Peace

Peace! Will we Ever Experience It?

by Fr. Larry Janezic, OFM, Executive Director

The experience of September 11th is hard to forget. Recently I was in New York and took the opportunity to pray at Ground Zero. I was also reminded of it by a city sponsored photographic exhibit on Randolph between Michigan Ave. and Wabash. The exhibit, entitled “Here Is New York”, gave depth and character to the events and faces of the WTC bombing in New York City. The devastation illustrated in the pictures was awesome. It is almost hard to believe that now, some nine months later, we endured a tragedy of such proportions. Our country’s heart and soul continues to go out to the families and friends of the victims.

Hardly a day goes by without some reminder of September 11th and the war against terrorism. Since January, we witnessed many conflicts that have global ramifications which affect peace. I remember my first reaction to the bombing in Afghanistan. It was one of sadness. I wondered if there could be some other way to come to terms with the perpetrators of this massive crime. It certainly would be ideal to live in a world that strives for peace.

I find statements of the Catholic Church in the late sixties and early seventies on the connection between justice and peace inspiring. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, the Vatican II document “Guadium et Spes” clearly proposed that “peace is an enterprise of justice.” The 1971 Synod of Bishops stated that “action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel."

The relationship between peace and justice is conditional. The realization of peace is conditioned on the practice of justice. Just conditions promote peace. Unjust conditions promote war.

As time goes on, I believe there will be growing public debate on our policy of dealing with terrorism in the world. Obviously, there is no easy way of dealing with it. However, I think that from a Catholic social teaching point of view, the practice of social justice should guide the formation of our international policy.

For example, do our global trade policies promote the well being of the poor? Many critics believe that they don’t. Policies that promote wealth building for the autocrats and the entrepreneurs of the world while depriving the masses of political participation create a stumbling block for peace. A sense of social justice can bring peace to people whose lives are ravaged by poverty.

At Franciscan Outreach, we deal day by day with the effects of social injustice in our city. There are many reasons why people are homeless. Homelessness persists because people are ignored when they’re not able to enter into the mainstream of life. Other causes of homelessness include the high cost of housing, family incomes that don’t make ends meet, incapacitating illness, and prejudice and discrimination. It’s hard to believe that we began seeing dramatic increases in homelessness when our country was at the pinnacle of it’s economic growth. In a country so prosperous, something is wrong with the actuality of people standing in a bread line or waiting for a bed at a shelter.

The good news in all of this is that your support of the Franciscan Outreach is a pledge for social justice. Our service addresses the effects of systems that cause and keep people homeless. Our case managers commit themselves daily to advocating for each client to ensure that their clients are able to navigate a system that tends to keep people homeless simply due to its complexity. They help people find the resources they need to change their lives. In this way, on a case by case basis, our case managers advocate for social justice.

Every night at Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph, our overnight shelter, we pray that we may have a safe and peaceful night. We do so as we treat people with the dignity they deserve. The experience of service in the shelter is a glimpse of what social justice can be: the kind of justice that brings peace. I pray that the glimpse of peace that we experience in our relationship with our guests may inspire us to create a more peaceful world.

Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Second Vatican Council, 1965, #78.

Justice in the Word, Synod of Bishops, 1971.

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