Every Monday morning for the past 30 years, members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington, D.C. have been making their way across the Potomac River to pray and nonviolently witness for peace in front of the most symbolic war planning, war-making headquarters on earth: the Pentagon. On August 6 – the 73rd Read more
Cameroon needs the Catholic Church to help broker peace, says the International Crisis Group. It could help break the stalemate between separatists and security forces, the Group says. “Other than the Catholic clergy, there are few prospective peacemakers.” Read more
It has become one of the most commonplace and influential ideas about religion: that it is the cause of much, if not most, of the conflict and violence in the world. While this is not a new idea — religious passions have long been deemed suspect for their potential to causes divisions — the notion Read more
Catholic bishops in South Sudan say the country’s leaders need help with peacemaking. They say the killings in South Sudan must stop. In their view South Sudanese leaders do not know how to make peace, are confused, traumatised and fear peace. Their comments were made the same day Pope Francis designated for global prayers for Read more
A New Zealand Memorial and Garden has been opened at Zonnebeke, Belgium, in time for the 100th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele. It is one ‘petal’ of a larger memorial for all those who died there – including German soldiers. It’s also a departure from the style of tributes in the 1920s to the ‘glorious dead’, Read more
Pope Francis has brought a message of unity to Colombia and the hope he can build bridges between its people during his five-day visit. After a five-decade war between the nation’s government and rebel guerilla forces, the country has been divided by a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels. (The FARC are the Revlutionary Armed Read more
There hasn’t been any widespread anxiety among Guam residents, even after Pyongyang vowed to complete a plan to attack waters near the island by mid-August. The people of Guam are accustomed to threats from North Korea. On Sunday priests across the island prayed for peace and a “just resolution of differences.” Continue reading
Father Jacques Hamel, the French priest murdered just after praying for world peace while saying mass a year ago, has become a ‘brother to all,’ his sister Roselyne Hamel says. The two men who killed him claimed allegiance to ISIS. “We certainly come with many emotions,” Hamel said on Tuesday, the day before her brother’s Read more
If someone’s house was on fire would you pour gasoline on it? Well the answer is obvious: Of course you wouldn’t. Yet that is very similar to what the United States and many other more economically developed nations are doing. Despite the tragic fact that approximately 40 current armed conflicts worldwide are causing over 150,000 Read more
As I was trying to discern what God wanted me to write about, I walked into my 16-year-old son’s bedroom to discover a military calendar hanging on the wall. It highlighted young men and women in combat fatigues, fighter jets, an aircraft carrier battle group and plenty of American flags. I knew from personal experience Read more