In addition to this message, Pope Francis used Twitter in the days following its release to focus more attention on nonviolence.

On 3 January he tweeted: "May nonviolence become the hallmark of our decisions, our relationships and our actions."

The next day he tweeted: "To be true followers of Jesus today also includes embracing his teaching about nonviolence," and he reiterated this message on 5 January, tweeting: "May charity and nonviolence govern how we treat one another."

His message and his tweets came after a conference on nonviolence took place at the Vatican in April, organized jointly by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International, at which the participants called on the pope to write an encyclical or "other teaching document" on nonviolence and to reject the just war tradition. It is likely that Pope Francis's World Day of Peace message was, in part, a response to this conference's appeal.

Pope Francis's message was not the first time a pope exhorted Catholics to nonviolence. Pope St. John Paul II forcefully opposed violence and praised those who opposed injustice nonviolently. And at the Angelus on 18 February 2007, Pope Benedict XVI referred to Jesus's exhortation to "Love your enemies" (Luke 6:27) as "the magna carta of Christian non-violence" and spoke about nonviolence as:

"not merely tactical behaviour but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God's love and power that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone."

That said, Pope Francis's World Day of Peace message is the first papal document focused specifically on nonviolence, and draws attention to it in a more sustained manner than previous papal documents. Continue reading

Sources

• ABC Religion & Ethics article by Gregory K Hillis, Associate Professor of Theology at Bellarmine University.
• Image: Patheos

But he also modeled nonviolence by actively confronting injustice and violence, as when he defied the Sabbath laws to heal the disabled, confronted unjust power at the Temple, challenged a throng of assailants accusing a woman of adultery, and, on the night before he died, commanded Peter to put down his sword.

Neither passive nor weak, Jesus' nonviolence is the power of love in action for the well-being of all.

Imagine nurturing a new identity as nonviolent people in a nonviolent church with a clear and deliberate commitment to preaching, teaching, activating, and boldly proclaiming Jesus' nonviolence at every level.

We must return good for evil, break the chains of escalatory violence and revenge, stand up to systemic injustice not with violence but with determined love, and fully trust the God of love and truth rather than the power of violence.

And if the theology and spirituality of gospel nonviolence were more deliberately integrated into the life of the church, we would more clearly recognize the sacred way and work of peace, reconciliation, and nonviolent transformation in our time of monumental crisis and opportunity.

Catholic social thought, including a growing number of recent papal statements and church documents, has increasingly articulated the centrality of gospel nonviolence.

As Pope Benedict XVI put it in a 2007 homily, "Nonviolence, for Christians, is not mere tactical behavior but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is convinced of God's love and power, who is not afraid to confront evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. Loving the enemy is the nucleus of the ‘Christian revolution.' "

In the same address, the pope declared that nonviolence "does not consist in surrendering to evil—as claims a false interpretation of ‘turn the other cheek' (Luke 6:29)—but in responding to evil with good (Romans 12:17-21), and thus breaking the chain of injustice."

This and many other recent papal declarations—including Pope Francis' 2013 statement that "faith and violence are incompatible"—have helped increase the church's awareness of the nonviolence of Jesus. Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic article by Ken Butigan, who teaches in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago.
• Image: neversleeps