This year the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) celebrates the 25th anniversary of its pastoral letter on peace: “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response.” This letter, written in the midst of the Cold War, offered countries a moral framework on which to work towards nuclear disarmament. It also affirmed conscientious objection and called upon Catholics to practice nonviolence in their families and communities.
A recent article titled “At 25, pastoral letter on peace set goals that remain unfulfilled” by the Catholic News Service (the “news service” created by the USCCB) suggested that while the anniversary of the document has gone uncelebrated:
…that doesn’t mean the bishops’ core messages — challenging the world’s nuclear powers to rid their arsenals of nuclear weapons and discussing the importance of peacemaking in everyone’s life — has been lost, according to some of the country’s leading peace advocates…
However, one of the letter’s five architects disagreed with this assertion. Bishop Gumbleton of Detroit told CNS, “It hasn’t been a part of peoples’ consciences as we had intended it to be.”
Why has this pastoral—radical in its time—been left to collect dust on shelves? Why haven’t the bishops been able to meet the goals they set in the letter?
Well, the USCCB (not individual bishops dedicated to peace such as Bishop Gumbleton) has put all of its time, energy, and money into a few select issues such as abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, etc. The bishops have made the conscious decision to tell Catholics that only these issues really matter, only these issues are “non-negotiable”—and they haven’t included peace in the list.
However, read what John Carr, Director of the USCCB Department of Peace, Justice, and Development had to say about the Catholic Church and peace:
Peacemaking is not an optional commitment, as the bishops state. It’s a requirement of our faith. Peacemaking is not simply nuclear disarmament. It’s putting an end to violence in its many forms.
Not an optional commitment. Non-negotiable. Sounds the same to me.
And so, we are left to wonder what would our world look like today if the USCCB had put more energy into creating peace in our world and calling upon Catholics to stand up for peace; and if they had put less energy into their “non-negotiable” issues and telling Catholics that only abortion matters.
In the end, the USCCB has only itself to blame. Not that the USCCB alone would be able to bring about peace in our world. However, by putting peace higher its priority list, the bishops certainly could have made a difference.
Nonetheless, Catholic NGOs such as Pax Christi, School of the Americas Watch, and Center of Concern along with organizations/communities of women and men religious such as the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Franciscan Action Network, and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute have been taking up the work the bishops have neglected. These groups—and many more—have been working tirelessly to see that the bishops’ message of peace and the Christian value of nonviolence is seen as the non-negotiable issue that it is.
