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Philippine-MILF Peace Treaty Signed April 3rd, 2014
President Benigno Aquino meets with rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front leaders before the signing of a peace agreement in Manila on Thursday (photo by Ryan Lim/Malacañang Photo Bureau)
The Philippine government and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed a peace agreement on March 27th that aims to formally end four decades of war in the southern Philippines region of Mindanao. The conflict killed more than 100,000 people.
The result of 17 years of negotiations, the “Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro” has been described by government peace negotiators as a “partnership” based on “shared aspirations to heal the wounds of conflict, enable meaningful autonomy for the Bangsamoro, and nurture peace and development in Muslim Mindanao.”
The peace agreement foresees the creation of an autonomous region for the Muslim population to be located in the southern Mindanao region. It will have a power-sharing agreement with the central government, allowing its own leadership to control most of its own natural resources and revenues. Elections are to be held there by mid-2016.
Oblate Auxiliary Bishop in Crimea Calls for Peace March 4th, 2014
The following is an official statement from Bishop Jacek Pyl, omi, the auxiliary bishop of Odessa-Sinferopol of the Crimea region of Ukraine. Let us pray for peace!
STATEMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP IN CRIMEA
Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Odesa-Simferopol, Bishop Jacek Pyl, OMI
Since many weeks now the Roman Catholic Church with her prayers accompany whole of Ukraine praying for the peaceful solution of the problems, which the country is struggling with. In our prayers we ask God for his mercy for all Ukrainian people and we also offer voluntary fasting on bread and water in the same intention. Today when the unrest has encompassed the Crimean territory we want to pray especially for our peninsula. With our prayer we reach out to all the people without concern for their religion, political views or ethnic background. We pray that the people, who for tens of years live in peace – do not start fighting today and that the bloodshed of the kind we have seen in Kiev Maidan may be avoided here.
I am calling on all the people both faithful and the others that in the name of the solidarity with the heritage of our Fathers, who cared for the development of our Autonomous Republic of Crimea, to stay away from extremisms and in this hard time do not let the brotherhood among Crimean people to be broken. In ARoC we have Ukrainians, Russians, Crimean Tartars, Armenians, Poles, Germans, Czechs and many others living peacefully together. For many centuries we had the Orthodox, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Caraims, people of other denominations together with atheists living in Crimea. We cannot let our ethnical background nor our religion to divide us now. We are children of the same God; the only God, who is our common Father. The motto of the Republic of Crimea which is inscribed into our coat of arms is „Процветание в единстве” (Blooming in unity) and may this words be our motto for the difficult time now.
I would like to reach out with my words to the faithful of all denominations that they keep praying for peace, and those who has decided so keep voluntarily fasting. May the Good God free our hearts from all evil temptations and may he bless our good intentions.
+ Jacek Pyl, OMI Auxiliary Bishop of Odessa-Simferopol Diocese
We would like to thank Fr. Warren Brown, OMI and Fr. Charles Hurkes, OMI for sharing this information with the JPIC Office.
10th Anniversary of Archbishop Denis Hurley Noted in South Africa January 22nd, 2014
The 10th Anniversary of the death of Archbishop Denis Hurley will be marked by a series of events focused on peacemaking and reconciliation arranged by organizations closely linked with the Archbishop. Learn more here…
The Denis Hurley Centre, currently under construction next to Emmanuel Cathedral in Durban, has been designed as a multi-purpose community facility to promote “extensive outreach and training for the homeless, unemployed and refugees…” It will also “provide primary health care, as well as community building programmes in one of the most diverse and challenging neighborhoods of downtown Durban.” Learn more about the center at: www.denishurleycentre.org
VIVAT International Newsletter Available January 6th, 2014
Contents include:
- World Food Day
- 2014 Year of Family Farming
- Land Grabbing and Mining
- Executives at the Vatican
- Voices in Brazil
- Right to Water
- Typhoon Haiyan
- Rights of Dalits
- VIVAT Workshop West Africa
- Longing for Peace
Peace & Life Connections: December 2013 December 17th, 2013
Holiday Edition
Quotations of the Season
When, therefore, one wishes “A Happy Christmas” without the meaning behind it, it becomes nothing more than an empty formula. And unless one wishes for peace for all life, one cannot wish for peace for oneself. – Mohandas Gandhi
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“Peace on Earth” Means “No More War”
You cannot seriously call yourself a follower of the nonviolent, peacemaking Jesus, whom we celebrate and honor at Christmas, if you own guns, support our wars, defend our nuclear weapons arsenal, tolerate executions and catastrophic climate change, and participate in violence in any form. Anyone who supports warfare, weapons or killing, even if they be a priest, minister or bishop, goes against the nonviolent Jesus. To be a Christian is to be a practitioner of creative nonviolence. To follow the peacemaking Jesus means becoming a peacemaker. – John Dear
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Therefore, welcoming the child . . . means welcoming the poor and destitute, the stranger and the alienated, the disabled and the unborn. Christmas is universal, and is about the exaltation of the human person. We welcome all he welcomes, and are to make room for all he loves, especially the most unwanted, marginalized, burdensome, or inconvenient. If we welcome the baby Jesus, we welcome every baby and we welcome his teaching that every life is sacred, and we live accordingly. – Fr. Frank Pavone
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Postscript to Christmas Village Voice, January 1, 1958
On Christmas Eve, Dorothy Day returned to the Women’s House of Detention where she had spent almost a month this summer. With her were fellow members of the Catholic Worker Movement, pacifists, individualists — several of whom had also gone to jail for refusing, because of their convictions, to take shelter during an air-raid drill. They had come to Village Square to sing carols to the women inside. They stood in the freezing street opposite the towering building, and sang . . . We sang ourselves to tears to a bunch of tough girls we would never see.
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A Dorothy Day Christmas, December 24, 2012
From reader Sue Hayes: “There’s a story . . . that Dorothy, in her seventies, was arrested after a peace protest and they put her in a holding cell. After a bit, they opened the door and shoved in a young woman who was a prostitute and drunk. She cried and swore and said vile things to Dorothy and then fell on the floor at Dorothy’s feet and threw up all over Dorothy’s feet and legs…without a second’s hesitation, Dorothy sank down on the floor and took the young woman’s head gently into her lap and just held her, as a mother would hold her child. . . . It was LOVE which Dorothy clung to and was not afraid to offer to ANYONE, a love so God-partaking in its authority, so steely determined in delivery that “even the gates of Hell could not prevail against it!”
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Past Holiday Editions
In 2010, we showed “It’s a Wonderful Movement” by using the theme of what would happen if the peace movement and the pro-life movement hadn’t arisen. We also had quotes from Scrooge against respect for life and a Martin Luther King Christmas sermon for it.
In 2011, we covered the materialism-reducing “Advent Conspiracy” and offered two pieces of children’s literature: a 1938 anti-war cartoon called “Peace on Earth,” and the anti-war origins of “Horton Hears a Who,” whose tagline – “a person’s a person, no matter how small” – is irresistible to pro-lifers.
In 2012, we had a couple of quotes showing the pro-life aspects of two prominent Christmas tales: A Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Scrooge, and the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. We also quote from John Dear about Jesus as peacemaker (as above) and Rand Paul about the 1914 spontaneous Christmas Truce; he then related it to the culture of life.
issue #190 12.13.13 Consistent Life web page / Join or Donate / Previous Issues / Index
