Christian Non-Violence and Peace

Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

I made my annual retreat at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center in Maine.  The retreat was an interfaith retreat, A Call to the Churches to return to Christian Non-Violence and Peace.  The retreat director Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a priest of the Eastern Rite (Byzantine-Melkite).  He was ordained in 1981 in Damascus, Syria. He is the founder and of the Program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution at the University of Notre Dame and a co-founder along with Dorothy Day of Pax Christi-USA. He has spoken throughout the world on the issue of the relationship of faith and violence, and the Nonviolent Jesus and His Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies.  

I chose this retreat because of my belief that the war must end soon and my hope to work with veterans and their families as they readjust to civilian life.  I did not expect to be converted to radical pacificism.  Fr. Charlie's carefully laid out argument convinced me that the so-called "Just War Theory" is a deceitful misinterpretation of the message of Jesus Christ.  The fact that this misinterpretation has been around for 1700 years doesn't make it true.  From Constantine onwards Christian leaders who are move interested in political power than living the way of the non-violent loving kindness of Jesus Christ have employed Just War Theory to rationalize involvement in war.  For 17 centuries Christians have been divided into those who believe in the tenets of a just war and those who are radical pacificists.  In our time both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI declared the war we are presently engaged in unjustified, but the USCCB published a statement saying that Catholic youth could participate in it with a clear conscience.  

In the afternoon sessions we saw the neurological damage done to soldiers and civilians traumatized by war and saw that the recruiters are well aware that the human brain does not achieve full formation until the age of 24.  For this reason young people who experience the trauma of war have brain damage that is difficult to repair because they have no former mature brain formation.  Over the course of the retreat I came to the realization that the biggest challenge of our time is to bring about peace through prayer, fasting, preaching and ministering.  We can overcome evil with loving kindness and courageous resistance to violence in all forms.  Those who are returning from the war need a compassionate and understanding society willing to help them heal their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wounds.  This is the call I am answering through training for clinical pastoral care at John Muir Medical next year.   I didn't expect my retreat to be so perfect a preparation for it, but God provided just what I needed!  I support the Center for Christian Non-Violence and the Veterans for Peace.