Experience

Most of us pray for peace daily as we listen to news accounts of violence and deadly conflicts throughout the world. On September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed thousands of innocent people in our own country. We may feel overwhelmed and helpless, uncertain whether our prayer has any effect.

At the August 2000 Assembly LCWR members passed this resolution: LCWR will endorse the establishment of a global nonviolent standing peace force to support local and regional groups striving to resolve conflict. At the fourth Systemic Change Think Tank in February 2001, a group sought to identify the systems that support violence and war in our world today, and to look for ways to more actively support the Global Nonviolent Peace Force project.

Social Analysis

Throughout our world, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, from Africa to Indonesia, there are violent conflicts taking place that cry out for the presence of peacemakers committed to the power of nonviolence. Characterized by seemingly irreconcilable claims and deliberate – often state supported – acts of violence, most deadly conflicts are now internal rather than external. They are fueled by ethnic or religious hatred, extreme poverty, oppressive regimes seeking to take or hold onto power, external demands for precious physical resources, and the ever growing global economy and arms trade, which places profit beyond any ethical consideration. In the first half of the 20th century conflict casualties were mainly combatants. Today civilians are by far the predominant casualties, and in some locations children are directly engaged in the conflict as combatants.

As citizens of United States – self-proclaimed superpower, premier provider of weapons, and exporter of military expertise to other nations of the world – we benefit, whether directly or indirectly, from the wealth amassed by this industry. At the same time, we raise our voices against violence and war through prayer, letter writing to political leaders, protest (e.g., at the School of the Americas), shareholder resolutions, etc.

A growing number of world leaders, led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, advocate for humanitarian intervention, asserting that national sovereignty should not shield genocidal violence. At the same time, the international community turns to armed forces to intervene, often with ineffective or disastrous results, given that military training does not equip people to fulfill a peacekeeping role. 

The Global Nonviolent Peace Force arose from the Hague Appeal for Peace in May 1999, where more than 9,000 people from 100 countries, including U.S. women religious, gathered to discuss alternatives to war. The Peace Force offers an alternative way to intervene in national and international conflicts and violence.

The Global Nonviolent Peace Force mission is: To mobilize and train an international nonviolent, standing peace force.  The Peace Force will be sent to conflict areas to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue, and seek peaceful resolution.

As an alternative to armed peacekeeping forces, its goals are:

• To build the organization needed to create and maintain a standing Global Nonviolent Peace Force of 200 active members, 400 reserves, and 500 supporters; ultimately working toward 2,000 active members, 4,000 reserves and 5,000 supporters within ten years.
• To develop the theory and practice of third-party nonviolent intervention in order to significantly increase that tool’s effectiveness.

Scripture, Catholic social teaching and our own congregational documents call us to work for peace and an end to violence, which threatens not just the human community, but our earth as well. Jesus’ words of peace in the scriptures are not addressed to the fainthearted. We read: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God [Mt. 5:9];” and “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid [Jn. 14:27].”

Too often the ‘world’ equates acting for peace and being committed to nonviolence with weakness or disloyalty to one’s country or group. The peace that scripture speaks of demands a price – that one literally put one’s life on the line, as did Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Jean Donovan, Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel as well as countless other contemporary witnesses and martyrs to nonviolence.

Action

The Peace Force project is currently in the research, planning and fundraising phase.  The resolution approved by LCWR included the following in its call for action:

1. Continue educating ourselves about personal, communal, and societal nonviolence.
2. Direct the national staff to share periodic information with the membership about the development of this and alternatives to war.
3. Endorse the project by adding LCWR to the list of endorsers.
4. As individual congregations, consider contributing funds to the project directly.

Participants in the Systemic Change Think Tank suggested additional actions:

• Discuss the resolution on the Global Peace Force at LCWR regional meetings, in our congregations, and with other interested persons and groups.
• Endorse the resolution as congregations and offer financial support.
• Take the resolution a step further by offering, preparing and financing some of our members to become part of the Global Peace Force.
• Review our congregational investments, and those of our sponsored institutions, asking ourselves whether we are supporting/profiting from corporations that market products that cause, contribute to, or perpetuate violence.

• Visit the Global Nonviolent Peace Force website at: www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org
• “A Force More Powerful” (video and book available from PBS)
• “Creating a Global Nonviolent Peace Force” by D. Hartsough & M. Duncan in Fellowship; Jan/Feb 2001.