by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“I ask the Lord that we Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions and every man and woman of good will, cry out forcefully: violence and war are never the way to peace. May the noise of weapons cease! War is always a defeat for humanity.“ – Pope Francis.
These words were uttered by Pope Francis who led a Prayer Vigil for Peace in St Peter’s Square on September 7, 2013. Deacon Tom Cornell reported that the Holy Father denounced those who are “captivated by the idols of dominion and power” to destroy God’s creation through war.
Our Church has always been on the side of peace. Indeed, the promotion of peace and disarmament is a key social justice principle grounded on respect for life and the dignity of the human person. As followers of the Prince of Peace, we are all called to be peacemakers.
On April 29, the world observed the UN Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare. Last year, the UN Secretary General stated that this day “is an occasion to reflect upon the terrible toll of these weapons and to pay tribute to those who suffered. It is also an opportunity to take stock of our efforts to chart a course to a world without the menace of chemical weapons.
“Sadly, instead of being consigned to history, chemical weapons have re-emerged as a tool of war. We have witnessed new allegations of their use and have seen painful new evidence of the suffering they inflict upon their victims. This cannot and should not become the new normal. We have come too far to go back. On this Remembrance Day, let us renew our efforts to rid the world of these and all other weapons of mass destruction. Only by working together, can we realise a world free of chemical weapons.”
Paragraph 2314 of our Catechism states: “Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation. A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons – to commit such crimes.”
Read Chapter 11 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church entitled ‘The Promotion of Peace’, which states, inter alia: “it is hardly possible to imagine that in an atomic era, war could be used as an instrument of justice. War is a scourge and is never an appropriate way to resolve problems that arise between nations…In the end, war is the failure of all true humanism, it is always a defeat for humanity” (#497).
Building peace is a goal which we must all strive to achieve. We can do so by seeking to build right relationships at all levels in our lives. One of the basic pillars of peace is justice. As Blessed Pope Paul VI said in his encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the development of Peoples), “If you want peace, work for justice…Development is the new word for peace.”
While countries spend trillions of dollars on weapons, millions of people in their countries and around the world live on the margins and lack basic necessities. There can be no peace as long as poverty and social exclusion exist in our world.
It is worth noting the famous statement in the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes: “Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies; nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called an ‘enterprise of justice’ (Is 32:7)… Peace results from that harmony built into human society by its divine founder, and actualised by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.”
In September 2013, Pope Francis met with Ahmet Üzümcü, director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with which the Holy See has a formal relationship. John Allen of National Catholic Reporter reported that the Holy Father had issued what Vatican Radio described as a strong call for a “compact rejection of this type of armament”.
Pope Francis repeated his firm denunciation of the use of chemical weapons, and affirmed that “these armaments have no place in the world. The international community must continue its efforts to eliminate them and to ensure that they can’t ever re-emerge.”
Let us pray for the day when nation will not lift sword against nation; when there will be no more training for war, and when humanity will hammer their swords into ploughshares, their spears into sickles, (Is 2:4) and live in harmony with each other.
