Catholic leaders from some of the world’s worst conflict zones gathered in Rome on May 29 and 30 to discuss ways to make peace. “In South Sudan, the Philippines, and Congo, in the Middle East and Central America, the Catholic Church is a powerful force for justice and reconciliation,” said Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. “But this impressive and courageous peacebuilding often remains unknown, underanalyzed and unappreciated.” Anticipating the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris,” the seminar, “New Challenges for Catholic Peacebuilding,” examined the best practices of contemporary Catholic peacebuilding as carried out in places where hatred has led to mass killings and destruction. “‘Pacem in Terris’ remains a living teaching,” said the Rev. Pierre Cibambo of Caritas Internationalis. “Situations of violence and terrorism have changed over the past 50 years, but the will and the ability to build peace remains.”
Peacemakers in Rome
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Engagement with Catholic schools can help seminarians enter ministry with a clearer sense of the pastoral needs of their flock.
“This is a day of gratitude for El Paso, the work of Annunciation House and the resilience of our community’s hospitality workers,” Bishop Mark J. Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso said in a statement.
Vulnerability, defined as the capacity the human being has to be open and responsive to another human being, is a central mark of what makes us human.
Tom Wolfe would have loved to write about a debate between a billionaire former president who is also a convicted felon and an octogenarian sitting president whose public mental lapses are vociferously denied by many of his own confidantes.