The Shaft
Catholic Social Teaching and Gospel Nonviolence
(From "THE GOD OF PEACE: TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF NONVIOLENCE)
Roman Catholic social teaching on justice and peace dates back over one hundred years. In the past thirty years, this "new" tradition has opened the door to a theology of peace. A simple review of the church's social teachings on justice and peace may shed light on our theology of nonviolence. This new theology can learn from Pacem in Terris, the Second Vatican Council's stand on peace, recent social teachings, the
US Catholic bishops' pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace, and other recent statements on war and violence. With this background, we will be better able to examine how the church is moving beyond the age-old just war theory and back to the roots of Gospel nonviolence.
Pacem in Terris: A Public Cry for Peace
A few months after the world came to the brink of nuclear warfare, during the Cuban missile crisis, John
XXIII issued the church's strongest plea for peace. His 1963 Easter tidings broke new ground immediately because it was addressed "to all men and women of goodwill," not just the Christian community. The document took principles of traditional social doctrine, made them universal, and rooted them in thee
Gospel call for peace. Pacem in Terris suggests that peace is "founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom."(#167) It declares that "every human is a person endowed with intelligence and free will, who has universal and inviolable rights and duties."(#9)
Because of this foundation in human rights and justice, the peace proclaimed in Pacem in Terris questions all warfare and opens the door to a church of nonviolence:
Justice, right reason and humanity urgently demand that the arms race should cease; that the stockpiles which exist in various countries should be reduced equally and simultaneously; that nuclear arms should be banned, and a general
(From "THE GOD OF PEACE: TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF NONVIOLENCE)
Roman Catholic social teaching on justice and peace dates back over one hundred years. In the past thirty years, this "new" tradition has opened the door to a theology of peace. A simple review of the church's social teachings on justice and peace may shed light on our theology of nonviolence. This new theology can learn from Pacem in Terris, the Second Vatican Council's stand on peace, recent social teachings, the
US Catholic bishops' pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace, and other recent statements on war and violence. With this background, we will be better able to examine how the church is moving beyond the age-old just war theory and back to the roots of Gospel nonviolence.
Pacem in Terris: A Public Cry for Peace
A few months after the world came to the brink of nuclear warfare, during the Cuban missile crisis, John
XXIII issued the church's strongest plea for peace. His 1963 Easter tidings broke new ground immediately because it was addressed "to all men and women of goodwill," not just the Christian community. The document took principles of traditional social doctrine, made them universal, and rooted them in thee
Gospel call for peace. Pacem in Terris suggests that peace is "founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom."(#167) It declares that "every human is a person endowed with intelligence and free will, who has universal and inviolable rights and duties."(#9)
Because of this foundation in human rights and justice, the peace proclaimed in Pacem in Terris questions all warfare and opens the door to a church of nonviolence:
Justice, right reason and humanity urgently demand that the arms race should cease; that the stockpiles which exist in various countries should be reduced equally and simultaneously; that nuclear arms should be banned, and a general