Endorsing Active Nonviolence

The Editors: Mary Ryan-Hotchkiss, Paula Schaffner, and Hugh Menton

This year we have seen too much violence and conflict. The Maryknoll Affiliate Mission statement says we are “striving for peace and justice for all of God’s creation.” Affiliate chapters have frequently participated in Campaign Nonviolence and have advocated for peace and nonviolence. Since we and Maryknoll are evolving, the editors propose updating our mission statement, adding “active nonviolence” to it. We suggest that the mission statement could read:

Maryknoll Affiliates, while continuing to pursue their own life’s journey, commit themselves to the mission goals of Maryknoll in the context of chapters that gather for prayer, reflection, and action. Maryknoll Affiliates challenge one another to witness to mission as a way of life by going beyond borders, locally and globally, walking with the poor and excluded, and through active nonviolence, striving for peace and justice for all of God’s creation.

We began thinking about recognizing this evolution in values statements when the Maryknoll Lay Missioners added the term active nonviolence to their mission/values statements at their website: 

Compelled by faith to engage with people across cultures and ethnicities, we live, love, and work with communities on the margins to promote active nonviolence and healing.

and 

Maryknoll Lay Missioners is a Catholic mission-sending community committed to nonviolence through prevention, intervention, reconciliation and restoration of all creation.

Pax Christi, through its project, The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (https://paxchristi.net/cni-about-us/) and its recently established Catholic Institute for Nonviolence (https://paxchristi.net/catholic-institute-for-nonviolence/CNI), has been conducting international conferences in Rome discussing nonviolence. Pax Christi affirms that “active nonviolence is at the heart of the vision and message of Jesus, the life of the Catholic Church, and the long-term vocation of healing and reconciling both people and the planet.”  Their videos, “Advancing Nonviolence and Just Peace” are offered in an inspiring series that could be integrated into Affiliate chapter meetings. (https://dorothydayasaint.info/lecture-series.html) 

Pope Francis provided his endorsement of nonviolence in his letter, “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace,” a few years ago in celebration of the fiftieth World Day of Peace.

We ask that Maryknoll Affiliates also make our commitment to nonviolence more explicit and obvious.

This reflection, read at a Cincinnati Affiliate Chapter meeting by Liz Maxwell, was sent to her by Sr. Theresa Baldini, MM.