Consistent Life, Voices for Peace and Life

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Consistent Life (formerly called Seamless Garment Network) is a network uniting many organizations and individuals who support the consistent ethic of reverence for life, as expressed in our Mission Statement.

Our work is spreading the consistent ethic vision throughout the community, our nation and the world. Some major ways we do this are the placement of ads in national and local publications, and exhibiting at conferences. Many ads have consisted simply of the above Mission Statement, followed by the names of some of the many people committed to peace, justice and life who endorse this statement, although more recently many ads have explained what we stand for and resources we have available without the lists of endorsers.

We have about 200 member groups which include activist groups on the various issues that make up the consistent life ethic, groups made up of particular constituencies, and faith groups.

What are we trying to achieve? A revolution in thinking and feeling, an affirmation of peace and nonviolence, an infinite gentleness, a value for the life, happiness and welfare of every person, and all the political and structural changes that will bring this about.

Pax Christi International, The International Catholic Peace Movement

Link to Pax Christi International

Pax Christi International is a global Catholic peace movement and network that works to help establish Peace, Respect for Human Rights, Justice and Reconciliation in areas of the world that are torn by conflict. It is grounded in the belief that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.

Pax Christi was founded in Europe in 1945 as a reconciliation movement bringing together French and Germans after World War II. Today, the movement has more than 100 Member Organisations active in more than 50 countries and five continents worldwide.

Pax Christi operates as an autonomous Catholic entity in which laypeople, bishops and other religious members work as equals in pursuit of their peace building goals. A faith-based Catholic movement, Pax Christi pays special attention to both the positive and negative impact of religion in attempting to resolve conflicts.

Structurally, Pax Christi is a “bottom up” organisation comprised, on one hand, of national sections and local groups, all carrying the Pax Christi name, and, on the other hand, of affiliated partners and organisations who work under their own names.

Pax Christi International operates in two basic spheres: one responds to requests for help from local peace groups in regions experiencing conflict around the world, and the second supports international coalitions that focus on timely issues like banning landmines, curbing the trade and proliferation of small arms, establishing an International Criminal Court, and abolishing nuclear weapons.

Increasingly, Pax Christi International is sought as a valuable member of international coalitions and as an influential advocate at intergovernmental levels. Since 1979, Pax Christi International has held special consultative status with the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna, as well as with UNESCO in Paris. It is also officially represented at the African Union in Addis Ababa and at the Council of Europe and enjoys, along with its Member Organisations, access to the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Pax Christi USA

Link to Pax Christi USA

Pax Christi USA is a national Catholic organization, reaching over a half-million Catholics directly every year. We have over 400 local groups throughout the United States, over 100 bishop members, 700 parish sponsors, 600 religious communities, and 50 college and high school chapters.

Pax Christi USA strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian nonviolence. This work begins in personal life and extends to communities of reflection and action to transform structures of society.

Pax Christi USA rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice, and respect for creation.

Pax Christi USA commits itself to peace education and, with the help of its bishop members, promotes the gospel imperative of peacemaking as a priority in the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the efforts of all its members and in cooperation with other groups, Pax Christi USA works toward a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.

Pax Christi is a section of Pax Christi International, the Catholic peace movement.

Pace e Bene, Education, Resources and Action for Nonviolent Change

Link to Pace e Bene

Transforming our lives and our world through nonviolence education, resources, and action.

Imagine a world with dignity, justice, and peace for all. A world with the tools to challenge the spiral of war, poverty and ecological devastation. A world where we apply these tools to our own lives as well as our larger society.

Pace e Bene is bringing that world into being one person, one group, one organization at a time.

For Pace e Bene, nonviolence is more than a principle for effective protest – it is a way of life. For two decades Pace e Bene’s unique approach has been transforming lives and reaching people around the globe.

Since its founding in 1989, over 25,000 people have taken 600 Pace e Bene workshops to gain tools for more healthy relationships and to create a new society. Pace e Bene participants tap their fearlessness and empathy — and unleash the power of nonviolent change.

Pace e Bene has offices and associates in Oakland, Los Angeles,  Chicago, Las Vegas, New England, Washington, DC (Metro Area), Montreal, Australia, and Nigeria, and a growing number of partners and trainers in the US and around the world. Together we work with individuals, organizations, and movements to strengthen their efforts to end war, protect human rights, challenge injustice, and to meet today’s profound spiritual task: to build a more just and peaceful world.

Fundación Seminario de Investigación para la Paz

Enlace a Fundación Seminario de Investigación para la Paz

El Seminario de Investigación para la Paz (SIP) nació en 1984 vinculado al Centro Pignatelli de Zaragoza. En 2002, éste se constituye Fundación SIP. Su objetivo es contribuir a la investigación para la paz en sus múltiples facetas, dentro de un marco interdisciplinar e independiente en su orientación.

Tiene suscritos convenios de colaboración con el Gobierno y las Cortes de Aragón, así como con la Universidad de Zaragoza, que otorga reconocimiento académico a sus cursos. Es miembro fundador de la Asociación Española de Investigación para la Paz (AIPAZ) y desde 2004 esta asociada al Departamento de Información Pública de Naciones Unidas en Nueva York.

Cada año propone un proyecto de sesiones de estudio y debate (seminario central), programa cursos, encarga trabajos de investigación, elabora informes y propuestas, y convoca las Jornadas Aragonesas de Educación para la Paz. Colabora estrechamente con otras instituciones nacionales e internacionales de investigación para la paz y otorga un lugar importante a la sensibilización ciudadana.

The Damietta Initiative

Link to the Damietta Initiative

Welcoming people of all faiths to sow the seeds of non-violence and peace throughout Africa in the Spirit of St Francis of Assisi.

Vision

The vision of the Damietta Initiative is to have an African Continent that is non-violent, tolerant, conciliatory, respectful towards all creatures, and environmentally sustainable.

It respects the dignity of difference while revitalizing the spiritual search for values that will enable it to shape multiple “dialogues of a civilization” and non-violent alternatives to prophecies of impending clashes.

The formation of multiple Pan-African Conciliation Teams (PACT) whose specific peacemaking skills will include training others in peacebuilding roles and strategies and environmental respect.

To provide ‘conflict transformation’ experiences geared, in the first place, to the restoration of relationships between peoples rather than dissecting the material content of conflicts.

To awaken religious imagination among peoples in Africa to think of a future culture of peace permeating the continent. In this vision of Africa, every church, every mosque, every synagogue, every temple and other sites of worship will be dedicated to the embodiment of nonviolence in terms of tolerance, reconciliation and respect for creation.

Mission

Damietta Peace Initiative is a pro-active Franciscan Peace Enterprise whose mission is to build up in Africa – at local and national levels - the theory and practice of nonviolence, reconciliation and care for creation.
 
In response to this mission, the Damietta Initiative will activate the twelve thousand members of the religious family throughout different regions in Africa. This has the full backing from the combined leadership at the highest level.
 
The task of the Franciscan family network in Africa, whether priests, sisters, brothers or lay, is to be ‘a bridge’ or entry point for the Damietta Initiative to connect into local neighbourhoods. Teams will be formed in the local communities, drawn from mixed religious and ethnic background, who will then be trained in the methods of nonviolence, reconciliation and care for creation, assisted by different ecumenical peace education groups.

The teams, known as Pan-African Conciliation Teams, (PACT) will learn how to monitor tensions and conflicts by way of social analysis and to intervene before conflict spills over into violence.

By their presence, PACT will act as a taproot for peace in the local area, by giving witness to ethnic and religious disputants that cohesive living is possible - a precondition in Africa today for the optimum use of foreign social and economic aid.

Voices for Creative Non Violence

Link to Voices for Creative Non Violence

Voices for Creative Nonviolence has deep, long-standing roots in active nonviolent resistance to U.S. war-making. Begun in the summer of 2005, Voices draws from the experiences of those who challenged the brutal economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and U.N. against the Iraqi people between 1990 and 2003.

Members of Voices led over 70 delegations to Iraq to challenge the economic sanctions and were present in Baghdad in resistance the 2003 U.S. military invasion. Since 2009, Voices has led five delegations to Afghanistan and two to Pakistan to listen and learn from nonviolent grassroots movements and to raise awareness about the negative impacts of U.S. militarism in the region.

Voices participants rely on and have learned from experiences of those who have engaged in active nonviolent resistance to military might in the U.S. including draft resistance; resistance to the wars in Latin America; and resistance to nuclear weapons, such as the Plowshares resistance efforts. Voices draws upon the lessons gleaned from active participation in peace teams in Haiti, Yugoslavia, Palestine and Iraq.

We recognize that for years now the U.S. has stood on the precipice of all out devastation-of itself and of the world. We look to history as a guide-and try to learn lessons from those who preceded us in far more dire circumstances, who somehow found the ability to form communities of resistance to oppression in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, in the Jim Crow South of the U.S. and in the super segregated cities of the North.

We ask-what is the appropriate response of a citizenry in a country which has committed unspeakable crimes against a people? Several hundred thousand Iraqis died as a consequence of economic sanctions. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands continue to die as a consequence of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Nearly 300,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 suffer acute malnutrition-when will they die?

The U.S. has adopted the doctrine of “pre-emptive” military action. No longer must Congress approve a war before one is begun and waged. No longer must an imminent threat-however loosely defined that may ever have been- exist before war begins. The U.S. has arrogated to itself the role of Enforcer against the rest of the world.

We are on the precipice of a full blown world war-if one is not already under way. And we ask: what must our response be? And our answer-as tentative, grappling, searching and seeking as it may be-is that it falls upon us as citizens of the country initiating this world war to utilize all nonviolent means available to turn off war -to engage the electoral and legislative process, most definitely; to protest, of course; and to march and demonstrate.

We must also move from protest to active nonviolent resistance. We must withdraw our collaboration and complicity with this system and use our bodies and lives as a means to bring the machinery of death to a grinding halt. Nonviolence, nonviolent action and nonviolent resistance cannot be a single day event-it must be a commitment we make and act upon every day of our lives.

What might this active nonviolent resistance look like? And how might we act in solidarity with the Iraqi peoples and others who find themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. war-making?

Voices is committed to strategic campaigns and experiments in truth engaging in active nonviolent resistance. Such resistance must take into account that war-making is both military and economic.

The Catholic Work Movement

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The general aim of the Catholic Worker Movement is to realize in the individual and in society the expressed and implied teachings of Christ. It must, therefore, begin with an analysis of our present society to determine whether we already have an order that meets with the requirements of justice and charity of Christ.
The society in which we live and which is generally called capitalist (because of its method of producing wealth) and bourgeois (because of the prevalent mentality) is not in accord with justice and charity –

IN ECONOMICS – because the guiding principles is production for profit and because production determines needs. A just order would provide the necessities of life for all, and needs would determine what would be produced. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Today we have a non-producing class which is maintained by the labor of others with the consequence that the laborer is systematically robbed of that wealth which he produces over and above what is need for his bare maintenance.

IN PSYCHOLOGY – because capitalist society fails to take in the whole nature of man but rather regards him as an economic factor in production. He is an item in the expense sheet of the employer. Profit determines what type of work he shall do. Hence, the deadly routine of assembly lines and the whole mode of factory production. In a just order the question will be whether a certain type of work is in accord with human values, not whether it will bring a profit to the exploiters of labor.

IN MORALS – because capitalism is maintained by class war. Since the aim of the capitalist employer is to obtain labor as cheaply as possible and the aim of labor is to sell itself as dearly as possible and buy the products produced as cheaply as possible there is an inevitable and persistent conflict which can only be overcome when the capitalist ceases to exist as a class. When there is but one class the members perform different functions but there is no longer an employer-wage-earner relationship.

TO ACHIEVE THIS SOCIETY WE ADVOCATE:

A complete rejection of the present social order and a non-violent revolution to establish an order more in accord with Christian values. This can only be done by direct action since political means have failed as a method for bringing about this society. Therefore we advocate a personalism which takes on ourselves responsibility for changing conditions to the extent that we are able to do so. By establishing Houses of Hospitality we can take care of as many of those in need as we can rather than turn them over to the impersonal "charity" of the State. We do not do this in order to patch up the wrecks of the capitalist system but rather because there is always a shared responsibility in these things and the call to minister to our brother transcends any consideration of economics. We feel that what anyone possesses beyond basic needs does not belong to him but rather to the poor who are without it.

We believe in a withdrawal from the capitalist system so far as each one is able to do so. Toward this end we favor the establishment of a Distributist economy wherein those who have a vocation to the land will work on the farms surrounding the village and those who have other vocations will work in the village itself. In this way we will have a decentralized economy which will dispense with the State as we know it and will be federationist in character as was society during certain periods that preceded the rise of national states.

We believe in worker-ownership of the means of production and distribution, as distinguished from nationalization. This to be accomplished by decentralized co-operatives and the elimination of a distinct employer class. It is revolution from below and not (as political revolutions are) from above. It calls for widespread and universal ownership by all men of property as a stepping stone to a communism that will be in accord with the Christian teaching of detachment from material goods and which, when realized, will express itself in common ownership. "Property, the more common it is, the more holy it is," St. Gertrude writes.

We believe in the complete equality of all men as brothers under the Fatherhood of God. Racism in any form is blasphemy against God who created all mankind in His image and who offers redemption to all. Man comes to God freely or not at all and it is not the function of any man or institution to force the Faith on anyone. Persecution of any people is therefore a serious sin and denial of free will.

We believe further that the revolution that is to be pursued in ourselves and in society must be pacifist. Otherwise it will proceed by force and use means that are evil and which will never be outgrown, so that they will determine the END of the revolution and that end will again be tyranny. We believe that Christ went beyond natural ethics and the Old Dispensation in this matter of force and war and taught non-violence as a way of life. So that when we fight tyranny and injustice and the class war we must do so by spiritual weapons and by non-cooperation. Refusal to pay taxes, refusal to register for conscription, refusal to take part in civil-defense drills, non-violent strikes, withdrawal from the system are all methods that can be employed in this fight for justice.

We believe that success, as the world determines it, is not the criterion by which a movement should be judged. We must be prepared and ready to face seeming failure. The most important thing is that we adhere to these values which transcend time and for which we will be asked a personal accounting, not as to whether they succeeded (though we should hope that they do) but as to whether we remained true to them even though the whole world go otherwise.

Pax Christi International

Link to Pax Christi International

About Us

Pax Christi International is a global Catholic peace movement and network that works to help establish Peace, Respect for Human Rights, Justice and Reconciliation in areas of the world that are torn by conflict. It is grounded in the belief that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.

Pax Christi was founded in Europe in 1945 as a reconciliation movement bringing together French and Germans after World War II. Today, the movement has more than 100 Member Organisations active in more than 50 countries and five continents worldwide.

Pax Christi operates as an autonomous Catholic entity in which laypeople, bishops and other religious members work as equals in pursuit of their peace building goals. A faith-based Catholic movement, Pax Christi pays special attention to both the positive and negative impact of religion in attempting to resolve conflicts.

Structurally, Pax Christi is a “bottom up” organisation comprised, on one hand, of national sections and local groups, all carrying the Pax Christi name, and, on the other hand, of affiliated partners and organisations who work under their own names.

Pax Christi International operates in two basic spheres: one responds to requests for help from local peace groups in regions experiencing conflict around the world, and the second supports international coalitions that focus on timely issues like banning landmines, curbing the trade and proliferation of small arms, establishing an International Criminal Court, and abolishing nuclear weapons.

Increasingly, Pax Christi International is sought as a valuable member of international coalitions and as an influential advocate at intergovernmental levels. Since 1979, Pax Christi International has held special consultative status with the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna, as well as with UNESCO in Paris. It is also officially represented at the African Union in Addis Ababa and at the Council of Europe and enjoys, along with its Member Organisations, access to the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Development and Peace

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About Us

Development and Peace (The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace) is the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada and the Canadian member of Caritas Internationalis. Development and Peace is a membership led organization supported by parish collections, individual donations and government grants, principally from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Our vision: Committed to change

Our mission: Support partners in the Global South who promote alternatives to unfair social, political and economic structures. It educates the Canadian population about the causes of poverty and mobilizes Canadians towards actions for change. In the struggle for human dignity, the organization forms alliances with northern and southern groups working for social change. It also supports women in their search for social and economic justice.

Our action: For over 40 years, Development and Peace has supported 15,200 local initiatives in fields such as agriculture, education, community action as well as the consolidation of peace and advocacy for human rights in 70 countries.

Our belief: We believe that Canadians of all religious beliefs have a responsibility to help the world's poor and disadvantaged, either by urging governments, corporations and others to implement change, or by donating time or money to support development efforts.

We are a democratic movement: We depend on the commitment of thousands of Canadians determined to support the poor in their struggle for justice in the Global South. We draw our strength from our 13,000 members in Canada. Our work is supervised by a 22-member National Council composed of volunteers and two representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Our global and Canadian partners: We collaborate with global and domestic partners to help carry out our mission. The support these partners provide helps in building an international solidarity movement. Caritas Internationalis, International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), KAIROS.

Justicia i Pau

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¿Qué es Justícia i Pau?

Justícia i Pau (Justicia y Paz) es una entidad cristiana que actúa en Catalunya desde el año 1968 y que tiene por finalidad la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos, la justicia social, la paz y el desarme, la solidaridad y el respeto al medio ambiente.

Con estas finalidades, Justícia i Pau se dedica a la sensibilización e información de la ciudadanía y a la presión política sobre instituciones gubernamentales y partidos políticos, mediante actividades diversas, como campañas públicas, informes, edición de publicaciones, organización de congresos, conferencias, seminarios, jornadas, intervenciones a los medios de comunicación, etc.

Entre otras actividades, Justícia i Pau denuncia casos de tortura y otras violaciones de derechos humanos, desarrolla acciones para promover el incremento de la ayuda oficial al desarrollo, la abolición de la deuda externa de los países pobres, la justicia en las relaciones comerciales internacionales, para denunciar los efectos perversos del militarismo, el gasto militar y el comercio de armas y presionar en favor del desarme, para promover la banca ética, el comercio justo y el consumo responsable, para exigir medidas de lucha contra la pobreza y la marginación social, para defender los derechos de las personas encarceladas y su reinserción social, etc.

Justícia i Pau obtiene la financiación por varios canales y procura de ser independiente; entre sus miembros hay pluralidad de opiniones dentro de una voluntad transformadora de la sociedad y del mundo actuales.

Además de las aportaciones de los socios y donantes particulares, la entidad recibe habitualmente apoyo económico para su funcionamiento por parte de la Generalitat de Catalunya, el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona y el Arzobispado de Barcelona.

Fr. John Dear, S.J.

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About John Dear

Rev, John Dear S.J. is a Jesuit Priest, Peace Activist, Organizer, Lecturer, Retreat leader, and author/editor of 28 books on peace and nonviolence, including Living Peace, published by Doubleday. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Caritas

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Caritas en acción

Queremos erradicar la pobreza y la desigualdad social, y ese es el punto de partida prioritario de todo lo que hacemos. Caritas ofrece su ayuda a los más vulnerables en nombre de todos los católicos del mundo.

Nuestros miembros creen que es posible hacer más en las situaciones de emergencia, así como en favor del desarrollo sostenible y la paz, trabajando todos juntos, como partes de la red internacional de Caritas.

Nos hemos comprometido a combatir la pobreza que deshumaniza, despojando a las  personas de su dignidad y humanidad. Caritas tiene muchas caras, pero sólo un corazón. Caritas ayuda a los más vulnerables, sin tener en cuenta su raza, ni su religión, en nombre de los católicos de todo el mundo.

Consejo Pontificio Justicia y Paz

ORIGEN

El Concilio Vaticano II formuló abiertamente el auspicio de que fuera creado “un organismo universal de la Iglesia que tenga como función estimular a la comunidad católica para promover el desarrollo de los países pobres y la justicia social internacional” (Gaudium et Spes n. 90).

Para responder adecuadamente a este deseo Pablo VI instituyó, con un Motu Proprio publicado el 6 de enero de 1967 (Catholicam Christi Ecclesiam), la Pontificia Comisión “Justitia et Pax”.

“Justicia y Paz es su nombre y su programa” escribía el Papa dos meses más tarde en la Populorum Progressio, la Encíclica que, presentándose en cierta maniera “como un documento de aplicación de las enseñanzas del Concilio” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis n. 6), constituye, con la Gaudium et Spes, el punto de partida y de referencia del nuevo Organismo.

Después de un período experimental de diez años de duración, el mismo Pablo VI, con un nuevo Motu Proprio (Justitiam et Pacem), del 10 de diciembre de 1976, dió a la Comisión su mandato definitivo.

Al momento de la reorganización de la Curia Romana, efectuada por la Constitución Apostólica Pastor Bonus del 28 de junio de 1988, el Papa Juan Pablo II transformó la Pontificia Comisión en Pontificio Consejo Justicia y Paz ratificándole a grandes líneas sus funciones.

FINALIDAD y MANDATO

La finalidad y el mandato del Pontificio Consejo están por tanto definidos, en modo sintético y preciso, en la Pastor Bonus, cuyo texto se propone enseguida íntegramente:

“El consejo tiene como finalidad promover la justicia y la paz en el mundo según el Evangelio y la doctrina social de la Iglesia (art. 142).

§ 1. Profundiza la doctrina social de la Iglesia, trabajando para que se difunda ampliamente y se aplique entre los hombres y comunidades, especialmente en lo que se refiere a que las relaciones entre obreros y empresarios se impregnen más y más del espíritu del Evangelio.

§ 2. Recoge informaciones y resultados de encuestas sobre la justicia y la paz, el desarrollo de los pueblos y las violaciones de los derechos humanos, los evalúa y, según los casos, comunica a las asambleas de obispos las conclusiones obtenidas; fomenta las relaciones con las asociaciones católicas internacionales y con otras instituciones existentes, incluso fuera de la Iglesia católica, que trabajen sinceramente por alcanzar los bienes de la justicia y de la paz en el mundo.

§ 3. Trabaja con afán para que se forme entre los pueblos una sensibilidad respecto al deber de promover la paz, especialmente con ocasión de la Jornada para lograr la Paz en el mundo (art. 143). Mantiene particulares relaciones con la Secretaría de Estado, especialmente cada vez que haya que tratar públicamente cuestiones referentes a la justicia y a la paz mediante documentos o declaraciones (art. 144)”.

http://www.justpax.it