The institutional church, and especially the papacy, has long sought to exercise its authority to promote peace and justice, and like all human institutions, has met with mixed results. The first is mainly in the field of international diplomacy; the second is the domain of canon law and theology, in an attempt to define the boundaries of war and violence; and the third, among scholars who investigate the boundaries of individual conscience.
For Medieval Europe, canonical law functions as an international legal code. According to Garret Mattingly,
... since the eleventh century, the canonists have been overwhelmed with many of the problems we regard as belonging to public international law, to the definition of sovereignty, to the sanctity of the treaty, to the preservation of peace, to the rights of neutral and non-combatant, and to the mitigation of the hardness of war.
In the thirteenth century the Pontifical became the first Western power to systematically use diplomacy. The papacy, in fact, can be regarded as the originator of many of the most basic elements of modern diplomacy and international law: the protection and safe behavior of ambassadors, the secrecy of diplomatic negotiations, the insistence that their treaties and conditions, once created, , condemnation of offenses, provisions for the release of prisoners and hostages and their human treatment while in detention, the protection of outcasts, foreigners and racial minorities, and the curse of an unjust war, all derived from papal positions both as leaders of the Christian community and as a force for international unity among secular countries.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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