| JustPeace The Journal of Pax Christi |
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| Prayers and Actions for Peace in the Middle East |
Pax Christi now has a special relationship with the Middle East. Our International President, Michel Sabbah, is the Patriarch of Jerusalem. There is also a new Affiliated Section , the Arab Educational Institute in Bethlehem, which provides complimentary and remedial teaching for pupils whose education has been disrupted and also organises programmes to promote understanding of Palestinian culture and peace education. Here we report some of the positive actions for peace and hope which have been undertaken during the present crisis.
During the week of 12th October, which saw some of the worst violence in years, 500 members of the ecumenical community in Jerusalem gathered to pray for peace. We received a very poignant message from the office of the Patriarch which said “ we have just arrived back from our Ecumenical prayer , while the Israeli army is still attaching the headquarters of the Palestinians Authority in Gaza and Ramallah We insisted to make this prayer even if we were afraid, because all the streets of Jerusalem are empty of people.. but we wanted to bombard heaven with our prayers for peace, reconciliation and justice... it was a very calm prayer, but very deep and intense, we prayed from the bottom of our hearts. The patriarch ended the service with these words:’ This is why we have come to pray; not for more hatred and more troubles but for more justice and more love in the munificence of God almighty. Pray for us and pray with us’.
Then on 24th October, we heard from a Pax Christi Affiliated organisation, the Arab Educational Institute. A worker there, Toine van Teeffelen is keeping a diary of events. He wrote: “At my institute for community education in Bethlehem we talk about how to present the voice of Palestinian youth. The TV images of the uprising give a very limited picture of Palestinian youth. There should be more public and media involvement of youth ho do not participate in the fighting. They should register and communicate stories they communicate and hear. We are going to set up a youth group in which Palestinian youth can reflect on what they can do Especially girls who are forced to stay ins ide after school and cannot express emotions outside the family. We talk about nonviolent ways of protest, actions which do not carry the risk of being appropriated by one or another political faction. And what does it mean: community education under the present circumstances?
Toine has asked Pax Christi members around the world to consider being part of a ‘wishmaking’ activity. The idea is that people communicate a wish or prayer to be shared by a Palestinian school and used at a Moslem or Christian holy site. These messages could be sent by letter or email. This is one people-to-people action which we would like to encourage.
Things you could do:
If you have time to let the office know of any initiatives you are taking it would be most helpful.
Pat Gaffney
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| Eileen Egan: 1911 - 2000 |
Eileen Egan, who died on 7 October, was a co-founder of Pax Christi USA. She devoted much of her abundant energy and talent to the task of making the Catholic Church a better witness to Gospel nonviolence.
Reflecting on her life, one is impressed by how much one person can achieve by staying on course, persisting with the causes which she feels called to serve.
Eileen’s life’s work was an expression of her faith: “I believe it is a religious duty of all Christians to renounce the works of war – or mercilessness – and to daily practice the Works of Mercy.” As a staff member for the American Catholic Relief Services, she was engaged in care for thousands of refugees made homeless by the Second World War. She saw the destruction which war had brought to Europe, and at that time, too, she met Bishop Théas of Lourdes, who was just starting Pax Christi as a movement to promote reconciliation.
Involved for many years with the Catholic Worker, Eileen was a close friend of Dorothy Day. In the early 1960s a number of people in Catholic Worker circles proposed the creation of a peace group modelled on the English PAX society. American PAX was the result, with Eileen Egan and Gordon Zahn among its leaders. Eileen attended some of the PAX conferences held at Spode House and kept in close touch with her English colleagues, particularly as they prepared for the Second Vatican Council. They scrutinised each draft of the document which addressed war and peace (eventually known as Gaudium et Spes), they wrote articles, lobbied bishops, and sent a special issue of the Catholic Worker newspaper to every bishop in the world. The two crucial questions were that the right of conscientious objection should be recognised, (it was) and that weapons of mass destruction should be condemned (they were). Unfortunately an ambiguous phrase about the possession of such weapons went through, leading to years of argument about nuclear deterrence.
In the United States Eileen Egan continued to push forward the frontiers of acceptance for conscientious objectors. PAX launched a “Rights of Conscience Campaign” during the Vietnam war to gain the legal right to selective conscientious objection. This was particularly important for Catholics who based their objections on “just war” criteria rather than on absolute pacifism. In 1968 the US bishops came out in support of selective conscientious objection – another step on the journey to their Peace Pastoral of 1983.
Eileen was organisationally minded and she methodically used structures to further her campaigns. In 1969, as a non-governmental representative at the United Nations, she proposed that conscientious objection should be recognised as a human right. She raised the issue again and again until, in 1987, the UN Human Rights Commission agreed. Eileen obtained NGO status for Pax Christi International and helped to build up an experienced team of representatives at the UN in New York.
Her appreciation of the value of international networks meant that when, in 1971, the English branches of PAX and Pax Christi merged to form one Catholic peace movement, Eileen went to Luxembourg to propose that American PAX should be recognised by Pax Christi’s International Council as a new section: Pax Christi USA was born.
An effective writer and speaker, Eileen never “retired” from spreading the Christian message of nonviolent love. In 1992 she was mugged and badly injured, but she wrote to her attacker, offering forgiveness. In 1999 her new book, Peace be With You: Justified Warfare and the Way of Nonviolence was published by Orbis. An excellent “reader” on peace issues and people, it is the testament of a woman who spent her life nurturing the flame of peace concern in the Church.
Valerie Flessati
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| World Peace Day: January 1st 2001 |
The theme for 2001 is “Dialogue Between Cultures for a Civilisation of Love and Peace”. The Pope has selected this theme in the context of the “UN International year of Dialogue Between Civilisations”. Announcing the theme, the official statement from the Vatican press Office said “At the beginning of the 21st Century, in all the wealth of their diversity and vitality, the cultures of the world are a source of hope and at the same time, of fear”. The Pope hopes that World Peace Day will become a stimulus to “open, sincere and peaceful dialogue between cultures; a dialogue that will recognise in the quest for truth an aspiration imprinted in human nature”.
This year for the first time, Pax Christi is co-operating with the Committee for International Justice and Peace in the preparation of materials in support for World Peace Day. We also note that the theme links well with the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence which begins in 2001. January 1st falls on a Monday so it may well be that parishes will consider marking World Peace Day on Sunday 31t December. We will be mailing materials to every parish in the country at the end of November, inviting them to celebrate World Peace Day and give financial support to the work of Pax Christi. Pax Christi members can be of real help in encouraging their parish to mark the day in some special way - perhaps by offering to organise a peace service, writing something for the parish newsletter, offering to give out Pax Christi literature, offering to co-ordinate a special collection for Pax Christi. In 2000 donations from World Peace Day amounted to around £9,000. We have seen a drastic decline in World Peace Day donations since the change of date in 1994 and Pax Christi is in dialogue with the Bishops’ Conference about this important issue. Let us know if we can help you to promote World Peace Day.
Pat Gaffney
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| New Staff Member: Bethan Hillas |
My name is Bethan Hillas, and I recently started working part time at Pax Christi as the Office Administrator. I will be responsible for the administration and finance work, as well as subscriptions and issues relating to membership.
Some of you may remember me because I worked for Pax Christi as a full-time volunteer between October 1996 and October 1997, on a placement organised by Quaker Peace & Service. I have spent the last three years studying at the London School of Economics for a degree in International History, from where I graduated in the summer. During my time at university I continued to be involved in Pax Christi, volunteering at the office once a week and helping with other events. I am delighted to be working at the office again, and I hope that over the next year I will be able to contribute as much as I have gained through my involvement with Pax Christi.
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