The following links will take you to profiles of contemporary Christian people
who have witnessed to peacemaking during the course of their life.
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Franz
JÄGERSTÄTTER
Born in St Radegund, Austria in 1907. Executed
on 9th August 1943 at Brandenburg Prison for his conscientious objection
to serving in Hitler's army. Writing to his family from prison he said:
" These
few words are being set down here as they come from my mind and heart.
And if I must write
them
with my hands
in
chains, I find that much better than if my will were in chains. Neither
prison nor chains nor sentence of death can rob a man of the Faith
and
his free will. God gives
so much strength that it is possible to bear any suffering, a strength
far stronger
than
any might of the world. "
- August 2004 - London (UK) Reflection
by Rev Sidney Hinkes (PDF - Word format)
- August 2003 -
St Radegund (Austria) Sermon
by Bishop Manfred Scheuer (PDF - Word format)
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Mairead
CORRIGAN MAGUIRE
Awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1976 for
her work with the Peace People in Northern Ireland, Mairead has continued
to work on
behalf of peacemaking and nonviolence
"Wherever we are, wherever
we live, we need to ask ourselves as Christians, if Christ lived in Belfast
would he carry a gun and kill for a cause? If Christ lived in America
or Britain would he support nuclear weapons... that could annihilate
millions of our sisters and brothers in the world?" |
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Oscar
Arnulfo ROMERO
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Goldamez was born
in 1917 in the town of Cindad Barrios, in the mountains of El Salvador
near the border with Honduras. He was murdered on 24 March 1980.
" I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command
to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans,
even those who are going to kill me. "
These words appeared in a newspaper just two weeks before
Archbishop Romero was shot while celebrating the Eucharist.
- 1 April 2005 (UCA, San Salvador) Reflection by Bishop Kevin
Dowling (PDF - Word format)
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Thomas
MERTON
Thomas Merton was born in France in 1915
and converted to Catholicism in his early 20's. He became a Trapist monk
in the United States in 1941. In his forties he became increasingly concerned
over matters of war and peace - writing many articles, letters and essays
from his Monastery in Kentucky. Merton died in 1968
" Christians have got to speak
by their actions. Their political action must not be confined to the
ballot box. It must be clear and manifest to everybody. It must speak
loudly and plainly the Christian truth and it must be prepared to defend
that truth with sacrifice, injustice and even imprisonment or death… " |
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Gertrud
LUCKNER
Gertrud Luckner was born of a German family in Liverpool
in 1900. Returning to Germany in 1931, she was shocked to see the influence
of
Nazi propoganda and decided to do something about it. Eventually she
was arrested and taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp.
" I thought:
'You must always comfort them. The only thing I can do is walk the
way together with them.' The whole thing had been so terrible - the
deportations, one city after another - so that it really did not much
matter any more what happened to me. "
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Matt
ROBSON
Matt
Robson is a 30 something who found himself at a turning point in his
life. In 2003 he went to Israel and Palestine as an Ecumenical Accompanier.
" Slowly but surely over the days and weeks I was
less and less active,
sitting or standing in the background, I hope as a reassurance to both
parties… helping to keep the situation calm, helping to allow
people to
treat each other as human beings despite abnormal circumstances,
preventing the tension from boiling over into violence. "
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Mana
LOU
Called the Joan of Arc of East Timor, Maria Lourdes
Martins Cruz has
worked to lead her people in a nonviolent struggle to regain a sense
of
their own dignity and thus prepare the ground
for a new Timor. She firmly believes that
“Women cannot wait for men
to change – we
have to get on with our own change
... our arms are peace, love, justice, truth, freedom,
forgiveness, unity and solidarity.” |
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Peter
BENENSON
In 1960, Peter Benenson became outraged at the unjust treatment
of
two Portugese students. His outrage led to action when he established
a
campaign on their behalf, coining the phrase "Prisoners
of Conscience".
This campaign grew into the worldwide organisation we now know as
Amnesty International.
" I have lit this candle, in the words of Shakespeare,
'against oblivion' - so that the forgotten prisoners should always be
remembered. We work in Amnesty against oblivion. " |
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4 Ploughsharers
“Battle of the doves and hawks” - this was
the title a Guardian reporter used to describe how four women - Andrea
Needham, Joanna Wilson, Lotta
Kronlid and Angie Zelter - took matters
into their own hands and attempted to stop Britain selling lethal jets
to the Indonesian regime. They all believed that
“above all else in life, we are called
to love and to be human. I can therefore not stand aside and allow the
Hawks to be delivered without doing all that is in my power to peacefully
resist. I believe that to be silent in this situation is to be complicit
with injustice. I pray that what we do today in disarming these planes
will be a small ray of hope for our sisters and brothers struggling for
peace and justice in East Timor.”
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Wamuyu
WACHIRA
Sr Wamuyu Wachira belongs to the Loreto Sisters, a Catholic
congregation also known as the Institute of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM). In
a terrible assault on a girls’ secondary school in 1991,
boys from a neighbouring
school attacked the girls in
their dormitory. Nineteen
girls died, 71 were raped,
and the rest were traumatised. Questioned by
the media, the female deputy principal
explained: “The boys never meant any harm
against the girls. They just wanted to rape”. This and several
other horrifying episodes of
violence brought home to
Wamuyu the urgent need to
develop a strong culture of
peace recognising that at times
women themselves colluded
with violence or abuse.
“I believe that peacemaking is at the core of a woman’s heart.” |
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