Non-violence: The way to peace
On Sunday, February 5, 2017, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), issued a statement, read at all services throughout the country, about the “reign of terror” resulting from the crackdown on drug trafficking, that killing people is not the answer, and voiced concern about the indifference of many to the bloodshed.
Indeed, Pope Francis at his New Year Message for the 50th World Day of Peace this year, expressed his concern about our “broken world” and the thought that it is difficult to know whether our world is presently more violent than in the past, or to know whether modern means of communications and greater mobility have made us more aware of violence, or, on the other hand, increasingly inured to it.
He asks, “Can violence achieve any goal of lasting value? Or does it merely lead to retaliation and a cycle of deadly conflicts that benefit only a few ‘warlords’?” “Violence,” he continues, “is not the cure for our broken world. Countering violence with violence leads at best with forced migrations and enormous suffering, because vast amounts of resources are diverted to military ends and away from the everyday needs of young people, families experiencing hardship, the elderly, the infirm and the great majority of people in our world. At worst, it can lead to the death, physical and spiritual, of many people, if not all.”
These words of the Holy Father should ring deep in our hearts as Filipinos. While he has alluded to violence, war, and terrorism on a global scale, our country must meet head on our own problems of violence which have been exacerbated by the serious drug problem that the present administration has been addressing. Indeed, it is only at this time that the gravity of drug abuse throughout the country has been exposed. To be fair, the President had said during his campaign that he would eradicate this problem, and he has authorized an all-out war against drug lords and pushers. Unfortunately, the numbers of users have been overwhelming, and what has been happening in many instances is that these people, mostly from the poor, have been the ones being eradicated in violent ways. Many are killed, not always because of drugs, but euphemistically called “collateral damage.” Those who kill them are not brought into account. Hence the comment of the CBCP of a “reign of terror” among the poor.
In its strongly worded letter about the crackdown on drug pushers and users, the CBCP says that killing people is not the answer to the trafficking of illegal drugs. The CBCP moreover urges “elected politicians to serve the common good of the people and not their own interests,” as well as called for steps to tackle “rogue policemen and corrupt judges.”
Nonviolence is sometimes taken to mean surrender, lack of involvement and passivity. Peace is taken to mean the absence of war. When Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now a canonized saint) received the Nobel Peace prize in 1979, she clearly stated her own message of active non-violence: “We... don’t need bombs and guns to destroy to bring peace – just get together, love one another...And we will be able to overcome the evil that is in the world.” We also have the examples of Mahatma Gahdhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Pope John Paul II (also now a canonized saint) highlighted the fact that momentous change in the lives of people, nations and states had come about “by means of peaceful protest, using only the weapons of truth and justice...” going on to say that “May people learn to fight for justice without violence, renouncing class struggle in their internal disputes...”
Finally, let me add what Pope Francis says about nonviolence as a style of politics for peace. “I ask God to help all of us to cultivate non-violence in our most personal thoughts and values. May charity and non-violence govern how we treat each other as individuals, within society and in international life. When victims of violence are able to resist the temptation to retaliate, they become the most credible promoters of nonviolent peacemaking... May nonviolence become the hallmark of our decisions, our relationships and our actions, and indeed of political life in all its forms.”
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