Deepening the Spirit of Nonviolence in This Daunting Christmas Season
The epochal turbulence of this historical moment—with the convergence of an accelerating pandemic; the chilling economic disaster it has unleashed; the crucial reckoning with white supremacy; the trauma of catastrophic national leadership in the US and other parts of the world; and the deepening climate crisis—calls us to change. This change must be in our souls and in our world. We are being summoned to nothing less than a fundamental shift.
It is in this spirit that Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative—including Pace e Bene, which has been part of CNI since its beginning five years ago—has organized a “Christmas Retreat on Gospel Nonviolence” in cooperation with the Security and Ecology Task Forces of the Vatican’s COVID19 Commission.
As we come to the end of this challenging year, we invite people around the world to gather with us virtually to deepen the spirit of nonviolence and to reflect together on ways forward to a more just and nonviolent world.
This three-hour retreat will be a time of prayer and exploration; screening of a new film on nonviolence; reflections on Jesus and nonviolence; and remarks from agents of change and from colleagues at the Vatican. It will include two breakout sessions, giving participants from around the world an opportunity to reflect together on the power and possibilities of active nonviolence.
This online retreat will be offered twice, in order to cover global time-zones.
A Christmas Retreat on Gospel Nonviolence: Presenters
Alessio Pecorario, Ph.D, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, COVID 19 Commission Security Taskforce
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Wamuyu Wachira, IBVM, co-president, Pax Christi International, Kenya
Rev. Emmanuel Katongole, Uganda and University of Notre Dame
Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO, The King Center, Atlanta
Film: The Third Harmony; Tom Eddington, film producer; Michael Nagler, film director, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and Founder, Metta Center for Nonviolence
Msgr. Bruno Marie Duffé, Secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
Enzio Cursio, President of the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates
Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, COVID 19 Commission Ecology Taskforce, and
Marie Dennis, Senior Advisor to the Secretary General, Pax Christi International
With prayer offered by Greet Vanaerschot, Secretary General, Pax Christi International; Judy Coode, Coordinator, Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative; Pat Gaffney, Pax Christi, England and Wales; Jacqui Rémond, Co-coordinator, Vatican COVID-19 Commission’s Ecology Task Force; and Ken Butigan, DePaul University and Pace e Bene.
This event will take place:
Friday, December 18:
4pm Rome; 7am Seattle; 9am Chicago; 10am New York; 2pm Buenos Aires; 6pm Nairobi
Repeated to accommodate global time zones:
Saturday, December 19:
8am Manila; 9am Tokyo; 11am Melbourne;
4pm Seattle (Dec. 18); 6pm Chicago (Dec. 18); 7pm New York (Dec. 18)
The Call to Nonviolence
As the global community struggles to respond to the short- and long-term crises of our time, a fundamental transformation is needed from systems of exploitation and domination toward a new order of universal communion. What is required in this age is a revolution in consciousness, in which the infinite worth of every person is honored, the earth is healed, and the primordial unity of all beings is recognized and acted upon.
Nonviolence is a process for nurturing such an ecological conversion to right relationships among humans and between humans and the rest of the natural world. Nonviolence is a paradigm of the fullness of life that challenges the paradigm of violence and injustice with empathy, compassion, and courageous action. It is the power of creative love in action in contrast to the power of fear, hatred and greed. It is a core capacity that integrates humanity’s immense longing for justice with its deep capacity for love. It struggles against and disrupts systemic injustice with the integrative power of love, resistance, humility and mercy. It has two hands which say, “no to violence and injustice” and “yes to the humanity and sacredness of those with whom we struggle.”
In this Christmas Retreat on Gospel Nonviolence, we will reflect together on this power and this critically-needed direction.
