Tuesday, November 20, 2018 from Susie Tierney, Executive Director
A Thanksgiving to “Do Better”
This Thanksgiving week, I am having a hard time wrapping my heart and mind around a sense of gratitude. It’s not that I’m ungrateful; quite the opposite, really. I could not be more grateful for all that I’ve been lucky enough to have access to in this lifetime: food, clothing, shelter, a loving family and enough extra for nights of fun and entertainment.
A Thanksgiving to “Do Better” by Susie Tierney in News & Press
This Thanksgiving week, I am having a hard time wrapping my heart and mind around a sense of gratitude. It’s not that I’m ungrateful; quite the opposite, really. I could not be more grateful for all that I’ve been lucky enough to have access to in this lifetime: food, clothing, shelter, a loving family and enough extra for nights of fun and entertainment.But what I’m especially struggling with is my personal sense of gratitude vs. the needs of the world. While I’m able to celebrate Thanksgiving surrounded by a warm home, plenty of food, and a loving family, it is not lost on me that the majority of the credit for my life of comfort has nearly everything to do with my birth into a white, middle-class family in the United States. Had I been born in an impoverished country, I might be part of a hunger statistic. Had I been born in a low-income family here in the U.S., my ability to escape poverty would most certainly be impeded by multiple structural barriers. And, my race has definitely afforded me many privileges I don’t even have to think about.
Every year as I approach Thanksgiving, I find myself wondering why the circumstances surrounding my birth should afford me access to things others do not have access to; privileges others do not have. But no matter how I try to think about this question or discern it, I always come down on the side of this truth: they shouldn’t.
So, this year I hope to approach the Thanksgiving table a little differently. Rather than a prayer of gratitude where I list off all the things I’m grateful for in my life – all the things I have access to that others don’t – this Thanksgiving, my prayer will be a renewed commitment to doing everything I can to end hunger.
The poet and author, Mary Oliver, has said, “That God has a plan for us, I have no doubt. But what if God’s plan is for us to do better?” This Thanksgiving, my personal prayer will be to “do better”; to do what is in my power to change systems and structures that prevent hungry people from getting access to food and other basic necessities.
I will also be offering a prayer for all of you. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is peaceful and filled with lots of quality time with family/friends. And I pray that you will join me in a commitment to “do better.”
Read More
Program Spotlight: JustMatters Modules
Our 8 week modules allow small faith communities to explore critical current issues such as hunger, migration, nonviolence, and Christian-Muslim dialogue within a prayerful environment that invites personal transformation. Visit our program page to learn more about all our programs.
Program Highlight: Hunger for Change: A Faithful Response to Food Insecurity
Every day 800 million people experience hunger. JustFaith Ministries’ 8-week program, Hunger for Change: A Faithful Response to Food Insecurity, invites participants to formulate a personal response to the 21st-century reality of food insecurity in the US and around the world. This is a prayerful process that includes study, rich dialogue, and an immersion experience. This process inspires participants to take concrete action to end hunger.
#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. Following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this year’s #GivingTuesday will take place on November 27th and will kick off the giving season by inspiring people to collaborate and give back. This year, JustFaith Ministries is participating and we would love your support. You can make a donation on GivingTuesday by visiting:https://justfaith.org/get-involved/donate/.
A Prayer for Thanksgiving
shared by our partners at Bread for the World
God of All Creation:
The abundance of your provision gives us pause to gather around the table to give thanks with those we love.
As we enjoy the food now before us, we are mindful of those who do not have a place at any table and of those who have too little or nothing at all to eat.
Nourish and empower us with this meal to work toward your vision of abundance, which extends to all your beloved children, knit together as one human family.
May your hope, peace, joy, and love compel us to end hunger.
Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving from Bread for the World.
Support advocacy work by purchasing your Christmas cards from Bread for the World, here.
Just Peace
shared by our partners at Maryknoll
Join us in promoting the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a global effort affirming the vision and practice of active nonviolence at the heart of the Catholic Church. It grew out of the landmark Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference held in Rome in April 2016, which was co-sponsored by the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Pax Christi International, and other organizations, including Maryknoll.
Read and sign
Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
MENU AND WIDGETS
An Appeal to the Catholic Church to re-commit to the centrality of Gospel nonviolence
The following statement, crafted in a consensus process, was released at the end of the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference in Rome, April 2016. We invite individuals and organizations to endorse this statement using the form below. More than 2,000 individuals and organizations have endorsed as of April 2017.
Have you already signed? (Thank you!) Check here to see if your name or the name of your organisation is listed.
PDF in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish
As Christians committed to a more just and peaceful world we are called to take a clear stand for creative and active nonviolence and against all forms of violence. With this conviction, and in recognition of the Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis, people from many countries gathered at the Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International on April 11-13, 2016 in Rome.
Our assembly, people of God from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania included lay people, theologians, members of religious congregations, priests, and bishops. Many of us live in communities experiencing violence and oppression. All of us are practitioners of justice and peace. We are grateful for the message to our conference from Pope Francis: “your thoughts on revitalizing the tools of nonviolence, and of active nonviolence in particular, will be a needed and positive contribution”.
Looking at our world today
We live in a time of tremendous suffering, widespread trauma and fear linked to militarization, economic injustice, climate change, and a myriad of other specific forms of violence. In this context of normalized and systemic violence, those of us who stand in the Christian tradition are called to recognize the centrality of active nonviolence to the vision and message of Jesus; to the life and practice of the Catholic Church; and to our long-term vocation of healing and reconciling both people and the planet.
We rejoice in the rich concrete experiences of people engaged in work for peace around the world, many of whose stories we heard during this conference. Participants shared their experiences of courageous negotiations with armed actors in Uganda and Colombia; working to protect the Article 9, the peace clause in the Japanese Constitution; accompaniment in Palestine; and countrywide peace education in the Philippines. They illuminate the creativity and power of nonviolent practices in many different situations of potential or actual violent conflict. Recent academic research, in fact, has confirmed that nonviolent resistance strategies are twice as effective as violent ones.
The time has come for our Church to be a living witness and to invest far greater human and financial resources in promoting a spirituality and practice of active nonviolence and in forming and training our Catholic communities in effective nonviolent practices. In all of this, Jesus is our inspiration and model.
Jesus and nonviolence
In his own times, rife with structural violence, Jesus proclaimed a new, nonviolent order rooted in the unconditional love of God. Jesus called his disciples to love their enemies (Matthew 5: 44), which includes respecting the image of God in all persons; to offer no violent resistance to one who does evil (Matthew 5: 39); to become peacemakers; to forgive and repent; and to be abundantly merciful (Matthew 5-7). Jesus embodied nonviolence by actively resisting systemic dehumanization, as when he defied the Sabbath laws to heal the man with the withered hand (Mark 3: 1-6); when he confronted the powerful at the Temple and purified it (John 2: 13-22); when he peacefully but determinedly challenged the men accusing a woman of adultery (John 8: 1-11); when on the night before he died he asked Peter to put down his sword (Matthew 26: 52).
Neither passive nor weak, Jesus’ nonviolence was the power of love in action. In vision and deed, he is the revelation and embodiment of the Nonviolent God, a truth especially illuminated in the Cross and Resurrection. He calls us to develop the virtue of nonviolent peacemaking.
Clearly, the Word of God, the witness of Jesus, should never be used to justify violence, injustice or war. We confess that the people of God have betrayed this central message of the Gospel many times, participating in wars, persecution, oppression, exploitation, and discrimination.
We believe that there is no “just war”. Too often the “just war theory” has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war. Suggesting that a “just war” is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict.
We need a new framework that is consistent with Gospel nonviolence. A different path is clearly unfolding in recent Catholic social teaching. Pope John XXIII wrote that war is not a suitable way to restore rights; Pope Paul VI linked peace and development, and told the UN “no more war”; Pope John Paul II said that “war belongs to the tragic past, to history”; Pope Benedict XVI said that “loving the enemy is the nucleus of the Christian revolution”; and Pope Francis said “the true strength of the Christian is the power of truth and love, which leads to the renunciation of all violence. Faith and violence are incompatible”. He has also urged the “abolition of war”.
We propose that the Catholic Church develop and consider shifting to a Just Peace approach based on Gospel nonviolence. A Just Peace approach offers a vision and an ethic to build peace as well as to prevent, defuse, and to heal the damage of violent conflict. This ethic includes a commitment to human dignity and thriving relationships, with specific criteria, virtues, and practices to guide our actions. We recognize that peace requires justice and justice requires peacemaking.
Living Gospel Nonviolence and Just Peace
In that spirit we commit ourselves to furthering Catholic understanding and practice of active nonviolence on the road to just peace. As would-be disciples of Jesus, challenged and inspired by stories of hope and courage in these days, we call on the Church we love to:
- continue developing Catholic social teaching on nonviolence. In particular, we call on Pope Francis to share with the world an encyclical on nonviolence and Just Peace;
- integrate Gospel nonviolence explicitly into the life, including the sacramental life, and work of the Church through dioceses, parishes, agencies, schools, universities, seminaries, religious orders, voluntary associations, and others;
- promote nonviolent practices and strategies (e.g., nonviolent resistance, restorative justice, trauma healing, unarmed civilian protection, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding strategies);
- initiate a global conversation on nonviolence within the Church, with people of other faiths, and with the larger world to respond to the monumental crises of our time with the vision and strategies of nonviolence and Just Peace;
- no longer use or teach “just war theory”; continue advocating for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons;
- lift up the prophetic voice of the church to challenge unjust world powers and to support and defend those nonviolent activists whose work for peace and justice put their lives at risk.
PDF in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish
We invite individuals and organizations to endorse the statement here.
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Is this an individual endorsement or an organizational endorsement? / Est-ce un endossement individu ou un endossement de l'organisation? / E 'questo un avallo individuo o un avallo organizzativo? *
Individual
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Last name / Nom de famille / Apellido *
Organization/Affiliation (optional) / Organisation/Affiliation (facultatif) / Organizzazione/Affiliazione (opzionale)
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Any comment to share? / Avez-vous un commentaire à partager? / Hai un commento da condividere?
You can also support CNI here.
Read more here.
Just War or Just Peace? Written by Kevin Carroll
Kevin Carroll – Nonviolence and Peace Fellow,
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
A project of Pax Christi International, The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, or CNI, is a global effort affirming the vision and practice of active nonviolence at the heart of the Catholic Church. It grew out of the landmark Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference held in Rome in April 2016, which was co-sponsored by the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Pax Christi International, and other organizations, including Maryknoll. Leaders include Ken Butigan of Pace e Bene and DePaul University, and Marie Dennis of Pax Christi International.
Attendees at Nonviolence and Just Peace conference at the Vatican
Attended by lay people, members of religious congregations, bishops, priests, and theologians from six continents, the conference called on:- Pope Francis to share with the world an encyclical on nonviolence, and
- The Catholic Church to recommit to the centrality of Gospel nonviolence.
CNI calls on the Church to:
- continue developing Catholic social teaching on nonviolence;
- integrate Gospel nonviolence explicitly into the life, including the sacramental life, and work of the Church (through dioceses, parishes, agencies, schools, universities, seminaries, religious orders, voluntary associations, and others);
- promote nonviolent practices and strategies (e.g., nonviolent resistance, restorative justice, trauma healing, unarmed civilian protection, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding strategies);
- initiate a global conversation on nonviolence—within the Church, with people of other faiths and no faith, and with the larger world, to respond to the monumental crises of our time with the vision and strategies of nonviolence;
- no longer use or teach the “just war theory” and continue advocating for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons;
- lift up the prophetic voice of the Church to challenge unjust world powers and support and defend those nonviolent activists whose work for peace and justice puts their lives at risk.
- Read and sign the appeal as an individual or as an organization (https://nonviolencejustpeace.net/final-statement-an-appeal-to-the-catholic-church-to-re-commit-to-the-centrality-of-gospel-nonviolence/).
- You can also support CNI at https://nonviolencejustpeace.net/support-the-catholic-nonviolence-initiative/.
- Read Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church returns to Gospel Nonviolence, edited by Marie Dennis, which can be found at https://www.orbisbooks.com/choosing-peace.html.
- Talk about the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative in your Affiliate Chapter or faith-sharing group.
- Work on being more devoted to nonviolence in your own life and interactions.
Maryknoll is a member of the CNI...You can be, too!
JustFaith Ministries is a nonprofit organization that forms, informs, and transforms people of faith by offering programs and resources that sustain them in their compassionate commitment to build a more just and peaceful world.
Copyright © 2018 JustFaith Ministries, All rights reserved.
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