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The Roots of Christian Non-Violence

It would be a serious mistake to regard Christian nonviolence simply as a novel tactic which is at once efficacious and even edifying, and which enables the sensitive man to participate in the struggles of the world without being dirtied with blood. Nonviolence is not simply a way of proving one’s point and getting what… continue reading

Being Pro Life is Hard in a Consumer Culture

Decisions about life are affected by the dominance of the economic factor in our lives. In our culture, for a woman to accept an unwanted pregnancy may require heroic virtue. Pregnancy, for some mothers, is such an intrusion that it would completely turn their lives around. Even for Catholic women, it is hard to avoid… continue reading

An Eyewitness Account of the Beatification of Franz Jagerstatter, October 2007

by Bernard Survil, priest of the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania I’ve never been to the Holy Land. People who have say it helps them read the Gospels with a personalized per-spective. Once having seen the place, the Jesus Story has a setting their own eyes have seen, including traces of the Roman Empire which dominated peoples’… continue reading

Seminarian States His Case For a Consistent Ethic of Life

Jeffrey is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston assigned to work at Casa Juan Diego as part of his seminary training. Jeffrey’s ideas are his own. Much of our modern Catholic discourse is the product of presuppositions of which, too often, we are unaware. Each of us has a particular stance from which we… continue reading

Declaration of Catholic Martyrdom of Franz Jagerstatter, Beheaded by the Nazis, Will Support Conscientious Objectors to War

“Jump out before the train reaches its destination, even it it costs you your life” -Franz Jagerstatter At the beginning of June the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to publish his declaration of the Catholic martyrdom of Franz Jagerstatter. The date for his beatification had… continue reading

Vatican Declares Catholicism a Peace Church: Follow the Way of the Great Prophets of Peace, the way of Conscientious Objection and of Alternative Social Service, the way of Nonviolence

Excerpted from Cardinal Bertone’s first address as new Vatican Secretary of State to the Vatican Diplomatic Corps, all the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, on September 29, 2006. Our contemporaries hope that the diplomats in their role will contribute to establishing and maintaining “an international order, the art of establishing reasonable human relations among peoples”… continue reading

Pope Benedict XVI: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness on Nonviolence in the Middle East: We Will Not Be Quiet

During the recent war in Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI cried out at every public appearance for all, in the name of God, to immediately lay down their arms. He said, “We will not keep quiet, we will do everything possible so that those in power hear us.” The Vatican Information Service has faithfully reported his… continue reading

Benedict XVI, The Peace Pope

When, upon his election as Pope in April 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took the name Benedict XVI, it was hard to ignore the cheering of many influential conservative Catholics. The name, obviously, honored St. Benedict of Nursia—the man who founded European monasticism and sparked Europe’s recovery from barbarism after the collapse of the Roman Empire…. continue reading

Why Catholics Should Be Wary of “One Nation Under God”: Richard Neuhaus in a Time of War

1. “I ALWAYS THOUGHT JESUS WAS AN AMERICAN” “I know you’re all going to think this is crazy, but I always thought Jesus was an American.” This statement was uttered by a young woman in a seminar at the University of California at San Diego on the first century of Rome and the dawn of… continue reading

Iraq War, Unjust, Illegal and Immoral; Just War Theory Condemns Invasion

Fr. Paul Surlis was professor of Catholic Social Teaching at St. John’s University, New York 1975-2000. He is now retired in Crofton, Maryland, writing and doing occasional parish ministry. The tradition of The Catholic Worker, under the editorial direction of Dorothy Day, was to publish two threads of discussions and theologies of war and peace,… continue reading