Pope Francis Invites the World to Think About Nonviolence

From an article appearing in the San Antonio Express-News and My SA.com, FAITH magazine, Sunday, January 1, 2017 

by Sister Martha Ann Kirk, CCVI

Pope Francis’ message today for the 50^th World Day of Peace, “Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace,” posits that violence will not quell violence.

That message is for everyone, not just Catholics.

The year 2017 also will see the 50th anniversary of the speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Riverside Church, the “Beyond Vietnam” speech, in which he condemned the “triplets” of racism, militarism, and materialism. Pope Francis praises Dr. King's use of creative nonviolence in the face of racial injustice and he, too, is connecting those three issues.

Many of these ideas were developed at the “Nonviolence and Just Peace” conference held in Rome last April. The Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire spoke of the conference as a turning point in history.

The Catholic Church’s reliance on “just war” theory, articulated by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and in use for centuries, is shifting.

Documents indicate that in the first centuries of Christianity, Jesus’ followers heeded his words, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword” (Mt 26:52), and they refused to kill. What the Pope lays out is closer to that earlier, radical message. “Nonviolence and Just Peace” is now a global initiative reaffirming the centrality of active nonviolence to the vision and message of Jesus, to the life of Christianity, and to the lifetime task of healing and reconciliation.

The Pope gives examples to emulate: Gandhi, of course, but also the Muslim Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. “Women in particular are often leaders of nonviolence, as for example, was Leymah Gbowee and the thousands of Liberian women,” Francis states, noting that she gathered Muslim and Christian women who organized “nonviolent protest that resulted in high level peace talks to end the second civil war in Liberia.”

I have repeatedly done educational programs with Muslim women. Currently, some of us are planning an open conversation to discuss the Pope’s message and how it compares with Islamic ideas.

The Pope writes, “When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she clearly stated her own message of active nonviolence: ‘We in our family don’t need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace – just get together, love one another… And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world.’”

Mother Teresa can sound naive, but perhaps Americans are the naive ones. We have not developed our ability to think clearly and critically, nor our ability to imagine. Do we recognize that by one analysis the United States has chosen to be at war 223 out of 240 years since 1776, about 93 percent of our history?

I can think of walking, diving, and dancing because I do these. Can I think how it would feel to flip as a gymnast?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation in 1961, warned that we were losing our ability to think because the economics of the military industrial complex, rather than the values of democracy, were leading us. The Pope invites the peoples of the world to think, not to be driven by the structures and greed that Eisenhower and Dr. King deplored.

For a contemporary Catholic leader, Francis sounds almost like the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,700 years ago, inviting people to “beat swords into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks.” Do we recognize that we can transform the instruments of death into instruments that bring a harvest of life? Do you or I want to think? Or continue to be naive?

A Time to Break the Silence - MLK Events at University of the Incarnate Word

“A Time to Break Silence” for Dr. King 50 years ago and for us now

Feb. 1, Wed., 7 pm, 

UIW International Conference Center Auditorium, 847 E. Hildebrand, SA 78212

Feb. 9, Thurs., 12:00pm 

UIW Mabee Library Special Collections, 4301 Broadway, SA (Bring your lunch.)

Presenters: Jovanni Reyes, a veteran; Sister Addie Lorraine Walker, OST Director of the Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership: Dr. Roger Barnes, UIW Sociology; Dr. Trey Guinn, UIW Communication Arts; Dr. Doshie P. Piper, UIW Criminal Justice Department, Holy Redeemer Community, and others

In the 50^th anniversary year of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech at Riverside Church in which he felt compelled to “Break Silence” and speak of the united triplets of racism, militarism and extreme materialism fueling the Vietnam war and ruining US democracy--- 

Please join us for a gathering considering the on-going challenges of these triplets and our call to be citizens building what Dr. King has called “the beloved community.” “The dream” cannot be a reality if we refuse to face the obstacles.                                                                               

Listen to the speech

Co-sponsors: Ettling Center for Civic Leadership, the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest, Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Leadership Conference of Women Religious - Region 12, San Antonio peaceCENTER, San Antonio Pax Christi, and others. 

For More Information: Sister Martha Ann Kirk kirk@uiwtx.edu  Phone:  210-829-3854 

Call for Prayer and Reflection on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Praised be the Incarnate Word!

Today is the memorial of Rev. Martin Luther King. An appropriate day to consider the transitions the United States government will experience this week. Transitions which will affect our ministries, our families and every country where we serve in unexpected and unforeseen ways.  

The fear, the concern, and yes, even the expectation and hope the new Presidency is raising invite us all to unite in prayer for the good of all people living in the United States and for all countries influenced by them.

Our Congregation lives and serves in all those countries this is why we are called to unite in prayer – personally, in community and also with other organizations around the world.  

And as we commit to the hope the Incarnation continues to represent for our planet we invite you to reflect using the words of Martin Luther King, spoken as part of his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Today these words are as relevant as they were then!

United with all of you in prayer,

CCVI General Leadership Team

Martin Luther King, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech 1964 (excerpts)

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction.I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow.

I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.

I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that We Shall overcome!

-Martin Luther King (1964)

50th Anniversary of King's March on Washington

A march and rally marking the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday on Capitol Hill, beginning a day of events recalling the historic 1963 civil-rights demonstration.

The march along a 1.6-mile route downtown will pass several buildings with significance for the civil-rights era, including the Justice Department, U.S. Courthouse, Department of Labor and Washington Monument. The procession, to be led by a restored 1960s-era bus like that used by civil-rights activists the Freedom Riders, is expected to draw upward of 100,000 participants. The original march, which demanded jobs and equal rights for blacks, drew about 250,000. More

Por la libertad en la historia de nuestro país

El 28 de agosto de 1963 Martin Luther King brindó su discurso "Yo tengo un sueño" en los escalones del monumento a Lincoln en Washington D.C.. De ello hace ya cien años. 

Este gran estadounidense, cuya simbólica sombra nos cobija hoy, firmó la Proclama de la emancipación. Este trascendental decreto significó como un gran rayo de luz y de esperanza para millones de esclavos negros, chamuscados en las llamas de una marchita injusticia. Llegó como un precioso amanecer al final de una larga noche de cautiverio.



Pero, cien años después, el negro aún no es libre; cien años después, la vida del negro es aún tristemente lacerada por las esposas de la segregación y las cadenas de la discriminación; cien años después, el negro vive en una isla solitaria en medio de un inmenso océano de prosperidad material; cien años después, el negro todavía languidece en las esquinas de la sociedad estadounidense y se encuentra desterrado en su propia tierra. Leer más