The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence was inaugurated on Sunday, September 29 in Rome. This exciting event was livestreamed and can be viewed here.

Pope Francis sent a message of Apostolic Blessing for the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, which you can see below. Here is the Vatican News story published about the pope’s message.

A project of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, this new institute will have a presence in Rome but will also be a virtual global hub providing Church leaders and people around the world with resources, tools, and strategies for nonviolent change, drawing on the work of theologians, scholars, and grassroots practitioners from every continent who will serve as institute associates. Pace e Bene is a partner of CNI and the new institute.

The launch featured powerful remarks by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, SDB (Myanmar), Sister Wamũyũ Teresia Wachira, IBVM (Kenya), Cardinal Robert McElroy, San Diego CA (US), and Dr. Maria Stephan, an authority on the power of nonviolent strategies for justice and peace (US).  For more information, please see this story in Catholic News Service and this interview with Cardinal McElroy in Vatican News. Also more about the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence and its launch on the Pax Christi International website here. Here is a short video introduction to nonviolence that was featured at the launch.

Toward a Nonviolent Shift

In his 2023 book entitled, I Ask You in the Name of God: Ten Prayers for a Future of Hope, Pope Francis quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sobering declaration that, for humanity, “it is no longer a question of choosing between violence and nonviolence, but between nonviolence and non-existence.” 

His Holiness then adds his call to all people everywhere: “The choice is up to us.”

Yes.  The choice is up to us.  And this choice is sharper than ever.

At a moment when violence in real-time is escalating in the Middle East and Russian president Vladimir Putin just signaled a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, allowing for the use of nuclear weapons if attacked by a non-nuclear nation—and at a time when a culture of violence marked by war, racism, poverty, and environmental destruction increases around the world—we find ourselves standing precipitously at the crossroads which Dr. King and Pope Francis describe.

Do we plunge ahead into age-old patterns of retaliation and escalation—which, given the lethality of our weaponry, could spell unimaginable destruction—or do we instead pursue bold and creative options, recognizing the needs on all sides of these conflicts and fashioning a more just and peaceful way forward?

Do we fall back into our traditional scripts of avoidance, appeasement, accommodation, and attack—or do we take steps to unleash a transformative force for fostering justice, peace, healing, and dignity for all?

While “nonviolence” has been dismissed in the past as passive, weak or otherworldly, it is becoming increasingly clear—through quantitative research and a greater awareness of the failure and dangerous consequences of violence as a strategy—that nonviolent approaches are actually more effective even as they are more in keeping with our humanity.  Nonviolence—the power unleashed by the refusal to harm others; the combination of the clear rejection of violence with the power of love in action—is more likely to solve problems and build a better future.

Institute to Deepen Work of Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

Since the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has cried out incessantly against the violence of war and injustice, and prophetically marked out a path of nonviolence and peace for the Church and the world.  Inspired by His Holiness’ profound call, Pax Christi International established the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (CNI), whose work includes advancing nonviolence in the Church by illuminating how nonviolence is at the heart of the Gospel; how nonviolence is an effective method for transforming conflict, building peace, and establishing justice; and how the Church could embrace the path of rejecting violence and promoting the nonviolent life and a more just and nonviolent world.  CNI has co-sponsored with the Vatican conferences, organized many webinars, and has been actively engaged in grassroots nonviolent advocacy around the world.

Now, CNI is organizing the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence to deepen and broaden its work as a resource for the Church and the world to support a global, nonviolent shift.

From its beginning, CNI has facilitated research, writing and publishing on biblical, theological, ethical, pastoral, and strategic dimensions of nonviolence. Building on this, the institute seeks to increase concerted research by scholars, theologians, and practitioners aimed at deepening the theological and strategic foundations for nonviolence in the Church and to inform Church teachings and pastoral approaches. 

CNI has published two books, Advancing Nonviolence and Just Peace and Choosing Peace. The Institute’s research will seek to build and expand on these foundations and to address specific questions or topics that are key to further advancing nonviolence in the Church.  In order to meet these goals, the Institute is establishing three research concentrations (for study, reflection, and publishing):

• Gospel Nonviolence: How is nonviolence central to Catholic faith?

• Nonviolent Practices and Strategic Power: How does nonviolence work?

• Contextual Experiences of Nonviolence: What are concrete examples from around the world, especially the existential peripheries, of nonviolence in action?

Each concentration will feature Institute Associates—scholars and practitioners selected for their expertise and experience—who will engage in research and writing on critical themes and questions related to advancing nonviolence in the Church, including potentially contributing to Church teaching on nonviolence as well as to a Catholic Church institutional commitment to promoting education, training, and investment in nonviolent alternatives.

The Institute, in discussion with the associates, will develop key research topics, with the goal of publishing the results (journal articles, books, collections, etc.) and advocating the results within the Church. Associates may create working groups on specific topics within or across areas of concentration.

Institute Advisory Council

Key nonviolence practitioners, scholars, members of religious communities and Church leaders will lend their support to this program by serving on the Advisory Council. The Institute is honored by the commitment of an extraordinary group of founding Advisory Council members, including:

• Deacon Nate Bacon, Central America Regional Director, InnerCHANGE (US/Guatemala)

• Maria Clara Bingemer, PhD, Professor of the Theology Department of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

• Loreta Castro, Founding Director, Miriam College Center for Peace Education (Philippines)

• Erica Chenoweth, PhD, Dean and Professor, Harvard University, foremost authority on strategic nonviolence (US)

• Archbishop Peter Chong, Archbishop of Suva, Fiji  (Oceania)

• Emilce Cuda, PhD, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Holy See, member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy Pro-Vita (Argentina)

• Bishop Kevin Dowling, CSsR, former Co-President of Pax Christi International (South Africa)

• Rev. Stan Chu Ilo, PhD, DePaul University, Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (Nigeria)

• Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO, The Martin Luther King Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change, The King Center (US)

• Friar Michael Lasky, OFM Conv, President of Roman VI, JPIC for the Franciscan Family (US)

• Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop of San Diego (US)

• Hardy Merriman, President of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (US)

• Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel laureate (Northern Ireland)

• Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, SDB, Archbishop of Yangon (Myanmar)

• Sister Patricia Murray, International Union of Superiors General, Executive Secretary (Ireland)

• Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Nigeria)

• Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini, Bishop of Huehuetenango (Guatemala)

• Archbishop Giovanni Ricchiuti, President of Pax Christi Italy (Italy)

• Maria Stephan, PhD, Former Director of the Program on Nonviolent Action at the US Institute of Peace (US)

• Isak Svensson, PhD, Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University (Sweden)

• Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, CS, Holy See diplomat, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva from 2003 to 2016 (Italy)
  
  

  The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence Coordinating Committee:

• Ken Butigan (US)

• Marie Dennis (US)

• Eli McCarthy (US)

• Jasmin Nario Galace (Philippines)

• Nicolas Paz (Spain)

• Martha Inés Romero (Colombia)

• Sheila Kinsey (Italy/US)

• Teresia Wamuyu Wachira (Kenya)
  
  

PAPAL MESSAGE

Here is the papal message of blessing Pope Francis sent to mark the inauguration of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence (sent through Archbishop Giovanni Ricchiuti, President of Pax Christi Italy via Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State):

TO HIS EXCELLENCY MOST REVEREND

MSGR. GIOVANNI RICCHIUTI

ARCHBISHOP-BISHOP EMERITUS OF

ALTAMURA-GRAVINA-ACQUAVIVA DELLE FONTI

VIA ISONZO, 52 76011 BISCEGLIE (BT)

ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE NEW “CATHOLIC INSTITUTE FOR NONVIOLENCE”, PROMOTED BY PAX CHRISTI INTERNATIONAL, THE SUPREME PONTIFF, WARMLY PLEASED WITH THE PRAISE WORTHY INITIATIVE, ADDRESSES A CORDIAL THOUGHT, HOPING THAT THE EVENT, WILL AROUSE IN THOSE WHO WILL TAKE PART, A RENEWED ADHERENCE TO THE VALUES OF PEACE AND FRATERNITY. HIS HOLINESS, THEREFORE, EXHORTS US TO WORK TOGETHER TO ENSURE THE DEFENSE OF THE RIGHTS OF EVERY HUMAN CREATURE AND TO BECOME CREATORS OF A SOCIETY BASED ON JUSTICE AND MUTUAL LOVE, CONSIDERING: “...NONVIOLENCE AS THE STYLE OF A POLICY OF PEACE… THAT IT IS CHARITY AND NONVIOLENCE THAT GUIDE THE WORLD THE WAY WE TREAT ONE ANOTHER, IN INTERPERSONAL, SOCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS” (MESSAGE FOR THE 50TH WORLD DAY OF PEACE, JAN. 1, 2017). WITH SUCH SENTIMENTS, POPE FRANCIS, WHILE INVOKING THE MATERNAL PROTECTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY, GLADLY INVITES TO THOSE PRESENT THE DESIRED APOSTOLIC BLESSING.

CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN SECRETARY OF STATE OF HIS HOLINESS

From the Vatican, September 29, 2024.

NONVIOLENCE SEMINARS IN ROME DURING SYNOD

In October, the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence will host four weekly seminars in Rome for the participants for the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality.  Speakers will include specialists in strategic nonviolence, theologians, and grassroots practitioners.