Do We Really Want Peace?
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I grew up as the U.S. was getting seriously involved in World War II. I recall the first pope of my lifetime, Pius XII, writing and speaking about peace and even as a child wondering if anyone but a few pious Catholics were paying attention.
Pius XII had advocated vociferously for peace in the late 1930’s, unsuccessfully trying to keep Europe out of war and afterward, in the 1940s, trying to persuade nations to make sure nothing as horrendous as WW2 ever happened again.
The U.N., which has turned out to be disappointingly ineffective, was established, but in general, people were not paying attention. And that’s true of every proclamation since then. Every pope – along with many other religious leaders around the world – have made peace a central part of their teaching.
Focused on Justifying War
The pushback against such teaching – and maybe what’s worse, the indifference - hasn’t come just from the unchurched and non-believers. Many religious leaders, instead of advocating for ways to prevent war and achieve peace, have focused on justifying war and various uses of force and violence to achieve national and cultural ends.
Take a look at Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestinians, U.S.-Iran and now, Houthis-various Mideastern countries. Besides those conflicts, you have some national leaders – following the idea that “might makes right” - arbitrarily attempting to possess or control other countries. The U.S. stand on Cuba, Venezuela, Canada and Greenland come to mind. And recklessly attacking and executing – without trials - alleged drug runners. And now, accelerating the lust for bloodshed, reinstating former brutal ways of executing prisoners.
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But in the face of opposition and indifference, should religious leaders keep their mouths shut? I don’t think so, and they don’t either.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, recently wrote an article in America Magazine entitled “The Four Demands of Peacemaking.” Cutting to the chase, they are “serenity,” “creativity,” “sensitivity” and “skill.” They may sound arbitrary and obscure, but they make sense.
Serenity debunks the common “eye for an eye” view. Jesus’ gospel message to “turn the other cheek” is the antidote. “Instead of responding within the logic of domination and humiliation, the disciple steps outside that logic altogether,” Cupich writes. “In this way… it exposes injustice without reproducing it, and it interrupts the chain of retaliation at its source.”
Creativity. “Conflict cannot simply be absorbed” writes Cupich; "it must be transformed. The normal logic of conflict – insult answered with insult, force with force, grievance with grievance – reproduces itself endlessly.” The world seems to be governed by this logic.
But creativity requires Sensitivity, Cupich writes. He acknowledges that this word sounds “weak.” But Jesus’ command to love your enemies is “in direct opposition to what Pope Francis called the ‘globalization of indifference,’ a cultural condition in which the suffering of others becomes distant, normalized and ultimately invisible.”
“The danger,” writes Cupich, “is not only that we tolerate violence, but that we cease to feel it, to the point of shamelessly turning the suffering of others into entertainment.” (“Let’s watch the execution!”)
Skill. Stopping wars and violence takes skill, and it’s usually in the form of mediation. After my career in journalism, I was trained to be a mediator and practiced mediation. I know it can work and even be therapeutic. The parties need the willingness to compromise and the determination to ignore what others may think, focusing on solving the problem, starting with determining what both sides really want.
I like to end these blogs with meaningful quotes and for this blog, there’s no better one than that attributed to Pope Paul VI: “If you want peace, work for justice.” Question is, do we really want peace?
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