Nonviolence (NV) is the central message of the life and teaching of Jesus. However, over the centuries, the just war tradition in the Catholic Church has diminished the commitment to this message. To help Catholic educators to re-commit to Jesus’ NV, the CPE, as secretariat of Pax Christi Pilipinas and steering committee member of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, together with the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) conducted a one-day pilot session on the topic, “Blessed are the Peacemakers: Re-committing to Jesus’ Nonviolence.” The seminar-workshop was held at the CEAP Training Center on May 17, 2017.
Among the topics covered were: The Nonviolence of Jesus, Reponses to Violence, and Nonviolent Action for Social Change.
Twenty-three educators from various schools in the country, from Nueva Ecija in the North to Davao and Zamboanga in the South, participated and expressed appreciation for the “rediscovery” and expanded consciousness on the subject. All the participants signed and endorsed the “Appeal to the Catholic Church to Re-commit to Jesus Nonviolence”, the final outcome document that came out of a historic conference held last year in Rome. They also committed to one doable action step that each can take to grow nonviolence in their personal and professional lives.
