All wars are in contradiction with human dignity and "are not destined by their nature to solve problems, but rather to exacerbate them."

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, opened the ‘Peace Table' in Rome with these considerations.

With him this morning, May 10th, were about 30 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Rigoberta Menchù Tum from Guatemala, Dmitrij Muratov from Russia, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, as well as figures like Machel Mandela, widow of Nelson Mandela, and NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

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Now, it seems that Israel is beginning its last phase of conquest, after ordering a million and a half people to take refuge in Rafah, a border town with Egypt.

Soon, there may be almost no one left in the rest of Gaza.

There have been several wars in Gaza, but this time there are thousands of human victims, and ruins like never before, and peace does not seem to be near.

More than suffering, more than the loss of men and women, children and babies, humanity is lost.

Making war

Why this new war?

The immediate cause is the horrific Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

But another direct cause is the permanent siege imposed upon all Gazan territory in 2007, when the Hamas political party became the governing authority of the enclave.

Since then, the entire territory—2.5 million people over an area of 141 square miles​​—has been under total military siege imposed by Israel and Egypt.

And since Oct. 7, Israel's military operations have limited even the most necessary humanitarian aid for Gaza, to the point that it now stands on the cusp of famine.

The real cause is the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, begun in 1948, which no peace agreement has been able to end and which the international community seems to have neglected.

Under Israeli military occupation, Gaza — and all of Palestine — has suffered thousands of deaths, thousands more taken as political prisoners, demolished houses, military checkpoints on all roads that disrupt freedom of movement and daily life, and a paralysed, dependent Palestinian economy.

In short, we are in a permanent state of war.

This is the root cause of all wars in Gaza, including the one following Oct. 7.

And despite the useless, inhuman violence of the present war, more will come if a just and lasting peace is not reached between the two peoples.

The war must stop without further delay because it is no longer a war. It is a massacre.

But what comes after the war?

Making peace

Israel, as the occupier of Gaza, must take responsibility for seeking a sustainable peace with equal justice for all.

Otherwise, we will see an unnecessary defeat for all. It is time for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be put back on the international agenda and for the global community to take responsibility for building peace, which has seemed impossible until today.

Peace means the security of Israel and, at the same time, the security of the Palestinian people.

In fact, the fundamental question that arises today is: Do the Palestinian people have the right to stay at home, on their own land, in their own towns and villages?

To this question, the current government in Israel has said no.

Instead, Israel has been trying to forcibly displace the Palestinian people, making it virtually impossible for them to live a normal, humane life and raise their families on their own land.

That cannot be a path to peace or security for anyone.

To achieve peace, we must simply admit that even in this conflict, human beings are equal. Israelis and Palestinians are equally created by God, in the image of God, and are capable of loving as opposed to killing.

On this holy land, there is room for both peoples to exercise the same political rights: two states, each at home, independent, free and capable of resisting a return to war.

We have experienced war for decades; we now need a new way of thinking that brings about a lasting peace.

The peacemakers

Who is responsible for building this peace?

First, the two peoples themselves, Israeli and Palestinian.

Then, the international community, the friends of Israel and Palestine.

The true friends of Israel are those who help Israel achieve peace.

Making Israel militarily stronger, to win wars but remain insecure, is not friendship or true help to Israel.

One can ask the question: Are the two peoples capable of living in peace, each in their own state?

Why not?

There is much suffering and injustice in living memory, that is true.

But there is also the will to live and the fundamental goodness that God has placed in everyone.

God created the human being capable of life rather than death, love rather than killing.

The surest path to peace is direct engagement with the enemy, especially when two enemies share the same land. A sustainable peace cannot be brokered by outside forces. Read more

• Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah (pictured) served as the archbishop and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008, the first native Palestinian to hold the office for centuries.
• Editor's note: "America," the original publisher of this piece, is committed to publishing diverse views on the pressing issues of our time. For additional perspectives on the war in Gaza, read "There Is a Right and Wrong Way for Catholics to Criticize Israel," by Karma Ben Johanan, and Gerard O'Connell's interview with David Neuhaus, S.J.

The pope was talking to a group of Italian schoolchildren saying that each of them can help make peace grow.

The youngsters were all involved in the National Network of Schools of Peace.

Stay awake to create a better world

"This (peace) is a dream that requires being awake and not asleep."

Francis suggested that the young people "listen carefully - this kind of dream is realised by praying, that is together with God, not by our strength alone".

"Peace ... is not only a silence of weapons and absence of war" the pope said.

He explained it is "a climate of benevolence, trust and love that can mature in a society based on caring relationships".

In a better world, individualism, distraction and indifference give way.

They are replaced with the ability to pay attention to others, to listen to their needs, to heal their wounds, to be instruments of compassion and healing, the pope said.

Grow peace

Peace can spread and grow from "small seeds" the pope told the 6,000 children meeting at the Vatican Audience Hall on Friday.

These small seeds can be something such as including someone who is left out of an activity, showing concern for someone who is struggling, picking up some litter, and praying for God's help, he suggested.

The pope also had a request: "At a time still marked by war, I ask you to be artisans of peace" he said.

The National Network of Schools of Peace is a civic education programme. It aims to teach children to care for themselves, their friends, their communities, the world and the environment.

The pope then led the children in a moment of silent prayer for their peers in Ukraine and in Gaza.

"In a society still prisoner of a throwaway culture, I ask you to be protagonists of inclusion; in a world torn by global crises, I ask you to be builders of the future, so that our common home may become a place of fraternity."

U.N. Summit of the Future

The pope then spoke about the U.N. Summit of the Future.

The summit, scheduled for September 22-23 in New York, will draft a "Pact for the Future".

The pact will focus on promoting international cooperation and partnerships.

It aims to ensure "a world that is safer, more peaceful, more just, more equal, more inclusive, more sustainable and more prosperous".

While young people won't be able to achieve these aims on their own, government leaders and experts in a variety of fields must help to make that hope a reality - they do have a role to play.

Pope Francis explained that without their input the pact will remain "just words on a page".

It needs all people of goodwill to commit to taking concrete steps to help.

Everyone needs to help change harmful behaviour and build communities and societies where everyone feels they are cared for and belong, the pope said.

Source

• UCA News

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin read the message on Francis's behalf on Sunday at the COP28 Faith Pavilion.

He passed on Francis's thanks to those in the new Pavilion. They included the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Pavilion "is the first of its kind at the heart of a COP" Francis's message noted.

It shows all authentic religious beliefs are a source of encounter and action.

"It is important to see ourselves, beyond our differences, as brothers and sisters in the one human family and, as believers, to remind ourselves and the world that as sojourners on this earth we have a duty to protect our common home."

Religions remind us that humanity is finite and has limits, Francis' message noted.

Life must be protected, he stressed. This is done by "opposing the rapacious illusion of omnipotence that is devastating our planet.

"That insatiable desire for power wells up whenever we consider ourselves lords of the world, whenever we live as though God did not exist and, as a result, end up prey to passing things."

Humans have become "mere commodities, desensitised, incapable of sorrow and compassion, self-absorbed and, turning our backs on morality and prudence, we destroy the very sources of life" Parolin read from Francis's speech.

This "is why the problem of climate change is also a religious problem: its roots lie in the creature's presumption of self-sufficiency" Francis's continued.

Call to action

There is an urgent need to act "for the sake of the environment" Cop28 heard.

Increasing spending isn't enough, Francis's message said.

"We need to change our way of life and thus educate everyone to sober and fraternal lifestyles.

"This is an essential obligation for religions which are called to teach contemplation, since creation is not only an ecosystem to preserve, but also a gift to embrace.

"A world poor in contemplation will be a world polluted in soul, a world that will continue to discard people and produce waste."

Prayer ensures our words are not "bereft of compassion and tears" he said.

Peace and caring for creation "are interdependent.

"A home is liveable only when... peace reigns within" COP28 heard.

Religions have a specific role in peacekeeping.

"May our actions not contradict the words we speak; may we not merely speak about peace, but take a stand against those who claim to be believers yet fuel hatred and do not oppose violence."

Right now "the world needs alliances that are not against someone but in favour of everyone".

Religions must work together and set a good example. Two of the most important global issues are peace and the climate.

"With a loud voice, let us implore leaders of nations that our common home be preserved" the pope's message said.

Source

• Crux

In our local park each junction of the path is marked by a stenciled message demanding a ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Large, mainly peaceful, demonstrations in favour of the people of Gaza and of Israel have been held in the major Australian cities.

The media have highlighted increased prejudice and threats made against Jewish people, and have also reported similar experiences by Muslims.

Protagonists for Israel and Hamas have urged the Government and people to support one side whole-heartedly and to reject totally the other.

This pressure to make such a choice is understandable after so many innocent people have been killed. But it should be rejected.

For the people of Israel and Gaza, and so for Australians, the real enemy is war itself.

We should privilege compassion for all the human beings whose own lives and relatives have been destroyed by war, including those in the Jewish and Palestinian communities in Australia.

The object of our policy should be a settlement that respects equally all the people in the region and is not built on deterrence.

Such a strategy may seem to be unrealistic.

But the alternative of endorsing the use of armed force by either side in order to annihilate its declared enemies and to turn its borderlands into shooting alleys is a sure recipe for deepening hatred and future conflict.

The families of those whom our chosen side has killed will breed and inspire the next generation of patriots, freedom fighters or terrorists, call them what you will.

They may very well be confused about what they stand for, but they will be sure about whom they stand against. The resulting entrenched hostility will then corrupt the civic values we claim to be at stake in endorsing the war.

Those who declare that the real enemy is war and who advocate for peace are usually criticised for being naively optimistic.

Some will denounce them as stooges of a hostile power. That may sometimes be the case, but not necessarily so. It is possible to recognise war to be the real enemy, while simultaneously recognising the complex challenges involved in avoiding war and encouraging peace.

In Israel, for example, the Government certainly has a duty to keep its people safe.

It is certainly responding to an attack by a group that wants to destroy Israel. That group is prepared to take and use hostages in order to deter military action.

It may also place its command posts and other military centres close to schools and hospitals, making it certain that many non-combatants are bound to be injured and killed in military action. Nor can a ceasefire be guaranteed to secure the return of hostages, the separation of civilians from combatants, and lead to peace.

These considerations, however, do not justify a war in which many people will die and be left destitute, in which there is no strategy for securing a just peace, and which will be followed by further human misery and the seeds of further wars.

Australia should focus on support for the people who are the victims of war and on pressing for an end to the war and for a just peace.

The focus on persons affected by the war extends beyond Israel and Gaza to Palestinian and Israeli communities in Australia.

They will have lost relatives to war, will be deeply concerned for their countries of origin and fearful for the future.

They should be able to express their convictions and solidarity with their kinsmen and plead their cause publicly in a way that does not lead to conflict with other opposed groups.

Media have a responsibility to report the activities and views of these groups without using them to make political points. This involves taking account of the complexity and volatility of public life.

Demonstrations allow people to take stands. They also draw in partisan people from outside the communities who seek disruption and confrontation.

In times of war these voices can always draw on such creative and tendentious reporting as that of the raped nuns of the First World War and the Weapons of Mass Destruction during the Iraq invasion.

Immigrant communities will always be vulnerable to racial and xenophobic discrimination, doubly so when racist attitudes recently evident in Australia are magnified by the lack of social cohesion associated with economic hardship. Both Muslims and Jews will be subject to racist abuse with all its memories of past trauma.

Seeing war as the enemy abroad entails working to heal and to soothe wounds in the local community, not to exacerbate them.

• Andrew Hamilton S.J. is a Eureka Street editorial consultant and a policy officer with Jesuit Social Services. He taught theology for many years, has contributed widely to theological and religious journals and has had a long-standing engagement with refugee communities and issues.
• First published in Eureka Street

On Nov. 11 the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and several other nations will observe the 100th anniversary of that historic day when the warring nations of the world finally stopped all the killing, injury and destruction which filled the years between 1914 and 1918.

On Dec. 7, 1914 Pope Benedict XV pleaded with the warring parties to observe a Christmas truce.

He asked, "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang."

He was hoping that such a truce would lead to sincere peace negotiations.

Tragically, his plea was officially ignored.

But on Christmas, opposing soldiers along various spots on the Western Front inspiringly declared their own unofficial truce.

And a courageous Catholic American, Ben Salmon, walking in the footsteps of the nonviolent Jesus, refused to kill.

He was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to a lengthy prison sentence of hard labour.

War - for what purpose

World War I caused over 8 million military deaths.

The civilian death toll was even worse at approximately 13 million - largely due to starvation, exposure, disease, military encounters and massacres.

World War I - "the war to end all wars" - instead became a precursor to the even more horrible World War II - the worst war in human history - and scores of wars since ever since.

Honestly, for what?

And the veterans who survive wars very often come home with serious physical, mental and spiritual wounds.

Why do Christians allow our government to put them in harm's way?

Shouldn't followers of the nonviolent Jesus demand an end to this sacrilege - the sacrilege of war and war preparation?

Adequately taking care of veterans' needs, like mental and physical health care and housing, is a moral imperative that demands much more funding.

Deemphasise nationalistic fervour

But for the sake of helping create a culture which opposes war and war preparation, a culture which decries sending more young men and women into one senseless war after another, we need to deemphasise the nationalistic fervour associated with Veterans Day, similarly observed as Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth, and instead recapture the prayerful and peaceful meaning that was central to what this day was originally called: Armistice Day.

In a June 4, 1926 congressional resolution officially recognizing the end of World War I, Congress declared that the recurring anniversary of the day when hostilities ceased "should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations."

On Nov. 11, Armistice Day, let's say no to more war, and demand justice and peace at home and abroad.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net.

The future for Palestinians and Israelis is being erased each passing day. Before it is too late, the United States and Congress should side with peace, not more war, in the Middle East.

Hamas' horrific attacks that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and their abduction of more than 200 civilians should be strongly condemned.

The U.S. and international community should work fervently to hold those responsible accountable while securing the release of hostages. I stand for the safety and dignity of all Israelis.

I also stand for the safety and dignity of all Palestinians.

The indiscriminate, inhumane Israeli response that has already claimed as many as 8,000 lives in Gaza, including many children, must also be clearly condemned.

The U.S. and international community should insist international law be respected with all civilians protected.

As a person of faith, I mourn the tragic loss of all lives and pray for those who have lost loved ones in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

I also mourn the response of my government, which seems unable to value the human rights and lives of Palestinians.

In stark contrast to the Pope's message, President Biden has made clear which "team" the U.S. is on by asking Congress for billions more in weapons for Israel.

This not only makes the U.S. complicit in unfolding war crimes; it also fuels anti-American sentiment, undermining national and global security.

Having lived through the 9/11 attacks, I understand the fear and outrage that terrorism inflicts on a community.

But two decades of endless war, military quagmires, trillions of dollars spent and more than 432,000 civilians killed from our global war on terror should have taught us that war is not the answer.

Instead of pouring more weapons into the conflict with one hand while supporting humanitarian aid with the other, President Biden and Congress should be fervently working to help halt the killing while addressing the root causes, so the cycle of war and violence does not repeat itself.

Some media coverage is not helping. My middle-schooler, after a discussion about cable news with classmates, believed once an attack is labeled "terrorism," there are no limits to the violence used in response. This is not the way international law works.

International humanitarian law does not allow the indiscriminate bombing of civilians.

Hospitals, churches, schools and residential neighborhoods are not legitimate military targets, especially when they are providing refuge for thousands fleeing for their lives.

Killing and abducting civilians can never be tolerated. But waging war against an entire population in response only deepens suffering, inviting more attacks.

My Quaker faith calls me to reject all forms of violence and to continually work to prevent war, break cycles of violence and rebuild relationships.

But people of all faiths — or those not religious at all — can see the horrors of this war and what may come next.

More than 70 Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other organisations, including my own, recently signed this interfaith and civil society letter calling on Congress and the president to press for an immediate ceasefire and provide some measure of peace, security and humanitarian assistance to the civilians of both Israel and Gaza.

We agree all violence against civilians by Hamas and the Israeli military is to be condemned and must stop at once. A ceasefire should be declared, respected and enforced on both sides.

Protecting civilians, securing the release of all hostages and ensuring humanitarian aid can flow freely requires a halt to the fighting.

And rather than sending billions more in weapons, the president and Congress should work to de-escalate the conflict and insist Hamas and Israel fully respect international humanitarian law.

I cannot begin to understand the trauma and suffering people are now experiencing in Gaza and Israel, but I can choose to stand on the side of peace and of ending the killing, the side where human dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians still resides together.

• Bridget Moix is general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and its associated Quaker hospitality center, Friends Place on Capitol Hill. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.
• First published in Religion News Service. Republished with permission.

In a joint statement, Bishops from New Zealand's two biggest Christian Churches - Catholic and Anglican - are begging the warring factions in the Holy Land to stop.

Stop the war with the accompanying acts of violence it executes, the bishops' joint statement says.

Let it go. Release hostages. Stop fighting.

Everyone's saying stop the war!

The bishops' words join the international community's pleas for peace.

It's a sentiment Pope Francis applauds.

"Brothers, stop! Stop!" he said to thousands waiting to hear his Angelus message in St Peter's square on Sunday.

"War is always a defeat. Hamas must free Israeli hostages and all sides must allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza."

Later in the day, Francis phoned US President Joe Biden to discuss various conflicts and the need to identify paths toward peace, the Holy See Press Office says.

Then during his Angelus message on Wednesday, and for the 6th time, Francis called for a stop to the Isreal-Hamas war.

Violence doesn't work

"Hospitals and civilian infrastructure are protected under International Humanitarian Law," Anglican Archbishop Phillip Richardson says in the joint statement.

"Such niceties of law did not protect the wounded in Al Ahli Anglican Hospital and the people who were seeking sanctuary and protection. There are no winners in war: so often, it is innocent people who are maimed and killed."

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is a wound that has continued to fester... diplomatic efforts ... have failed because of the unwillingness to honour international agreements.

"Violence will never be a solution."

Blessed be the peacemakers

Bishop Steve Lowe, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference, spoke of peace.

"As Bishops, we endorse ... those groups and institutions in Israel and Palestine who work for peace, justice and reconciliation.

"Such work recognises our common humanity. This is the path that we advocate for peace in the Holy Land."

Government and diplomatic authorities must advocate for an immediate ceasefire and the opening and ongoing safeguarding of humanitarian corridors, the bishops' joint statement says.

"In this very emotional time, we cannot let anger lead us into antisemitism or Islamophobia.

"Let us remember that there are innocent victims on both sides of the conflict. To our fellow interfaith religious leaders, we ask: ‘Let us unite in prayer and action for a lasting peace.

"To the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, we urge you to pray for peace and to support aid appeals for those impacted by this humanitarian crisis."

The statement then quotes parts of Psalm 130 which begs: "Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord; hear my voice. O let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleading."

In conclusion the bishops say: "May we too be attentive to those who call out to us from the depths of despair and destruction.

"May we commit ourselves to being instruments of peace."

• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference
• La Croix
• Vatican News
• America Magazine

The modernisation seeks to fill a twenty-six-year gap and reflect some of the modern challenges.

Dr John Kleinsman, director of the NZ Catholic bishops' Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics, is delighted with the bishops' update.

Kleinsman describes the new document as a "succinct overview of eight key moral areas, including a new section on information technology and artificial intelligence."

Among the modern challenges the bishops consider

• Information technology and artificial intelligence
• Justice and correction systems
• War and peace
• Poverty
• Discrimination and abuse
• End-of-life issues
• Beginning of life issues
• Integrity of Creation

Kleinsman says that people generally know what the Chucrh teaches but are unsure of why.

Te Kahu o te Ora - A Consistent Ethic of Life summarises key points which can give people greater insights into Catholic thinking, comments Kleinsman.

"It is a great source for open and informed discussions", says Kleinsman who, as well as being a theologian, is a married man, father and grandfather.

The original Te Kahu o te Ora was inspired by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's A Consistent Ethic of Life.

Bernardin's work grew from his observation that we must act consistently because all human life is sacred.

It was Bernadin's view that it was inconsistent to protect life in some situations but not in others.

In the years following Roe v. Wade, Bernardin argued that human life is always valuable and must be respected consistently from conception to natural death.

Being pro-life is not only about abortion or euthanasia.

Being pro-life must encompass war, poverty, access to health care, education and anything that threatens human life or human wellbeing, he argued.

Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Auckland, the Apostolic Administrator of Hamilton and President of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, describes the update as "Opportune".

Lowe says human life and emerging challenges are interconnected.

"The essence of Te Kahu o te Ora is the interconnectedness of all life, from the womb to the Earth," he said.

Lowe says Pope Benedict put it well some years ago:

"There are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast."

"While traditional human life issues continue to need our attention, we are now facing many new problems, all interlinked.

"The key message of Te Kahu o te Ora is that everything is connected, whether it is life in the womb or the life of the Earth," Lowe repeated.

Sources

• Supplied
• Catholic Sun

After hitting the umpteenth brick wall, my wife had reached the end of her rope.

As a Canadian citizen in America, married to an American, obtaining a green card for work should have been a walk in the park for her. But it wasn't.

After three years of red tape, misinformation, misfiled forms, mistakes and miscues on the part of the federal government, she fired off an indignant letter to President Jimmy Carter.

"Don't you want me?" the letter cried.

"I'm a teacher, I'm a good person, I help people. Does your country have anything against teachers, good people and helpers?"

We mailed the letter that night to "President Jimmy Carter in care of The White House, Washington, DC."

Less than a week later a package arrived on our doorstep—her approved application.

"Wow," exclaimed the official reviewing the application forms, each of them covered with federal stars and rubber-stamped Urgent.

"Someone at the top is really interested in you!"

Jimmy Carter is now about to embark on his own journey, entering hospice for end-of-life care.

He leaves behind a legacy of kindness, tolerance and peace and will likely be remembered first as a person of faith who lived that faith, secondly as a crusader for human rights and religious freedom, and incidentally as someone who happened to be president of the United States.

His quick response to my wife's letter was symptomatic of the kind of person he was: inclusive.

Though raised in the deep South to committed segregationist parents, it was not in Carter's makeup to exclude anyone.

As a child, he made friends with his family's black neighbour children in his poor community.

Later, on becoming Georgia's governor, succeeding arch-bigot Lester Maddox (the New York Times described Maddox as believing "that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, that integration was a Communist plot, that segregation was somewhere justified in scripture and that a federal mandate to integrate [all-white] schools was ‘ungodly, un-Christian and un-American.'")

Carter stunned the inauguration crowd when he declared, "I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over…No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice."

As president, he strove for peace, meeting all challenges, as he said, "without launching a missile or dropping a bomb.

My commitment to peace was an aspect of my Christian faith.

Also, basic human rights are compatible with Jesus Christ's teachings, and I made human rights a foundation of foreign policy."

He also made human rights a foundation of his life and work, founding the nonprofit, non-governmental Carter Center in 1982, an organization committed to advancing human rights and easing human suffering.

It has helped to improve life for people in more than 80 countries by resolving conflicts and advancing democracy and human rights.

For his work on equality and inclusion, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Jimmy Carter tried as best as he could to be the best Christian he could be, setting examples of love and peace while finding commonalities and joining hands with other faiths. Continue reading

The peace walk was organised in response to escalating gang tensions in Palmerston North.

Davidson and Ngatai Te Moananui's paths converged at Legacy Church in Palmerston North, a place they credit for their transformation.

"It was the most profound experience I've ever had.

"I felt truly accepted like I was part of a family," said Ngatai Te Moananui.

Davidson, who underwent baptism at the church half a year ago, remarked "the past 18 and a half months have been the most fulfilling and joyous period of my life."

He left the notorious Mongrel Mob gang in the nineties. He is urging gang leaders, law enforcement and the broader community to collaborate on finding solutions.

"People need to be [held] accountable.

"They're walking around with blood on their hands.

"There are families mourning loved ones lost to this reckless behaviour.

"It needs to stop," Jason Hina, said.

Hina spent significant portions of his life incarcerated

He is voicing his concerns over the recent surge in hostilities between rival gangs and is attributing his newfound direction to his faith and church community.

His plea coincides with a peace walk in Palmerston North where hundreds, including former gang members, marched for unity.

Moved by the peace walk, Hina said "Seeing two former gang members walk in unity with their community, promoting love, peace and harmony, is a vision I hope continues."

The city's police force is currently managing three separate homicide cases, all while striving to maintain peace between the feuding factions.

Manawatu area commander Inspector Ross Grantham is hopeful of initiating a de-escalation process.

"I'm confident we're nearing a solution. We just need a suitable venue for discussions." Grantham believes the gangs themselves are keen on a resolution. "No one wants to witness their friends or family suffer. They're as eager for a resolution as we are."

Inspector Grantham is presently overseeing three separate homicide investigations that began in May of this year.

Source

• One News
• CathNews

Salvo, the name of this 30-something man who signed up for confession at the prison where I serve as a chaplain, kept on speaking.

I wasn't sure whether he was talking to God or to me. I just nodded.

Moments earlier, my hands were placed over his, which were in handcuffs, before he held them in front of his face to pray, half in English, half in Spanish.

The two of us, he in his orange jumpsuit and me in my black clerical shirt and trousers, sat next to each other at one of the hexagonal metal tables in the middle of the cell block, visible to other inmates in the tiers above and below us.

Some of them peered out of the small plastic windows on their cell doors.

The guard who brought Salvo down from "the Hole" 15 minutes earlier, after shackling his hands and feet with chains, glanced up from his desk about 10 yards away from us as I placed my hands back on the table.

I was aware of how intimate this praying looked. I didn't mind. The tears said it all, to God if not to anyone else.

Today was a day of tears.

Unusual for the men in prison, most of whom have to keep up a tough front. Often, they keep this stance with me too, even when in private, let alone when I meet them on the cell block instead of my office, as I have to meet those who are in protective custody.

I believe if they can find one space to weep and be real with another person and before God, it will lead to their peace of mind and ability to be strong.

I wait for them to pull themselves together before they go back to their cells.

The whole dynamic of hearing confessions in prison is incredible.

Quite a few guys have told me that they believe God got them into prison to save them from heading in the wrong direction.

I use this awesome role of confessor to encourage them to foster this spark of God's love for them, not to waste it.

To ask for forgiveness from Jesus who came for this reason. And most of all, to be determined to continue this prayer relationship with God that they have discovered on the inside of the prison when they get outside.

Usually when I finish a visit with one of them, whether it is a formal confession or not, I say, "Do you want to pray?"

"Yes," they invariably say, as though it is normal for two men to share their souls together.

I open my hands on the table between us, face up. As though they are children, they place their hands in mine.

I have no idea what these hands may have done — robbed? Sold drugs? Abused someone? "Go ahead," I say, waiting for them to start.

"Oh no, you do it," most respond.

"No, you do it," I say.

But I usually have to. They aren't quite ready to launch out into this God territory with a virtual stranger, even one they amazingly trust because I am "Father" to them.

I bow my head, feeling the calloused hands of a tough guy who would ordinarily never be resting his hands in another's so vulnerably. Continue reading

• Paul Morrissey, O.S.A., is a priest in residence at St. Augustine Church in Philadelphia, Penn. He served as a Catholic chaplain at the Philadelphia Prison from 2007 to 2019. This article has been excerpted from his forthcoming memoir Touched by God: Confessions of a Prison Chaplain.

Some propose peace simply defined as a halt to the fighting.

They cite the suffering: More than 300,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, thousands of civilians have been killed, and more than nine million Ukrainians have been displaced and have become refugees.

Sirens, shortages, and missiles continuously frighten Ukrainian civilians; trauma and grief pervade. And no end is in sight.

Running through Pope Francis' more than 100 statements about the war is the leitmotif that war itself is the problem—absurd, a tragedy, a defeat for humanity.

More coolly, political realists say that Ukraine does not stand a reasonable chance of rolling back the Russian invasion and that trying to do so risks nuclear war.

And in the United States, some politicians call for scaling back a commitment to Ukraine that is expensive and, they say, not in our national interest. All of these voices put forth minimal peace, prioritising an end to the fighting.

The implication is that Ukraine should be coaxed or forced into negotiating.

An end to the war is not true peace, though if it means an end to Ukraine.

Sts Augustine and Thomas Aquinas held that the purpose of a just war is a just peace.

Pope Paul VI echoed this point on the Day of Peace in 1972 with a statement titled "If You Want Peace, Work for Justice."

A just peace would reverse Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its bids to control Ukrainian territory since 2014—frontal assaults on the most basic tenet of international law, the integrity of sovereign states.

Motivating this aggression is Mr Putin's version of peace, a "Pax Russica" that denies Ukraine's existence as a nation.

But recognising this manifestly unjust peace, Pope Francis has increasingly amended his previous neutrality and condemned Russia's aggression.

Ukraine's counteroffensive and its allies' supplying of arms to it, then, are justified.

In a Christian ethic, though, a just peace involves more than defeating aggression.

The just war ethic that dominates Christian thought on war and peace took shape during the Middle Ages when the church adopted a concept of justice from Roman law: the constant will to render another his due.

This concept came to dominate modern international law, which means the rights of nations and people to be independent. Russia's exit is thus "due" to Ukraine.

The notion of justice as rendering due, though, has occluded the original justice of the Bible, which means comprehensive right relationship, expressed by the Hebrew term sedeq and the Greek term dikaiosune.

This justice is compatible with rights and law but is wider, also including virtues such as gift-giving and performing mercy.

It culminates in God's reconciliation of the world to himself in the cross and resurrection, which the Apostle Paul describes as God's justice.

A season of war may not seem to be a time to speak of reconciliation and peacebuilding.

These words exude a symmetry of fault, suggesting that both sides must recognise their own wrongs and embrace each other.

Meanwhile, Ukrainians are fighting and dying to secure the freedom of their assaulted nation.

Reconciliation, though, is not relativism, nor is peacebuilding moral passivity.

Aspiring to restore the right relationship, just reconciliation recognises the balance of injustices in the war. Continue reading

• Daniel Philpott is a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Reconciliation (2012) and has been involved in reconciliation as an activist in Kashmir and in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, as well as in efforts to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

He condemns himself to be treated as an apostate, the religious equivalent of a political traitor.

This is the extent to which Russia will go in silencing those within the Orthodox Church who have not whole-heartedly backed its invasion of Ukraine.

The latest victim of this systematic purge is a man named Ioann Koval.

This previously unknown priest in an ordinary parish - St Andrew's in Lyublino, a district of Moscow - was suspended from the priesthood simply because he did not use his pulpit to call for more bloodshed.

What happened?

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow last September 25 instituted a liturgical invocation of his own invention: "Behold, the battle is being waged against Holy Rus' to divide its undivided people. Rise up O God, for the help of thy people, and grant us victory by your power."

He solemnly added this obligatory and bellicose supplication to the long anthology of his anti-gospel formulas.

Koval is involuntarily the living proof of this unity of Orthodox Slavs.

He was born in 1978 in the city of Luhansk in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

He studied piano and theology in Moscow, where he met and married his wife, a Russian who teaches literature. Koval, who is the father of five children, was ordained in 2004 and dedicated his ministry to patients in psychiatric hospitals.

He was then assigned as the second parish priest of Saint Andrew's, and it was there that he began to publicly substitute the word "peace" for the word "victory" in the spirit of the Beatitudes.

A denunciation

A campaign against the priest began in January, likening him to Judas Iscariot.

A sacristan at the parish who is linked to a network of informers the patriarchate has set up, denounced Koval to the parish rector, Archpriest Victor Shkaburin, who is a Putin apparatchik and more a follower of military marches than monastic chant.

The wheels of clerical bureaucracy, an obsequious relay of the Kremlin, were then set in motion.

The cautious episcopal vicar, Archbishop Matfei Kopylov, phoned Father Koval and told him he was suspended.

The ban was put into effect on February 2nd by an order of Patriarch Kirill.

It was stated that the priest, who was guilty of who knew what would be brought before the ecclesial court.

At the end of March, under the aegis of the protopresbyter Nikolai Inozemtsev - rector of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan on Red Square - a disciplinary commission was sent to St Andrew's to investigate.

What it actually did was collect a handful of hostile gossip and ignore the numerous testimonies that confirmed Koval's pastoral dedication.

The stage was set for a remake of the Stalinist trials in the courtroom of the high priest of "all Russia".

The sentence fell on May 11.

The five judges wearing sumptuous pectoral crosses voted unanimously against Koval.

The priest, not yet aware of the secret indictment, was summoned to appear.

But he aggravated his sentence by refusing to acknowledge his guilt.

He was defrocked according to the 25th Apostolic Canon.

This late and debated juridical code imposes deposition "if a bishop, presbyter, or deacon be found guilty of fornication, perjury or theft".

Profession, not God, but Putin

Perjury?

According to the docile Archpriest Vladislav Tsypine, vice-president of the court, the recidivist offender "violated his oath of unconditional obedience to the Church hierarchy by expressing a political opinion incompatible with the priesthood".

Vakhtang Kipshidze, the cynical spokesperson for the Patriarchate, added: "If a priest changes the words of the prayers according to his political preferences, the very unity of the Church is undermined."

Is peace a subjective option for those who celebrate the Eucharist?

As the theologian Sergei Shapnin rightly notes: "In the Russian Orthodox Church, there may be but one 'political preference': that of Patriarch Kirill… which means all the clergy (to say the least) are bound to adhere to a single pro-Kremlin ideology."

And this is to ensure that believers serve not God but Putin.

After so many other priests were unjustly dismissed in former Soviet or satellite countries, Ioann Koval can hope, if he manages to go into exile, to see his priesthood restored by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In the meantime, Russia is gradually being drained of the spiritual resources that would allow it to resist today and to regenerate itself tomorrow.

This is the other side of the evil that we cannot underestimate.

• Jean-François Colosimo is a French theologian and historian specialising in Russia and the Eastern Orthodox faith in which he was raised.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

The Italian government deployed some 1,500 security agents, stationed snipers on rooftops, and enforced a no-fly zone for the visit of the president whose country continues to fight the troops from neighbouring Russia that invaded Ukraine over a year ago.

Many Italian and Rome-based foreign journalists gave the impression that the singular purpose of Zelensky's trip was to meet Pope Francis.

They opined that it was to discuss a nebulous behind-the-scenes peace plan the 86-year-old pope recently said the Holy See is working on.

A meeting with the Bishop of Rome was indeed on the Ukrainian president's schedule, but it was not the main reason he came to the Eternal City. Not by a long shot.

Zelensky came for military aid, not a papal peace plan.

He was actually here to meet Italy's president and prime minister. He had one particular objective: to obtain further aid for Ukraine's war effort, especially in weapons — long-range missiles to be exact.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Italy is the 6th largest military arms exporter in the world, following Germany, China, France, Russia — of course — the ("We're Number 1") United States of America.

But the Italian populace is divided over their country's military assistance to Ukraine.

That's why Zelensky also secured a high-profile interview on Italian state television (RAI) at the end of the daylong visit with the hopes of shifting public opinion.

His meeting with the pope was also about trying to convince the head of the Roman Catholic Church that Vladimir Putin is not someone to be trusted at a bargaining table, certainly not until the Russian president moves every last one of his soldiers and their tanks out of Ukraine.

But Francis has talked about that "secret" plan to stop the war.

It's apparently so secret that officials in the warring neighbouring countries have said they are unaware of it.

The pope, who has spoken out almost daily for peace in "battered" or "martyred" Ukraine, deserves our admiration for his willingness "to do whatever it takes" to help end the war.

But, as it's been said several times in this column, there is no role for the Bishop of Rome in the Russian Orthodox world.

That includes Ukraine, too, which is actually the historic birthplace of this Eastern Orthodox Church, religious tradition and ethos.

Although the Jesuit pope has gone to incredible (and some would say embarrassing) lengths to create better relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate (head of the Russian Orthodox Church), the Russians still do not trust the Romans.

Of course, we believe that miracles can happen.

And that's exactly what is needed for there to be any role for the pope or his Holy See diplomats in ending the bloodshed in this inter-Orthodox war.

Looking after the flock

As the Bishop of Rome — yes, he is first of all a bishop -, the pope's primary role is to "teach, sanctify, and govern" those who are part of his Church.

And since he is the ordinary of the See of Peter and Paul, he also exercises a distinctive primacy over those local Churches in communion with Rome.

But the pope's "flock", as it were, is minuscule in Russia — counting only 348,000 Catholics in an overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox nation of 104.9 million people.

The Catholic population is a bit larger in Ukraine, but those in communion with the pope are still in the minority.

Of the country's estimated 42.9 million people, there are roughly 4.8 million Catholics.

But they are not all "Romans" or Latins.

In fact, most of them are Greek (or Byzantine) Catholics, which are similar in almost all ways to the Eastern Orthodox, except they are in communion with and subject to the pope.

Roman Catholics, mainly based in western Ukraine and of Polish ancestry, don't even amount to one percent of the country's population. Greek Catholics make up only 8%.

The point here, as the Russians often point out, is that this part of the world is not historically part of the Bishop of Rome's territory, either spiritually or juridically.

Obviously, the ecumenical age in which we currently live demands that the different Christian communities (and other religious traditions) strive to work together for peace, harmony and the common good everywhere in the world.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is the pope's interlocutor in this matter.

But they are kind of not talking to each other right now... They also have opposing views about the legitimacy of Putin's invasion.

The Roman pope as monarch and statesman

What's going on here is not about Francis fulfilling his role as a bishop or even the spiritual leader of the world's largest and wealthiest Christian Church.

Although he prefers to position himself as a sort of global "pastor", in this case, he's really using his prerogatives as a monarch, a role the Roman papacy accrued over the course of its long history.

The Bishop of Rome is also the Sovereign of Vatican City State.

Like a monarch (or dictator, if you prefer), he "enjoys supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church" and the postage stamp-sized remnant of the Papal States that is the Vatican, territorial home of the Holy See and guarantor of the Catholic Church's freedom.

If you don't believe that, consider this: Francis on Saturday issued an updated version of Vatican City State's "fundamental law" (i.e. constitution), as well as this tiny country's flag, coat of arms, and official seal.

And on all three, the papal tiara (triple crown) is prominently featured, even though the last two popes replaced the tiara with a bishop's mitre on their own coat of arms.

Bishops don't normally enjoy the rights and privileges of kings or heads of state as the Bishop-Sovereign of Vatican City does. And Francis wants to ensure he and his successors continue enjoying this role.

From this point of view, one can say that the pope is absolutely justified in using his internationally recognised status as a state sovereign to engage other world leaders for the good of humanity.

But here's the thing — his influence is waning.

But that's not his fault or the fault of his pontificate.

This is the state of the Roman papacy today.

The world where it once played a significant diplomatic and political role has largely collapsed or just faded away.

Old Europe, which was made of monarchies like the pope's, no longer exists.

The papacy enjoyed geopolitical power when the world was Eurocentric.

That's pretty much all gone now.

If you want proof, think of the inability of Francis — a Latin American pope — and his top papal diplomats to help negotiate peaceful solutions to conflicts (directly affecting local Catholics!) in places like Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The papal nuncio was even booted out of Managua, and a local bishop has been thrown in jail, while at least one other has been forced into exile.

It would be marvellous if the pope could end the horrible war in Ukraine, but short of a miracle, that's not likely to happen.

The best thing he can do is continue "teach, sanctify, and govern" his people in the ways of Christ's peace and fellowship, as he does so well.

Francis, Bishop, and Servant of the Servants of God — as Paul VI signed the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) — has brought much light to our often dark and violent world.

But he is only its servant, not its saviour.

• Robert Mickens is LCI Editor in Chief.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

Francis went to the door to greet him rather than wait for formal introductions.

They spent 40 minutes speaking privately in their first face-to-face meeting since the war began.

They discussed "the humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine caused by the ongoing war," the Vatican said.

Francis assured Zelensky of "his constant prayers, evidenced by his many public appeals and continuous invocation to the Lord for peace since," the Vatican added.

"Both agreed on the need for continued humanitarian efforts to support the population.

"The Pope particularly stressed the urgent need for 'gestures of humanity' toward the most fragile people, the innocent victims of the conflict."

Grateful for support

Zelensky thanked Francis for his support and requested more.

"I'm grateful for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians," he said.

"In addition, I asked to condemn crimes in Ukraine. Because there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor."

Zelenssy later tweeted:

"I'm grateful for his [the Pope's] personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians.

"I spoke about tens of thousands of deported children. We must make every effort to return them home.

"I also talked about our Peace Formula as the only effective algorithm for achieving a just peace. I proposed joining its implementation."

Papal focus

Francis explained that as the Vatican has no "political, commercial or military aims," it operates on the world stage "through the exercise of a positive neutrality.

"This affords the Holy See a certain standing in the international community that allows it to better assist in the resolution of conflicts and other matters," Francis said.

Ongoing attacks

Missile attacks in Ukraine are frequent.

The Kyiv region and the city's outskirts suffered from these on Saturday night and an industrial zone was hit.

The attacks follow strikes earlier in the day that hit the cities of Nikopol, Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv.

Air sirens blared in the capital, Kyiv, and the port city of Odessa.

Meanwhile, pro-Russian officials in Luhansk, a breakaway Ukrainian region backed and occupied by the Kremlin, reported explosions they blamed on Ukrainian forces.

Forces rallied

Zelensky described his trip as "an important visit for the approaching victory of Ukraine."

He is rallying his European allies for a planned counteroffensive and is looking for sustained military support from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

In their "fruitful" meeting, Zelensky said, the leaders discussed Ukraine's bids to join NATO and the European Union, punitive sanctions against Russia, potential peace plans and postwar reconstruction.

Italy's support

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promised the country full support to Ukraine.

She said Italy would continue to supply weapons and back Ukraine for as long as necessary. Italy is the 6th largest military arms exporter in the world.

"We are betting on Ukraine's victory," Meloni said.

Zelensky also met Italy's head of state Sergio Mattarella before meeting Francis.

Mattarella stressed peace in Ukraine "must be a true peace and not a surrender."

A source claims Mattarella confirmed Italy's readiness to provide "military, financial, humanitarian and reconstruction aid" to Kyiv.

Sources

• Twitter
• USCCB
• Twitter
• The Jerusalem Post
• The Washington Post

He said the conflicts reminded him of the World War II Allied military landings at Normandy, France.

"It was the beginning of the fall of Nazism, it's true.

"But how many boys were left on the beaches in Normandy?

"They say, 30,000. …

"Who thinks of those boys?

"War sows all of this.

"That is why you, who are journalists, please be pacifists, speak out against wars, fight against war. I ask you as a brother. Thank you."

Pope Francis' heartfelt request to journalists to be pacifists touched my heart.

Many years ago, as a young man, I found myself in U.S. military basic combat training at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

While firing my M-16 weapon at life-like pop-up targets, it occurred to me the army was not training me to hit targets, but instead to kill some poor guy like me in a far-off country who got caught up in the propaganda of his own country's war machine.

I came to fully realize this was all wrong. And I knew that in my desire to imitate the nonviolent Jesus, I could kill no one.

I spoke to my drill sergeant about my deep anti-war feelings and my desire to apply for conscientious objector status.

He urged me to wait until I completed basic combat training and apply for CO status when I arrived at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, for Advanced Individual Training.

I'd previously trained as a journalist, and at Fort Harrison, I was receiving additional training as a broadcaster for Armed Forces Radio in Germany. But that exciting future did not deter me from seeking CO status.

My broadcast instructors tried to convince me that the chances of my having to shoot someone from a radio station were extremely remote. However, I knew my role as a military journalist and radio disc jockey would be to boost the morale of those who would be pulling the triggers and dropping the bombs.

I knew that I could have nothing to do with this unholy enterprise.

Although the Holy Father's inflight press conference plea, "You who are journalists, please be pacifists, speak out against wars, fight against war," was on that occasion directed to journalists, it is reasonable to believe that his pacifism plea is also extended to all people of goodwill.

And it is important to clarify that pacifism does not mean lying down and allowing brutal aggressors to kill and destroy.

Quite the contrary!

Pacifism, or the preferred terms "nonviolent resistance" and "active nonviolence", is courageously committed to using the numerous nonviolent, highly effective tools available to limit and even stop armed aggression.

For example, please see Pax Christi International's Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and The Nonviolent Peaceforce.

The late preeminent theologian and biblical scholar, Fr John McKenzie said, "If Jesus does not reject violence for any reason, we do not know anything about Jesus. Jesus taught us not how to kill but how to die."

On September 7, 2013, countless believers across the globe and over 100,000 people in St Peter's Square prayed with Pope Francis for peace in Syria and throughout the world.

During the four-hour prayer service at St Peter's, the Holy Father said, "We bring about the rebirth of Cain in every act of violence and in every war. … We have perfected our weapons, [while] our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death!

"Violence and war lead only to death; they speak of death!

"Violence and war are the language of death."

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

He was aiming to further solidify his outreach to the Muslim community and to offer support to Bahrain's small Christian minority.

Pope Francis and the King

Francis's first official engagement was a courtesy visit to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Sakhir Royal Palace. There he was welcomed in an official ceremony.

Human Rights

Human rights and Bahrain's constitution were particular issues Francis raised with the King.

He cited the Bahraini constitution and urged "equal dignity and equal opportunities... for each group and for every individual". (In Bahrain Shias have fewer rights than Sunnis.)

This is "so that fundamental human rights are not violated but promoted", he said.

Religious freedom must be "complete and not limited to freedom of worship.

"I am thinking in particular of the right to life, of the need to always guarantee it, even with regard to those who are punished."

At present, 26 people are on death row in Bahrain. The only thing standing between them and their execution is the king's approval.

Francis also called for "humane working conditions" and condemned forced labour in neighbouring Qatar, where the World Cup will begin later this month.

"Men and women" must never be "reduced instead to a mere means of producing wealth," Francis said.

Joining forces for peace

Peace can be achieved only by moving beyond past conflicts, he said.

Instead, we need to join forces to promote the common good, Francis explained when he met Bahrain's Muslim Council of Elders on Friday.

This means getting to know one another, putting "a future of fraternity ahead of a past of antagonism ... the name of the One who is the source of peace."

The great religious traditions "must be the heart that unites the members of the body, the soul that gives hope and life to its highest aspirations."

Prior to the meeting, Francis delivered one of three keynote speeches at the closing session of "Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence".

About 200 figures, leaders and religious representatives from around the world took part in the event.

Among them was was Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt, Ahmed Al-Tayeb.

Like Francis, the Imam delivered a keynote speech. The other was delivered by King Hamad, who was the forum patron.

Francis called on interfaith leaders to be "exemplary models of what we preach, not only in our communities and in our homes - for this is no longer enough - but also before a world now unified and globalised."

As members of the Abrahamic faiths, they must look outside themselves and "speak to the entire human community, to all who dwell on this earth".

Unity in diversity

An ecumenical prayer meeting for peace at Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral was also on Francis's agenda.

Striving for "unity in diversity" will help the Christian community as a whole achieve peace, he told the Christian leaders at the meeting.

Source

• La Croix
• Brussels Times
• Middle East Monitor
• Crux Now
• Crux Now

Since the official opening of the Archibald Baxter Peace Garden on October 29, 2021, the site has quickly established itself as an important national and local landmark.

The central feature in the garden is a powerful statue titled "We Shall Bend but Not Be Broken," created by Arrowtown sculptor Shane Woolridge.

The statue commemorates the mistreatment of Baxter for his refusal to go against his convictions and take up arms in World War 1.

An information plaque explains the context and the form of field punishment (known as Field Punishment No 1), which Baxter experienced in Flanders in 1918.

Baxter describes the experience in his book We Will Not Cease (1939):

"My hands were taken from round the pole, tied together and pulled well up it, straining and cramping the muscles and forcing them into an unnatural position ... I was strained so tightly against the post that I was unable to move body or limbs a fraction of an inch."

For Woolridge to craft such an evocative representation of field punishment that is appropriate to display in a public place is a remarkable achievement.

The design invites the onlooker to reflect on what it would be like for someone to be stretched and bent in this way for hours.

Baxter's son, the poet James K. Baxter, describes field punishment as a "torture post" and it was known colloquially as "crucifixion". However, the visual image of the memorial — and the inscription which accompanies it — are expressions of human dignity, not just pain and suffering.

Baxter is not depicted directly and but his experience is suggested in two different ways.

First, the upright pole is constructed from 70 stacked stone discs. These are suggestive of the compressed vertebra disks of a person constrained on the field punishment pole for hours.

The message is understated but clear for those who wish to reflect on it.

Second, a bronze sphere hanging from the top of the structure recalls the well-known images of Baxter during field punishment, especially the painting Field Punishment no 1 by Bob Kerr, depicting both field punishment and Baxter himself in this indirect and understated way manages to convey the suffering he experienced without being too overwhelming for a public memorial in a prominent location.

At the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson spoke on the tragic irony that because Baxter was determined to stand up for his principles, he was forced to bend in pain for many hours.

Archibald Baxter

Baxter's son, the poet James K. Baxter, describes field punishment as a "torture post" and it was known colloquially as "crucifixion". However, the visual image of the memorial — and the inscription which accompanies it — are expressions of human dignity, not just pain and suffering.

Baxter is not depicted directly and but his experience is suggested in two different ways.

First, the upright pole is constructed from 70 stacked stone discs. These are suggestive of the compressed vertebra disks of a person constrained on the field punishment pole for hours.

The message is understated but clear for those who wish to reflect on it.

Second, a bronze sphere hanging from the top of the structure recalls the well-known images of Baxter during field punishment, especially the painting Field Punishment no 1 by Bob Kerr, depicting both field punishment and Baxter himself in this indirect and understated way manages to convey the suffering he experienced without being too overwhelming for a public memorial in a prominent location.

At the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson spoke on the tragic irony that because Baxter was determined to stand up for his principles, he was forced to bend in pain for many hours.

Robertson recognised this as an inspiration for all who call New Zealand their home.

Baxter and the other conscientious objectors exemplify what Robertson described as "standing upright as a New Zealander".

Emeritus Prof Kevin Clements has noted the appropriateness of the memorial's elevated position just above George St. One can look across the harbour to the Fallen Soldier's memorial (1923) at the crest of the peninsula horizon.

The two memorials, nearly 100 years apart in age, both speak to the courage and the cost paid by those they remember in different ways.

Clements is chairman of the Archibald Baxter Trust, and it is the trust which had the vision for this public gift. It undertook the fundraising, commissioned the work and liaised with the Dunedin City Council to make it possible.

I first encountered Baxter's story when I was invited to offer the Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust lecture in 2015.

This annual lecture is held each year on or close to International Peace Day, September 21.

After the lecture, my Otago colleague Associate Prof John Stenhouse encouraged and guided my research into Baxter's religious views.

It was a fascinating journey.

In his later years, Baxter became Catholic, but he is usually described as an atheist because for much of his life he was not a member of a church and did not identify as religious.

It is clear that he was not religious in a conventional way, but there is also evidence that, in some ways, he always had a strong personal faith.

When he was categorised as an agnostic in Wellington jail, he declared this was wrong.

His wife, Millicent, said that he would insist that he was not a member of a church but said, "I am a believer".

During the lowest point of suffering during field punishment, Baxter appears to have derived personal support from religion, but he said he did not act for religious reasons.

Because Baxter was so reticent about his beliefs, it is hard to know for sure what he made of religion.

In the biography of Millicent Baxter, Out of the Shadows, Penny Griffiths details a revealing story.

Archie and Millicent converted to Catholicism in 1965, and Archibald took the baptismal name Francis, after Francis of Assisi.

However, his niece insists that her father (Archie's brother Donald) never knew about his conversion until his funeral in 1970.

Religion was seen as a very private matter.

While the national memorial is not about Baxter's religious faith— or his presumed lack of religious faith — the sense of restraint it shows with regard to field punishment is very fitting for how Baxter himself viewed public expressions of faith.

Under the surface, there is much more than is first apparent.

• David Tombs is the Howard Paterson Professor of theology and public issues at the University of Otago.
• First published in the ODT. Republished with permission.
• David Tombs, ‘Under the Surface: Archibald Baxter's Religious Faith' in Geoff Troughton (ed.),Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacebuilding in New Zealand, 1814-1945. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2017, pp. 122-43. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/10523/12755

Prior to the pandemic, girls' enrollments in school had seen significant improvements in Asia. But with the pandemic, those gains have been wiped out.

UNESCO estimates that about 24 million learners, from pre-primary to university level, are at risk of not returning to school following the education disruption.

Almost half of them are found in South and West Asia besides Africa.

Asia was doing well prior to the pandemic, having brought down the number of girls out of school from 30 million to 15 million in the last two decades.

Almost all Asian countries with the exception of Pakistan and Timor-Leste had fared well by sending girls to schools.

In fact, with more girls in schools, Asia had posted decreasing trends in child marriage prior to the pandemic.

With the pandemic playing spoilsport, it will be difficult to sustain the tempo.

With an estimated 200,000 more girls experiencing child marriage in South Asia in 2020, the figures are expected to skyrocket as the ordeal from the pandemic is still lingering in many Asian nations.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is mulling raising the marriage age from 18 to 21 for girls, but the move has proved difficult to implement in a country of 1.3 billion people.

A parliamentary panel report, which focused on the empowerment of women through education, observed the probability of more adolescent girls opting out of school permanently is high.

The report said that girls away from school will end up doing household tasks and providing childcare due to the economic hardships of their families.

Though the panel has recommended targeted scholarships, conditional cash transfers, provision of bicycles, access to smartphones and hostel facilities to woo girls back to school, going by India's track record in looking after the welfare of its marginalized, these sops may remain only on paper.

In Vietnam, the legal age to wed is 18, but UNICEF said one in 10 girls is married before that age. Tying the nuptial knot early is mainly prevalent among ethnic groups in the communist country.

Asia is known for its migrant workers.

But the pandemic caused job losses and many are stuck at home.

When family members are hit by Covid-19, the onus of looking after patients falls on girls. So at home, care responsibilities have dramatically increased for girls who were forced to skip classes due to their ethnic minority status.

The cost of school fees was identified as a major barrier to girls' education in Asia.

With a bleak economic future awaiting their parents combined with existing attitudes that devalue girls' education, more girls are being taken out of school forever in Asia.

University students are most affected due to the tuition costs related to their studies.

Pre-primary education comes next.

While Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and to a greater extent India are on track to achieve gender parity in primary education, Pakistan and Afghanistan are woefully lagging.

Those girls who will be spared the tyranny of early motherhood have already assumed the new role of child labourers.

These young hands are going to do more harm than good to the existing labour market in Asia which is facing the problem of plenty as the pandemic rendered many migrant workers jobless.

This excess supply of girl labourers will further reduce the bargaining power of men and women working in unorganized sectors such as construction and garment-making.

At home, these girls become an easy target for family violence.

Heightened calls to helplines were reported in Singapore, Malaysia and India after the pandemic hit.

In Vietnam, domestic violence has doubled since Covid-related measures were introduced.

Education was the last resort for many Asian girls to lead a respectable and meaningful life.

What they need is a compassionate treatment to help them wade through the new normal.

The tiny Catholic Church in Asia, which claims to have pioneered modern education in most Asian nations, could play a vital role to change the fate of Asian girls and society itself.

But that can happen only if the hierarchy becomes aware of the challenges to the mission.

• Ben Joseph is a journalist of more than two decades of experience. Ben worked with leading publications like the New Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle, Business Standard, Times of India and Muscat Daily. He writes about Asian politics and human rights issues.
• First published in UCANews. Republished with permission.