Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence
Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence
edited by Marie Dennis
"Humanity needs to refurbish all the best available tools to help men and women of today to fulfill their aspiration for justice and peace." --Pope Francis
In recent years the Catholic Church's approach to issues of war and peace has refocused on the tradition of nonviolence and peacebuilding in place of the traditional framework of Just War teaching. Among the milestones was an historic conference hosted at the Vatican in 2016, which gathered 80 peacemakers from around the world.
Drawn from the conference and presented here are contributions by many of the participants, including Lisa Sowle Cahill, Terrence J. Rynne, John Dear, Ken Butigan, Rose Marie Berger, and Maria J. Stephan, among others. Together they advance the conversation about the practice of nonviolence in a violent world, Jesus and nonviolence, traditional Catholic teaching on nonviolence, and reflections on the future of Catholic teaching. The book concludes with Pope Francis's historic Message for World Peace Day in 2017.