PeaceDocs | Bibliography | America
CHAPTER 15: Catholic Peacemaking in America
General Introduction
1250. Bokenkotter, Thomas. A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Rev. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979, 378-96.
A good, brief, introduction to the problems of the immigrant church: prejudice, Catholic defensiveness, Catholic hostility to American liberalism, and the Catholic commitment to social justice as expressed in such forms as the labor movement.
1251. Dolan, Jay P. The American Catholic Experience. A History from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday, 1986.
An excellent survey, including much recent work, told from the “bottom up,” from the viewpoint of social history.
1252. Ellis, John Tracy. American Catholicism. Rev., 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
Useful for the history of American Catholicism from the colonial era through the nineteenth century. Among the topics discussed are the motives of Catholic immigration, the prejudice Catholics encountered on their arrival, their resulting defensiveness, Catholics’ cultural and religious ties to their countries of origin, Catholic suspicion of American culture, and opposition to the Civil War and the Spanish American War.
1253. —. Catholics in Colonial America. Baltimore: Helicon, 1965.
A good survey.
1254. Greeley, Andrew M. The American Catholic. A Select Portrait. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
This is an excellent, and often surprising, survey of American Catholic life and attitudes. These attitudes include those to war and peace, and Greeley uses statistical studies and surveys to show that Catholic attitudes have never been quite so conservative and uncritical as most observers, including Catholic ones, have long believed. Among the most fundamental Catholic attitudes that help foster a frequent inclination to peacemaking are the Catholic tendency to stress personal conversion over institutional reform and the fundamental assumption of Catholic social thought that people can work together in cooperation to create a humane society. Greeley also notes Catholic thought’s rejection of Hobbesian models of forceful constraint and universal struggle.
1255. Hennessey, James, S.J. American Catholics. A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
An excellent historical and social survey.
American Catholics and Peace
1256. Brock, Peter. Pacifism in the United States from the Colonial Era to the First World War. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Brock’s main emphasis, and rightly so here, is on the traditional Protestant peace churches for the early period, and on more secular and political motivations through the nineteenth century. Little attention is paid to Catholic peacemaking.
1257. Chatfield, Charles. For Peace and Justice; Pacifism in America, 1914-1941. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973.
A collection of essays on opposition to war in all its forms, motives, and perspectives.
1258. Conley, J.J. “Catholic Pacifism in America,” America 131 (Dec. 14, 1974): 381-83.
Traces the development of a strong Catholic peace movement from Roger LaPorte’s self immolation in November 1965 (See 1344) to the very conspicuous Catholic presence in the early 1970s. Abortion, civil violence, and capital punishment remain key issues facing Catholic peacemakers. At the same time, renewed activism requires a new scholarship into the Catholic tradition that will challenge the supremacy of the just-war theory. Conley then briefly discusses some Catholic peacemakers in the United States, including Orestes Brownson during the Civil War, John Dunn during World War I, and Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker.
1259. Conlin, Joseph R. American Anti-War Movements. New York Macmillan, 1970.
Not seen.
1260. De Benedetti, Charles. “Peace History in the American Manner,” History Teacher (Long Beach) 18 (November 1984): 75-110.
Not seen.
1261. —. The Peace Reform in American History. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1980.
Not seen.
1262. Ellis, John Tracy. “American Catholics and Peace: A Historical Sketch.” In The Family of Nations. James S. Rauch, ed. Huntington, NY, 1970.
Not seen.
1263. Fine, Melinda, and Peter M. Steven, eds. American Peace Directory 1984. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1984.
Not seen.
1264. Flannery, Harry W., ed. Pattern for Peace: Catholic Statements on International Order. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1962.
Includes the following pastorals of the U.S. bishops: “The Crisis of Christianity” (November 1941), “International Order” (November 1944), “”Between War and Peace” (November 1945), “Man and the Peace” (November 1946), “The Dignity of Man” (November 1953), “The Hope of Mankind” (November 1956), “Discrimination and the Christian Conscience” (November 1958), and “Freedom and Peace” (November 1959). A careful reading of these letters will reveal a gradually changing tone from full and almost unquestioning support of the state, to doubts and questions concerning both peace and social-justice issues in America and around the world.
1265. Howlett, Charles F., and Glen Zeitzer. The American Peace Movement: History and Historiography. Washington, DC: American Historical Association. Pamphlet 20, 1985.
The article’s glossary calls peace, “The absence of war; a condition marked by tranquility and governed order, within the international public community.” The pamphlet reflects the limitations of this outlook: peace is a passive state of order, at best internationalism arranged by elites.
1266. Josephson, Harold, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985.
Not seen.
1267. Kreider, Alan. “Christian Views on American Wars,” Fides et Historia 16 (Fall-Winter 1983): 87-93.
Not seen.
1268. Lammers, Stephen E. “Roman Catholic Social Ethics and Pacifism.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 93-103.
Notes that pacifism has gained a new legitimacy due to the nature of modern war and from papal and conciliar statements. The Vietnam War marked the real shift in thinking among American Catholics, who emerged from it with a new concept of peace as distributive justice and a shift away from a natural-law ethic to one based on Christian biblical roots. Twentieth-century pacifism is not that of witness, as in the early church, but one of resistance, an activist approach that not only opposes war but also seeks to build a just society without lethal force.
1269. Long, Edward L. War and Conscience in America. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968.
Examines all religious and moral backgrounds in opposition to conventional and nuclear war, its ethics, and the imperatives of individual conscience. The Catholic view is represented by the just-war and the Crusades. It is summed up by Archbishop R.E. Lucey of San Antonio: “It is necessary to use force...and the man [sic] who doesn’t believe in force will be a slave. You cannot have peace in the world without force because there are evil men in the world.”
1270. Marchand, C. Roland. The American Peace Movement and Social Reform 1898-1918. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.
On social and political opposition to war. Very few pages on Catholic peacemaking.
1271. McNeal, Patricia. The American Catholic Peace Movement 1928-1972. New York: Arno, 1978.
Originally a dissertation, and reprinted, this work is indispensable for any study of American Catholic peacemaking and, despite some inadequacies and inaccuracies, should be more widely known and used. McNeal bases her study on a wide knowledge of secondary sources and on many interviews and personal memoirs of those involved with the events she describes. The book covers the origins of the Catholic peace movement, Dorothy Day and pacifism, Catholic dissent during World War II, the period between World War II and Vatican II, the Catholic peace movement of the 1960s, the Berrigans and the Catholic Left of the 1970s. The book is well annotated and contains a bibliography and appendix of CAIP pamphlets. See also 1301.
1272. Morison, Samuel Eliot, Frederick Merk, Frank Freidel. Dissent in Three American Wars. Cambridge, MA, 1970.
Not seen.
1273. Riley, Paul. “American Catholicism and Conscientious Objection from 1776 to 1924.” Ph.D. dissertation. Philadelphia: Temple University.
Not seen.
1274. Wittner, Lawrence. Rebels Against War: The American Peace Movement 1941-1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
An excellent overview of the American peace movement and has a fine bibliography through the 1960s.
Catholic Association for International Peace (CAIP)
1275. “Farewell to CAIP,” America 120 (May 24, 1969): 609-10.
An obituary and a sad farewell to the Catholic internationalist group that had come to fully identify with the foreign policy aims of the United States and thus discredited itself in the 1960s.
1276. Flannery, Harry W. “Catholic Association for International Peace (CAIP),” NCE 3: 264.
Reviews its history from its founding in 1927 by John A. Ryan and Fr. Raymond McGowan.
1277. McCloskey, P.W. “CAIP: What is its Future?” Commonweal 87 (Nov.17, 1967): 194-95.
Notes that most of CAIP’s leadership and membership are academics and just-warriors. John Courtney Murray, the Jesuit intellectual, is typical.
Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker
1278. The Catholic Worker.
The famous newspaper, published continuously since 1933, including regular columns by Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Paul Furfey, Ammon Hennacy, Robert Ludlow, Tom Cornell, Eileen Egan, and others.
1279. Day, Dorothy. By Little and Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day. Robert Ellsberg, ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.
Including such essays as “The Use of Force” (1936), “Our Country Passes from Undeclared to Declared War; We Continue Our Christian Pacifist Stand” (1942), “We Are Un-American; We Are Catholics” (1949-1953), “The Fear of Our Enemies” (1960), “War Without Weapons” (1963), “A Prayer for Peace” (1965), and “In Peace is My Bitterness Most Bitter” (1967). Day’s essays confronted the prevailing sentiments of the time and stressed the consistent themes of Christian unity, nonviolence, and justice.
1280. —. Loaves and Fishes. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.
This is devoted more to the Catholic Worker movement than to Day herself, and it describes her meeting Peter Maurin and founding of the Worker and the newspaper, the establishment of the Houses of Hospitality, the communal farms, the Catholic Worker during World War II, the personalist philosophy of Peter Maurin, and the arrival and achievements of Ammon Hennacy.
1281. —. The Long Loneliness. New York: Harper & Row, 1952, reissued San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.
This traces Day’s early life, describes her parents and childhood, her student days, life on the East Side of New York, her journalism career, and first jail terms for peace activism, her free-lance work, searching, marriage, baby, and ultimate conversion to Roman Catholicism. It then describes her meeting Peter Maurin, the founding of the Catholic Worker, the community houses, and concludes with some personal observations, a discussion of her pacifism, and Peter Maurin’s death.
1282. Egan, Eileen. Dorothy Day and the Permanent Revolution. Erie, PA: Pax Christi, 1983.
A brief, well illustrated, booklet by one who knew, and worked with, her, told as part history, part personal reminiscence. It follows her life from her divorce from Forster Batterham, the father of her daughter, her conversion and meeting Peter Maurin, the founding of the movement, the success of The Catholic Worker newspaper, and follows the Worker’s peacemaking from the 1930s to the 1970s. It concludes with some reflections on the Catholic Worker and recent trends in American Catholic peacemaking, in which Egan is centrally involved.
1283. Forest, James. Love Is the Measure. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
A biography of Day written by a former Catholic Worker who worked closely with her.
1284. Klejment, Anne, and Alice Klejment. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. A Bibliography and Index. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986.
A chronological listing of all articles to appear in the Catholic Worker, followed by a complete bibliography of works by Dorothy Day up to the mid-1980s. The third part contains a selected listing of works about Day and the Catholic Worker arranged by author. Four indexes. Not annotated. Well illustrated with much of the Worker’s original art.
1285. LeBrun, John L. “The Role of the Catholic Worker Movement in American Pacifism, 1933-1972.” Ph.D. dissertation. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, 1973.
Not seen.
1286. Miller, William D. Dorothy Day: A Biography. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982.
Despite Day’s eventual opposition to a biography, this is as close to an authorized version as one is likely to find. This attractive, and lengthy, volume covers Day’s entire life. It contains much first-hand material from Day’s friends and associates, and draws heavily on Miller’s personal friendship with Day, his own recollections, and much of his previous work on the Catholic Worker movement (See 1287). Well indexed.
1287. —. A Harsh and Dreadful Love: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. New York: Liveright, 1973.
Chapters deal with Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, the personalist philosophy and the life of poverty, the spread of Maurin’s ideas, pacifism and World War II, the retreat of the Catholic Worker movement during the war years, the death of Maurin, the post-war period, the Cold War and the emergence of new leadership: Robert Ludlow, Ammon Hennacy, and the Catholic Worker in the 1960s.
1288. Piehl, Mel. Breaking Bread: The Catholic Worker and the Origin of Catholic Radicalism in America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982.
This is a well annotated and documented study, with an excellent bibliography and index. It deals with Day herself, the social and religious context of the movement, the Catholic Worker newspaper, the nature of the Catholic Worker’s radicalism, its relations to liberal, mainstream Catholicism, its work for peace, and concludes with a fascinating examination of the Catholic Worker as an agent for radical change within American Catholicism. A good complement to 1287.
1289. Quigley, Margaret, and Michael Garvey, eds. The Dorothy Day Book: A Selection of Her Writing and Reading. Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1985.
Select excerpts.
1290. Roberts, Nancy L. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
A concise study of the first fifty years of the Catholic Worker newspaper, well annotated, and based on much archival material. Roberts also offers a good thematic analysis of the paper, stressing its pacifism. This book has been criticized as too concerned with Dorothy Day and not enough with the personalist philosophy of Peter Maurin, and for underestimating the achievements of the other figures in the Catholic Worker’s history.
1291. Sicius, Francis J. “Karl Meyer, the Catholic Worker, and Active Personalism,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 93 (1982): 107-23.
Not seen.
1292. Vishnewski, Stanley, ed. Meditations — Dorothy Day. Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press.
Not seen.
1293. —. Wings of the Dawn. New York: Catholic Worker, 1984.
Stories on the Worker’s first decade.
1294. West, M. “How Far Does the Line Go Back,” America 152 (March 9, 1985): 189-91.
On the activities of the Worker in Detroit.
Peter Maurin
1295. Ellis, Marc. Peter Maurin: Prophet of the Twentieth Century. New York: Paulist, 1981.
Traces his early life in France, his wanderings, the development of his Christian personalism, his arrival in New York, and his work with Dorothy Day in the Catholic Worker. The book concludes with an examination of Maurin’s legacy in the Worker movement itself, in American Catholicism, and in American culture in general. The book is full of anecdotes and lengthy quotations from Maurin’s friends and associates, and it makes frequent use of Maurin’s own works and words. Well annotated.
1296. Maurin, Peter. Easy Essays. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1936; reissued Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977.
These are a series of very personal reflections on contemporary events, social and economic conditions, and biblical texts, the full effect of which is to give the reader an understanding of what Maurin’s “personalism” was all about.
1297. Sheehan, Arthur. Peter Maurin: Gay Believer. The Biography of an Unusual and Saintly Man. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1959.
A modern hagiography.
Ammon Hennacy
1298. Hennacy, Ammon. The Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist. New York: Catholic Worker, 1954.
Divides his life into his childhood and youth (1893-1916), his anti-war agitation (1917-1919), marriage (1920-1930), social work (1930-1942), income tax resistance and life as a laborer (1943-1947), his life with the Hopi (1947-1949), and his activities in the 1950s, with Dorothy Day, on the Hiroshima Fast, his tax refusal, and final conversion to Roman Catholicism.
1298.1 —. Peace of the Anarchy: Ammon Hennacy and Other Angelic Troublemakers in the USA. Albuquerque, NM: Lovarchy-Shalom Productions, 2004.
1299. Lynd, Staughton. Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History. Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill.
Selections from Ammon Hennacy.
World War II and Conscientious Objection
1300. Catholic Pacifist Association. Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Toronto, ON: Catholic Pacifist Association, 1944.
Not seen.
1301. McNeal, Patricia. “Catholic Conscientious Objectors During World War II,” Catholic Historical Review 61 (April 1975): 219-42.
Much of this material is similar to that found in 1271. While World War I claimed four Catholic COs out of 3,989, and World War II 135 out of 11,887, by 1969 there were 2,494 Catholic COs out of a total of 34,255, making Catholics the largest single group among religious denominations represented.
1302. Zahn, Gordon. Another Part of the War: The Camp Simon Story. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.
An excellent account of the lives and routines of the Catholic conscientious objectors during World War II sent to a series of work camps for the duration, written by one of them. Examines the motivations, behavior, and forms of pacifism of the interned objectors. The book also recounts anecdotes about life in the camps and the characters of the men that provide the reader with a very good picture of “real-life” pacifists.
1303. —. “Catholic Conscientious Objection in the United States.” In Gordon Zahn, War, Conscience and Dissent. New York: Hawthorne, 1967, 145-59.
A study of 135 men in the Civilian Public Service camps. No one really knows the total number of Catholic COs who served. Much of this material appears in 1302.
1304. —. “The Social Thought of the Catholic Conscientious Objector.” In Gordon Zahn, War, Conscience and Dissent. New York: Hawthorne, 1967, 160-76.
A survey of the opinions of the men in the CPS camps during World War II, examined in 1302. Zahn concludes that although the forms ranged from Christian anarchism to Thomist just-war pacifism, in effect most of the inmates were total pacifists.
Thomas Merton
1305. Breit, Marquita, ed. & compiler. Thomas Merton: A Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1974.
An introduction to the materials available on the man and his writings into the 1970s.
1306. —. and Robert E. Daggy. Thomas Merton: A Comprehensive Bibliography. 2nd ed. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1985.
Revised edition of 1305.
1307. Forest, James. “Thomas Merton’s Struggle with Peacemaking.” See 1325, 15-54; reprinted Erie, PA: Pax Christi, n.d.
Follows Merton’s progression from an acceptance of the just-war tradition as the only valid Catholic position, to his realization that we now live in a post-Christian era where such distinctions are meaningless, to his insistence that peace must involve “a complete change of heart and a totally new outlook on the world of men.” Forest traces Merton’s role in founding the Catholic Peace Fellowship and his crisis of conscience after the suicide of Roger LaPorte in 1965.
1308. Furlong, Monica. Merton: A Biography. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980; reprinted 1985.
An excellent biography. Merton’s nonviolence is examined in particular detail on pages 252–69, but his life as a whole was one of peacemaking, of finding the voice of the Christian in the modern world and raising it against its injustices and violence.
1309. Merton, Thomas. “The Answer of Minerva. Pacifism and Resistance in Simone Weil.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 144-49.
The peace movement needs a metaphysic that will bring it beyond the passivity of pacifism and enable it to confront the myths of the warmakers.
1310. —. “Breakthrough to Peace.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 76-81.
The challenge to peacemakers is to overcome the despair that leads to the wish for self-destruction. We must renounce passive irresponsibility and fatalistic submission to violence.
1311. —. “Christian Action in World Crisis.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 219-26.
We live in an apocalyptic age, but is it one of death or of new birth? The problem of the age is not the beast of the apocalypse, but our own paralysis in the face of such evil, our own hatred and evil. In this Merton echoes the words of Thomas More or Erasmus in placing the real evil in ourselves. He also recalls Erasmus in saying that the problem now is that we live in a world saturated by the Christian message, in a world tired of hearing it, in fact. We must therefore now live the Christian life.
From the time of Pius XII Catholic thought has declared war out of date. Nuclear war cannot possibly be just, and the Christian must reject it, as has Dorothy Day. The essay reflects Merton’s rapid approach to “nuclear pacifism.”
1312. —. “Christian Ethics in Nuclear War.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 82-87.
Nuclear war, in fact even such conventional techniques as saturation bombing aimed at civilian centers, has been condemned by Pope Pius XII. Such action is not permissible under the just-war criteria followed by the church. Yet such statements are ignored by Catholics. In the end Christians cannot be passive; they must work actively for peace.
1313. —. “Faith and Violence.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 185-207.
This is a troubled work reflecting Merton’s grappling with nonviolence in the late 1960s and his movement toward a “theology of resistance.” The state is without any justice; it is, in fact, St. Augustine’s great band of robbers. Society condemns the isolated, individual violence of criminals while it participates fully in corporate and technological violence in war, and in the violence of poverty. True peace cannot be order alone.
Was Camilo Torres, the Colombian priest turned guerilla, right in his use of force? Is there a valid theology of revolution? Is force to be used if Christianity fails? Merton remains troubled by these questions and calls for the development of a theology of resistance, an activist nonviolence that seeks to bring justice and real peace, while avoiding the moral aggression of self-righteousness.
Merton then turns to contemporary events and declares the Vietnam War an overwhelming atrocity tied to America’s suicidal drive to self-destruction. He condemns the draft law as unjust and illegal, as the forced acting out by the young of the manias of their political leaders. In the Civil Rights movement Merton believes that nonviolence may be dead and is not effective. He upbraids white liberals and calls on them simply to act as witnesses, not to attempt to lead the movement. He concludes by praising the “Death of God” theology for freeing religion from the restraints of institutionalism and ambiguity.
1314. —. The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton. William H. Shannon, ed. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985.
Not seen.
1315. —. “The Machine Gun in the Fallout Shelter.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 103-6.
Uses the image of the occupant of the post-nuclear fall-out shelter defending his right to survive from those locked outside as a metaphor for contemporary American society, with its passive notion of morality and order. While he condemns violence, Merton remains uncomfortable here with pacifism, equating it with passive acquiescence. He calls, rather, for an active resistance to evil that he terms true nonviolence and concludes that, contrary to the ethic of the fall-out shelter, true Christian love may entail sacrificing one’s own life for one’s neighbor.
1316. —. “Man Is a Gorrila with a Gun.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 168-71.
A sharp criticism of Robert Ardrey’s then popular African Genesis, an example of the anthropology of reductionism that concludes that the human being is simply a sophisticated animal fighting for the same imperatives of survival and domination. Merton notes that this supposedly scientific analysis is couched in the semantics of violence that presupposes what it sets out to prove: the innate violence of human nature and of the world. His rebuttal recalls the peaceful anthropology of Erasmus and the Renaissance humanists.
1317. —. “Peace: Christian Duties and Perspectives.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 12-19.
A rebuttal to theories of determinism and a call to Christians to assume the individual responsibility for good and evil. Christians also have a duty to resist the evil that is overcoming the world’s leaders in their temptation to mass suicide. In the face of nuclear holocaust we have all fallen prey to a moral numbness that must be resisted.
Merton goes on to declare that there can be no just war with modern technology, and that the Christian must refuse consent and pursue nonviolent resistance in disobeying evil authority, even if this means death.
1318. —. “Peace: A Religious Responsibility.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 107-28.
Merton questions the morality of nuclear war and states that moral truth is not a sentimental luxury of intellectuals but a necessity of our survival as human beings. The policy of nuclear deterrence reduces all values to one — survival — and is thus a totalitarian form.
He then goes on the note that there are hidden forces at work in these apocalyptic times, a Manichaeism that separates the physical from the spiritual world in such declarations as “Better Dead Than Red!” This Merton says, is tantamount to saying that it is permissible to destroy God’s physical creation in favor of some ideology, or life style, of the moment. He condemns Augustine’s similarly Manichaean dichotomy that one can kill an enemy while still loving him. Nuclear war is a resort to magic, an ultimate solution fostered by frustrated minds who despair of God’s plan. Nuclear war itself is a second crucifixion to which the Christian must refuse consent. Real Christians have a duty to form their consciences on these issues, and then to act on them. A pacifism in regards to nuclear war is necessary.
1319. —. “Peace and Protest: A Statement.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 67-69.
The current moral climate is one of violence and reaction. We must therefore think calmly to make a positive and constructive witness to peace. Peacemakers must overcome the desperation and hopelessness that leads to war.
1320. —. “Peace and Revolution: A Footnote to Ulysses.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 70-75.
The Cyclopes episode and Bloom’s passivity in Joyce’s novel is a metaphor for the modern idea of “pacifism.” This position is one of chiché-ridden platitudes, of ideas incapable of being put into practice. An excellent criticism of what peacemaking is not.
1321. —. “Preface to the Vietnamese Translation of No Man Is An Island.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 63-66.
Since all peoples are brothers and sisters, in loving we love the other and ourselves, in hating, we also hate ourselves. Being itself is grounded in love, and love is founded on the will to build, to forgive, to be reconciled.
1322. —. “Target Equals City.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 94-102.
Nuclear war, or any war aimed at mass destruction, is terrorism and is clearly unjust. Merton’s criticisms anticipate those of the Bishops’ Pastoral (1458–1486) by two decades.
1323. —. “A Tribute to Gandhi.” See In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 178-84.
Nonviolence must begin with internal conversion. Gandhi’s approach, his satyagraha, or active devotion to truth, was inseparably both religious and political.
1324. Mott, Michael. The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
A biography.
1325. Twomey, Gerard, ed. Thomas Merton: Prophet in the Belly of a Paradox. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
A collection of essays by many who knew him and worked with him in the Catholic peace movement. See 1307 and 1326.
1326. Zahn, Gordon. “Thomas Merton: Reluctant Pacifist.” See 1325, 55-79.
This is essentially the same material as Zahn’s introduction to Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980.
The 1960s: Vatican II and Vietnam
1327. Deedy, John G., Jr. “The Catholic Press and Vietnam.” See 1335, 121-31.
The course of the war saw the Catholic press convert from avid support of the war effort, to a call for negotiations consistent with the policies of Pope Paul VI. On the whole, however, the Catholic press could not be stereotyped according to any political or moral position. Editorial stances ranged from the Catholic Worker’s pacifism, to America’s hawkishness. Such an important lay paper as Commonweal eventually saw the war as indecent and immoral, and called for civil disobedience against it.
1328. Gaylin, Willard. In the Service of Their Country. New York: Viking, 1970.
Not seen.
1329. Gray, Francine du Plessix. Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.
Reviews the life and careers of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, and others.
1330. Forest, James. “No Longer Alone: The Catholic Peace Movement.” See 1335, 139-49.
Over the period the the Vietnam War Catholic peacemakers have found that their position was not as isolated and condemned as it first appeared.
1331. Hanley, Paul Furfey. “The Civilian COs.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 188-99.
The general U.S. population gradually came to oppose the war in Vietnam on just-war grounds.
1332. O’Brien, David J. “American Catholic Opposition to the Vietnam War: A Preliminary Assessment.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 119-50.
A good narrative survey of the changing position of American Catholics from super-patriotic support to opposition and to the recognition of pacifism and the emerging “just-revolution” position among many Catholics. O’Brien actually notes that despite the popular media image, surveys show that American Catholics were no more or less anti-communist or pro-government than the general U.S. population. He also traces the change in attitudes in the Catholic press, among the hierarchy, and in activist groups such as the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and the nonviolent thought and action of Dorothy Day, Gordon Zahn, Thomas Merton, and the Berrigans.
1333. “Pacem in Terris and Vietnam,” Christianity Today 12 (Jan. 5, 1968): 39.
Not seen.
1334. Powers, Thomas. The War At Home: Vietnam and the American People, 1964-1968. New York: Grossman, 1973.
This is a left-leaning account that is comprehensive in scope. Included are sections on Catholic activities set in the context of the peace movement as a whole. Among them are the activities of the Catholic Worker in the draft-card burnings of 1965 and 1967.
1335. Quigley, Thomas E., ed. American Catholics and Vietnam. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s, 1968.
A collection of essays, including 1327 and 1330.
1336. Schuijt, William J. and René Coste. “History and Commentary of Gaudium et Spes, pt. II, chap. V.” In Herbert Vorgrimler, ed. Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II. Vol. 5: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. New York: Herder & Herder, 1969, 328-69, esp. 344-46.
While Gaudium et Spes finally moved the church away from the just-war tradition, a group of American bishops led by Cardinal Spellman opposed Chapter V as too radical. They opposed any stigmatization of nuclear weapons, arguing that one cannot have a legitimate defense without them, and that they preserve the freedom of the world. In the end the American bishops involved showed little knowledge of the true meaning of the Constitution of the Church, especially in view of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam at the time. In the end, however, even these bishops came over to the majority side.
1337. U.S. Catholic Conference. In the Name of Peace: Collective Statements of the United States Catholic Bishops on War and Peace 1919-1980. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1983.
Includes 1338, 1339, 1373, and 1374.
1338. —. Peace and Vietnam. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1966. See 1337, 27-28.
The war in Vietnam must be fought within the limits of the just war: no civilian targets, a limitation of the means used, it must be in the national defense, with provision for conscientious objection, and with the full confidence of the American people in their leaders. Therefore, “it is reasonable to argue that our presence in Vietnam is justified.” Yet the bishops add, “while we can conscientiously support the position of our country in the present circumstances, it is the duty of everyone to search for other alternatives.”
1339. —. Resolution on Southeast Asia. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1971. See 1337, 59-62.
Written only five years after 1338, the letter declares, “At this point in history it seems clear to us that whatever good we hope to achieve through continued involvement in this war is now outweighed by the destruction of human life and of moral values which it inflicts. It is our firm conviction, therefore, that the speedy ending of this war is a moral imperative of the highest priority.” The letter stresses that the church must embrace a new attitude to war and a new theology of peace. It must help rebuild Southeast Asia, strengthen the U.N., and bring forgiveness and reconciliation within the United States.
1340. Yzermans, Vincent A., ed. American Participation in the Second Vatican Council. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1967.
Examines the background and debates over the Pastoral Constitution and Schema XIII. American activity at the council sessions on war and peace focused on two issues: conscientious objection and the morality of nuclear war. Excellent account of the political maneuvering and the conflict of personalities and ideologies among the American bishops on these issues.
Conscientious Objection: Vietnam to Today
1341. “American Catholic Bishops Support Selective Conscientious Objection,” Christian Century 88 (Nov. 10, 1971): 1320.
Based on the just-war criteria that demands that the individual inform his or her conscience as to the morality of a certain war, and then refuse participation if that war is unjust.
1342. Baskir, Lawrence M., and William A. Strauss. Chance and Circumstance. The Draft, the War and the Vietnam Generation. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.
The best interpretive and statistical source available for the types, numbers, motivations, and actions of those who resisted or avoided the draft during the Vietnam War. Discusses conscientious objection and gives some, but not much, specific information on religious groups.
1343. “Bishops, the COs and Amnesty,” America 125 (Sept. 4, 1971): 108.
The ending of the Vietnam War has seen the U.S. hierarchy converted to the principle of Vatican II, that objection to war is now a valid Catholic option. They now look forward to the healing of the war’s wounds and the reconciliation of all Americans.
1344. “Catholic Worker, R.A. LaPorte Burns Self to Death,” Newsweek 66 (Nov. 22, 1965): 71.
In a protest against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and in imitation of its Buddhist monks, this 22-year old, loosely associated with the Catholic Worker, committed suicide in an attempt to call attention to the death and destruction in Southeast Asia. Lapsing into a coma after his self-immolation, LaPorte died 33 hours later. He told an ambulance attendant, “I am a Catholic Worker. I’m against war, all wars. I did this as a religious action.”
1345. Coffman, J. “CO and the Draft; Bibliography,” Library 94 (May 15, 1969): 2059-65.
Useful for the 1960s.
1346. Connery, J.R. “Law and Conscience,” America 122 (Feb. 21, 1970): 178-81.
Examines conscientious objection to war as one example of the interaction of moral and legal dynamics. Discusses the criteria for conscientious choice, erroneous conscience and truly informed conscience.
1347. Cooney, Robert, and Helen Michalowski. Power of the People: Nonviolence in the United States. Culver City, CA: Peace Press, 1985.
Not seen.
1348. Cornell, Thomas. “The Catholic Church and Witness Against War.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 200-213.
A brief review of the Catholic pacifist movement in the United States. Discusses the background in the Catholic Worker through the 1960s, the Catholic role in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Catholic pacifism and the war in Vietnam, the Catholic Peace Fellowship, the Berrigans, and Pax Christi.
1349. —. “Twenty Years of the Catholic Peace Fellowship,” Fellowship 51, 6 (June 1985): 16-17.
A review of this peace organization from its founding in 1965, the work of the Catholic Worker, Thomas Merton, A.J. Muste, the Berrigans, Jim Forest and John Heidbrink in bringing it about. Recalls the early days, the formulation of a plan to counsel Catholic COs, the first educational publications, and the first few years of growth.
1350. Dougherty, James E. “The Christian and Nuclear Pacifism,” Catholic World 198 (March 1964): 336-46.
The pacifist must follow his or her conscience, but this must not usurp the magisterium of the church, which has long upheld the just-war tradition. Dougherty seems comfortable with Niebuhr’s Christianity in which prophesy is no substitute for “rational control systems, underwritten by the consensus of experienced analysts and politically acceptable to both sides.” In the end Dougherty concludes that it is too bad, but nuclear weapons exist, and they must be made to serve both Christ and country in the cause of peace.
1351. Egan, Eileen. The Catholic Conscientious Objector: The Right to Refuse to Kill. Chicago: Pax Christi, 1981.
This booklet examines the issues of conscience and war, some historical antecedents, the just-war theory, modern Catholic statements, including Pacem in Terris and Vatican II, Human Life in Our Day, and U.S. bishops’ statements on conscientious objection, registration, conscription, and the statements of Pope John Paul II. It also lists resources, including Pax Christi, the Catholic Peace Fellowship, NISBCO, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Includes a list of readings.
1352. Forest, James. Catholics and Conscientious Objection. New York: Catholic Peace Fellowship, 1981.
A brief pamphlet places peacemaking in the context of the twentieth century: Vatican II and the holocausts of World War II. Forest then briefly traces the history of Christian pacifism, from the early church, skipping from the fourth to the twentieth century, then discussing Franz Jaegerstaetter, Thomas Merton, recent church teaching, and the process of forming one’s own conscience, choosing a course of action, and finding support. Lists helpful peace and counseling groups, and selected readings.
1353. Frazier, Paul. Catholic College Students and the Draft. New York: Catholic Peace Fellowship, 1981.
Gives a brief historical introduction to the history of conscription, the procedures of the Selective Service System, and the various alternatives open to a Catholic of draft age: conscientious objection, deferments and exemptions, noncooperation, the armed forces, and emigration. Includes a good list of counseling and information resources and a good bibliography.
1354. Gorgen, Carol. Catholic Conscientious Objectors. San Francisco: Allied Printing, 1963.
Not seen.
1355. Henriot, P.J. “American Bishops and Conscientious Objectors,” America 120 (Jan. 4, 1969): 17-19.
The bishops’ pastoral of November 15, 1969 approves selective conscientious objection. Denying that Catholics can be total pacifists, this stresses that Catholics can refuse participation in certain wars only on just-war criteria.
1356. Jennings, James R., ed. Just War and Pacifism: A Catholic Dialogue. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1973.
Not seen.
1357. Meehan, Francis X. “The Catholic Conscience Faces the Military Draft,” Catholic Mind (September 1980).
Not seen.
1358. Newman, Judy. “CO and International Law,” The Objector 6, 2 (October 1985): 6-7. See also 1474.
Discusses the issue of nuclear pacifism, based on just-war criteria, stemming from the Bishops’ Pastoral, and the fears in military circles that this just-war rejection has inspired.
1359. Palms, C.L. “Peace and the Catholic Conscience,” Catholic World 203 (June 1966): 145-52.
A rambling look at the foremost Catholic peacemakers of the time, including Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker, James Forest, Gordon Zahn, Tom Cornell and David Miller. All these stress the Gandhian aspects of peacemaking, an activism that goes beyond pacifism, and their courage is apparent.
1360. Pax Christi Reflection Guides. Conscience and Nonviolence. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1985.
A brief pamphlet, keyed to the text of the bishops’ pastoral. Good, short, bibliography.
1361. —. Conscience and Reverence for Life. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1985.
A short pamphlet. Violence in the oppression of the poor, sexism, exploitation, abortion, are all linked to the violence of war and must be overcome by peacemakers just as strongly. Keyed to the bishops’ pastoral. Brief bibliography and resources..
1362. —. Conscience and War. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1985.
The relationship between the individual conscience and the demands of the state. Short pamphlet keyed to the Bishops’ pastoral. Bibliography and resources.
1363. —. Conscience and Tax Resistance. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1985.
The Pentagon enters all our lives through the 1040 form. Are we to render to Caesar or to God? A brief discussion. Short bibliography. Resources.
1364. —. Conscience and Civil Disobedience. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1985.
Pacem in Terris reminds us that when the call of the state conflicts with the call of God, “God has more right to be obeyed than men.” Bibliography and resources.
1365. Pisani, J. “Conscientious Objection: No Longer Un-Catholic,” Christian Century 88 (July 21, 1971): 876-78.
The bishops have given their support to Catholic objectors.
1366. Polner, M. “No Jew nor Catholic Need Apply,” Commonweal 90 (June 20, 1969): 386-87.
On the hostility and prejudice met by young Catholics and Jews seeking conscientious objector status before local draft boards during the Vietnam War. These young people, members of mainline religious groups, were not associated with traditional peace churches, and therefore had a very difficult time proving the sincerity of their beliefs and a consistent tradition of peace in their religious backgrounds.
1367. Prasad, Devi and Tony Smythe, eds. Conscription: A World Survey. London: War Resisters International, New York: WRL, 1968.
Also surveys resistance to the draft and conscientious objection around the world.
1368. Riga, P.J. “Selective Conscientious Objection: Progress Report,” Catholic World 211 (July 1970): 161-65.
There is difficulty proving that the just-war tradition is truly a “traditional religious teaching” of the Catholic church. Yet the teachings of eminent Catholic theologians have endorsed it. Thomas Aquinas stressed the binding force of the conscience in deciding on the justness of a war, and the just war has been accepted implicitly by Catholic tradition. Vatican II supported it, and the teaching will pave the way for Catholics to selectively object to specific wars.
1369. Rigali, Norbert J. “Just War and Pacifism,” America 150 (March 31, 1984): 233-36.
The recent Bishops’ Pastoral reveals irreconcilable differences between the two traditions.
1370. “Selective Objectors and the Court,” America 123 (July 11, 1970): 6.
The situation is still not favorable.
1371. Sheerin, J.B. “Must Conscientious Objectors be Pacifists?” Catholic World 206 (January 1968): 146-47.
This editorial focuses on the problems of Catholics who oppose the war in Vietnam. A provision for selective conscientious objection is needed, but the government is hesitant to provide it, fearing a groundswell of objectors. Catholics must therefore protest the inadequacy of the draft law.
1372. U.S. Catholic Conference. The Catholic Conscientious Objector. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1969.
The right of the Roman Catholic to claim this status is confirmed by the bishops.
1373. —. Declaration on Conscientious Objection and Selective Conscientious Objection. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1971.
All Catholics are bound to observe the dictates of their consciences. Furthermore, Vatican II has approved Catholic conscientious objection. “In the light of the Gospel and from an analysis of the Church’s teaching on conscience, it is clear that a Catholic can be a conscientious objector to war in general or to a particular war ‘because of religious training and belief.’” The church must now encourage education in this teaching and must provide opportunities for alternative service. Selective conscientious objection must be legalized, in reaffirmation of the call of Human Life in 1968. See 1337.
1374. —. Statement on Registration and Conscription for Military Service. Feb. 14, 1980. See 1337, 83-86.
The state has a right to self-defense, but not to blind obedience. While registration for a draft is permissible, the state must show convincing reasons for its implementation. The bishops oppose conscription at present, and any conscription for women, and call for provision for both conscientious objection and selective conscientious objection under any new draft. They urge a program of draft counseling for Catholic schools and agencies.
1375. Yoder, John Howard. When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1984.
When rightly applied, just-war theory is as stringent as pacifism in its rejection of modern war.
1376. Zahn, Gordon. “The Draft: Occasion of Sin?” America, August 2-9, 1980.
Not seen.
1377. —. and others, eds. John Timothy Leary: A Different Kind of Hero. Erie, PA: Pax Christi, 1983.
A small booklet on this young man, a staff member of Pax Christi, compiled shortly after his sudden death. Essays and poems by Gordon Zahn, John Marsh, John Botean, and Daniel Berrigan reveal what it means to be a peacemaker, and how and why the community of peace works in the world.
1378. Zaroulis, Nancy, and Gerald Sullivan. Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1963-1975. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.
Discusses the activities of Catholic peacemakers in the context of the anti-war movement as a whole, noting the quite early appearance of the Catholic Workers as opponents of U.S. involvement. While they received little publicity, Catholic Workers Chris Kearns and Tom Cornell were picketing the Vietnamese mission to the U.N. as early as the summer of 1963. On the other hand, Cardinal Spellman’s support of the war was very well publicized and overshadowed the criticisms of Catholic papers, such as Commonweal.
Toward a Theology of Peacemaking
1379. “Catholics and Peace,” Commonweal 95 (Jan. 7, 1972): 315-16.
For perspectives on the Catholic peace movement since Vietnam. While there was widespread Catholic indifference to the early phases of the Vietnam War, things began to change by the early 1970s, as a new awareness seemed to be arriving.
1380. Cornell, Thomas. “The Catholic Church and Witness Against War.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 200-213.
A personal recounting of the evolution of Catholic peacemaking since World War II.
1381. Deedy, John. “Pax Romana: The ‘Peace Catholics Speak Out,” The Nation 234, 11 (March 20, 1982): 338-40
The days of Cardinal Spellman, waving the flag in World War II, Korea and Vietnam are past. More and more Catholics, laity and hierarchy, have turned against both nuclear and conventional war. Outspoken bishops, groups like the Catholic Peace Fellowship and Pax Christi, and a multitude of Catholic conscientious objectors are now an accepted Catholic fact. Why? John XXIII, John Paul II, the Berrigans, the realization that we cannot have both guns and butter have all begun to convert Catholics.
There are still some hawks among the Catholic hierarchy, but the bishops are still far out ahead of most Catholics.
1382. Dozier, Carol T. “Peace: Gift and Task. A Pastoral Letter,” Commonweal 95 (Dec. 24, 1971): 289, 294-300.
Reviews the peace tradition in the church from Christ and the early church, through the Middle Ages (just war, crusades, and nonviolence), then reminds readers of the Catholics who came to America in the nineteenth century to avoid conscription. During World War II Christian sensitivity was almost completely extinguished, but Pacem in Terris rekindled Catholic peacemaking. Dozier concludes by declaring that the Vietnam War is not justified and by extending his personal pledge of support to any conscientious objector against the war.
1383. Fahey, Joseph. “Toward A Theology of Peace,” Catholic World 213 (May 1971): 64-68.
This is based on our knowledge of God, who is transcendent and a god of love, whose very being opposes all violence and war. The church must now move away from thinking of ways to justify, limit, or referee war — a theology of war — and toward the positive acts of peacemaking, which translate as the works of justice bringing God’s presence to the world.
1384. Ferber, Michael. “Politics of Transcendance: Religious Revival on the Left,” The Nation (July 6/13, 1985): 9-10, 12-13.
The revival of the religious right has been matched by an equally impressive revival of left and liberal religious groups, focusing on issues of peace and justice. In this work Catholics play a prominent part, especially in the Sanctuary Movement, an outgrowth of the activities of the Berrigans and other Catholic activists during the Vietnam War. In these activities the churchpeople are reclaiming moral and ethical issues that have been ignored or forfeited to the forces of reaction.
1385. Finn, James. “Pacifism and Justifiable War.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 3-14.
Pacifists have had little comfort from the Catholic hierarchy in modern times. As recently as the 1960s they had to contend with Pope Paul VI’s condemnation of pacifism as an escape from the responsibility of peacemaking. Despite this the hierarchy has been moving slowly toward a new criticism of war. In 1976 the Detroit “Call to Action” conference of U.S. bishops called for a condemnation of the production, possession, and threatened use of nuclear weapons, and in 1979 their pastoral “To Live in Jesus Christ,” condemned even the existence of the nuclear deterrent.
1386. Gallagher, Michael. “Clergy and Laity Concerned: Opposition to War Sparks Group’s Birth,” National Catholic Reporter 20 (Sept. 7, 1984): 6.
Not seen.
1387. Gumbleton, Thomas J. “The Role of the Peacemaker.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 214-29.
The peacemaker is blessed, not the peaceful. Like the medieval Joachites and other peaceful apocalyptics, Gumbleton discusses peacemaking in the imagery of the womb and of birth, the seed that will blossom into a new age of peace. The history of peacemaking is one of progression or moral consciousness, “developing the understanding of justice, harmony, and true religion.” Peacemaking is both the process and the result of this developing understanding.
1388. Haessly, Jacqueline. Peacemaking: Family Activities for Justice and Peace. New York: Paulist Press, 1980.
One of the Paths of Life series. Focuses on peacemaking within the family for use in daily situations, especially in families with children in school. Examines the roots and causes of violence and injustice, beginning within the family. The book’s aim is to help children “develop the awareness and the skills necessary to respond creatively as a just people in our society.”
1389. Hehir, J. Bryan. “The Just-War Ethic and Catholic Theology: Dynamics of Change and Continuity.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 15-39.
Delineates all the modern criteria for the just war and notes that, despite the pacifist statements of Pope John XXIII and his successors, the just war is still a legitimate Catholic position. The just war, in fact, forms the basis of Vatican II’s condemnation of war in the modern nuclear age. Whether Vatican II also condemned deterrence is still not clear, however. In the final analysis, the just-war theory is tied to the concept of the church as an activist, formative force in the world.
1390. Hutchinson, B. “Christians in an Immoral World,” America 150 (Jan. 28, 1984): 51-52.
Not seen.
1391. Kownacki, Sr. Mary Lou, O.S.B. Imagine.... Erie, PA: Pax Christi, 1982.
An imaginary scenario in which some future pope is moved by a vision of the world’s suffering to declare a fast until the two superpowers agree to a nuclear freeze. The fast gains the attention of the world’s media, apparently by the skillful design of the pope and his followers, as the leaders of Catholic liberation and of other religions around the world assemble at Rome to speak in support of the pope’s action.
Despite cynicism and consternation in the centers of power, gradually even the world’s political leaders, first on the peripheries, in the Third World, come to the pope’s side. As the pope approaches death, the leaders of the U.S. and U.S.S.R., moved by tremendous world pressure, finally came to Rome to sign the treaty. After that it is only a matter of time before the peoples of the world realize that the power of consent really does reside with them. General disarmament follows soon thereafter.
1392. MacEoin, Gary. “Gospel of Change,” The Progressive 49, 12 (December 1985): 30-33.
The religiously motivated have moved into the vanguard of the peace movement. The recent history of the Plowshares, Witness for Peace in Central America, and the Sanctuary movement has shown that the ancient prophetic tradition still has strength. These changes are most visible and dramatic in the Catholic church.
A marked increase in the laity’s involvement in peacemaking has been matched by a new theological interpretation of the church’s role in society and by unprecedented government surveillance. Nevertheless, these religious activists are still only a small elite. Mass organization and an ideological base are still to come.
1393. McManus, Philip. “Refusing to Disappear,” Fellowship 51, 7-8 (July/August 1985): 12-13, 37.
The Catholic peace movement.
1394. Nicholl, D. “Ecumenical Risk for an Academy of Peace,” America 149 (Nov. 19, 1983): 310-11.
Not seen.
1395. O’Brien, D.J. “Catholic Peace Movement Lives!” America 130 (May 4, 1974): 342-43.
Examines the regional meeting of the Catholic Peace Fellowship at Holyoke, Massachusetts in March 1974, attended by James Forest, Gordon Zahn, Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, and others. Also discusses the pioneering work of the Maryknoll Order for peace and justice in the Third World.
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1396.Reese, T.J. “Strike for Peace,” America 149 (July 9-16, 1983): 24.
Not seen.
1397. Stahel, T.H. “Gift of Peace,” America 130 (May 11, 1974).
Not seen.
1398. Thompson, Charles S., ed. Morals and Missiles: Catholic Essays on the Problem of War Today. London, 1979.
Not seen.
1399. Toton, S.C. “Peacemaking Put in Context,” America 149 (Aug. 6-13, 1983): 67-69.
Not seen.
1400. True, Michael. “Persisters for Peace: Catholic Peace Movement,” Commonweal 100 (April 26, 1974): 180-81.
On the meeting of the Catholic Peace Fellowship at Waterbury, Connecticut and in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton set the theme of the meetings in his call for a conversion of the church to an authentic tradition of nonviolence. Issues addressed included poverty in the Third World, Vietnam and political prisoners, the UFW boycott, tax resistance, and alternative life styles.
1401. U.S. Catholic Conference. A Call to Action: An Agenda for the Catholic Community. Washington, D.C., 1976.
Includes a radical call for disarmament, selective conscientious objection, and penance for our creation of nuclear arms.
1402. —. Human Life in Our Day. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1968. In David J. O’Brien and Thomas A. Shannon, eds. Renewing the Earth. Catholic Documents on Peace, Justice and Liberation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977, 421-67.
This pastoral was a response to both Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae and to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Controversial among liberals and radicals for its condemnations of birth control and abortion, the letter is consistent in its pro-life stance that included growing doubts about the Vietnam War. Relying strongly on the just-war tradition, the pastoral condemns all aggressive wars outright, as well as unlimited war, but does concede the justness of defensive wars, but only as a last resort. While military service, properly fulfilled, can be a work of peace, peace is not simply the ending of war or imposed order: it is charity and the workings of justice in the world.
Quoting frequently from Gaudium et Spes (See 951), it condemns the arms race and the continued stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Turning to the draft, it repeats Pope Benedict XV’s opposition to a peacetime draft. Concerning Vietnam, it asks if the U.S. has already crossed the point where the means being used are proportional to the just end being sought, and it questions whether the conflict has provoked inhuman dimensions of suffering. It concludes that the war may be teaching a moral lesson that military power and technology do not suffice to restore order or to accomplish peace and justice, that evils like malnutrition, economic frustration, social stagnation, and political injustice are best attacked and corrected by non-military means.
Turning to individual duty, the letter notes that conscientious objection, even selective conscientious objection, can have a basis in the teachings of the church, and that unquestioning obedience is not necessarily in conformity with the mind and heart of the church. It therefore recommends changes in Selective Service System rules to allow objection to unjust wars. It further advises Catholics that they must follow their own consciences, even if the Selective Service System does not allow such objection. In effect, the bishops are approving disobedience to human law in obedience to divine law.
1403. —. Statement on Central America. Washington, D.C., 1982.
The bishops affirm the legacy of Vatican II, Medellin, Puebla, and the theology of liberation. They mourn the martyrdoms of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the four American churchwomen in El Salvador (See 1239–1249) and confirm the special tie of U.S. Catholics to their brothers and sisters in Central America. The bishops refute U.S. government contentions about communist infiltration in the region and declare that the church there is neither naive nor complacent. The basic threat is from hunger, poverty, and political tyranny.
1404. Zahn, Gordon. An Alternative to War. New York: CRIA, 1963.
Zahn’s reflections on peacemaking past and present.
1405. —. “Future of the Catholic Peace Movement,” Commonweal 99 (Dec. 28, 1973): 337-42.
Many tasks await the movement: post-war reconciliation, rebuilding, the freedom of South Vietnamese political prisoners, amnesty for draft resisters, a reexamination of the war on just-war grounds. While little foundation for a future movement exists, still there is better preparation for one than in the wake of World War II. The peace movement had suffered from a diffusion and confusion of issues, issues often quite different from those of real peacemaking. The Catholic peace movement must now reach out to that great majority of Catholics, lay and clergy, “who are not yet alert to the pacifist implications of their religious tradition.”
Such a new movement must avoid the “crusade-a-week” syndrome, it should be Catholic, with an institutional alignment, it must accept Catholic leadership and its restraints, and it must reach out to change hearts and minds. At the same time the movement must avoid scandalizing other Catholics, it must avoid elitism, and live up to a high moral standard, perhaps accepting the necessity of the “Caesar’s wife syndrome.”
Pax Christi
1406. “Catholic Pacifism: Pax Christi,” America 131 (Dec. 14, 1974): 379-80.
A brief introduction.
1407. Dodaro, Robert, O.S.A., and Julie O’Reilly. Pax Christi, USA. Reflection/Discussion Guide. Chicago: Pax Christi, 1985.
Questions and suggestions for study inspired by the Bishops’ Pastoral.
1408. Fahey, Joseph. “Pax Christi.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 59-71.
An excellent summation of the group’s history and current positions. It was born out of a French desire for reconciliation with their former German enemies in 1945 and won papal approval in 1947 and 1948. Today there are chapters in eleven European countries, in the U.S. and in Australia. The group has very close ties to the institutional church and focuses on disarmament, the primacy of conscience, peace education, contacts with the Eastern Bloc, and a continuing critique of worldwide arms sales.
Pax Christi/USA was founded in 1973, and includes both pacifists and adherents of the just-war theory. Its general aims are to explore the ideal of Christian nonviolence. It seeks to implement the general principles of Pax Christi by attempting to replace ROTC and JROTC with programs for peace and justice, to help formulate a peace theology in the light of Vatican II, and to carry on a continuing criticism of the policies of nuclear deterrence and weapons.
1409. Gilhooley, J.J. “Pax Christi/U.S.A.: Out of the Ashes; National Assembly,” America 133 (Dec. 27, 1975): 458-60.
Examines the convention held in Dayton, Ohio in November 1975. Sessions focused on conscientious objection, registration, recruitment, the possibility of the just war in the modern world, the role of women as peacemakers, and the role of the community as an agent of peace. Leaders of the Catholic peace movement were much in evidence: Gordon Zahn, Dorothy Day, Tom Cornell, James Finn, Archbishop James Dozier, Joseph Fahey. Yet the assembly spent much time searching for a common denominator that would bring all the diverse forces of Catholic peacemaking into unity.
1410. Graham, R.A. “Pax Christi,” NCE 11: 34-35.
The organization was founded in 1945 by French Catholics to bring reconciliation between French and Germans. Reviews the early years of the movement under Archbishop Pierre Théas of Lourdes and Cardinal Maurice Felton. As an organization Pax Christi seeks to avoid any stances that will alienate by controversy. It seeks to forge a new consensus for peacemaking through education and traditional forms of Catholic piety, including pilgrimages and prayer. It seeks the pacification of the world through a new international order.
1411. Jones, Arthur. “Pax Christi Conference Records Historic Change,” The Reporter for Conscience Sake 38, 12 (December 1981): 1-2.
The organization is at last beginning to draw support and to have its influence felt both among the laity and in the hierarchy. It is setting new, active goals.
1412. Pax Christi. Erie, PA: Pax Christi. Quarterly.
News of Pax Christi activities and members, interviews with prominent peacemakers around the world, book reviews and articles by some of the country’s best-known peacemakers
1413. Peaceweaving. Erie, PA: Pax Christi. Bi-Monthly.
A pamphlet of prayers and meditations, with news briefs and notices of activities.
1414. PXI Bulletin. Erie, PA: Pax Christi. Quarterly.
On the International activities of Pax Christi.
1415. Van Allen, R. “Pax Christi in Dayton: International Peace Movement,” Commonweal 102 (Dec. 19, 1975): 612-14.
A review of the conference held at the University of Dayton in November 1975, with some background information on Pax Christi.
1416. Zahn, Gordon. “Carrying Our Weight in the Catholic Peace Movement,” America 133 (Sept. 20, 1975): 143-46.
On the importance of Pax Christi and of aims at renewing it on as broad a base as possible. Such a base would allow pacifists and just warriors to work together, thus not alienating large numbers from the peace movement while converting the church gradually to peace. Pax Christi must, therefore, respect the church, its traditions, and its sensibilities; it must not scandalize others with an “avant-garde” elitism.
These recommendations are really a compromise for the time, not a general set of principles, and outline a course of action preferable to a split within Catholic peace ranks. Zahn’s ultimate hope for the church is “converting it into the effective vehicle for peace it ought to be.” Pax Christi’s programs should therefore focus on nuclear arms, the national budget, and arms traffic.
The Berrigans and Plowshares
1417. Berrigan, Daniel, S.J. The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970.
The play, with poetry, based on the trial of these nine Catholic activists, who in May 1968 destroyed Selective Service files in Catonsville, Maryland before surrendering themselves to the police.
1418. —. The Discipline of the Mountain. Dante’s Purgatorio in a Nuclear World. New York: Seabury-Crossroad, 1979.
Reflections on the great moral poem, written as a series of passages through the seven vices, encountered by the modern poet, who seeks to ascend the mountain of wisdom, with Dante as his guide. Berrigan’s poetry alternates with his own meditations. “Enmity and Love,” pp. 50-58, deals with war and peace directly.
1419. —. ed. For Swords into Plowshares, The Hammer Has to Fall. Piscataway, NJ: Plowshares Press, 1984.
A series of essays covering the history of the Plowshares, first arrested for their entry into the General Electric plant at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and “disarming” Mark 12A nuclear warheads. Contributions by Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, Elizabeth McAlister, Sidney Lens, Petra Kelly, Meridel LeSueur, Berrigan himself, and others on the necessity to halt the nuclear arms race and to free humanity from their idolization of the “gods of metal” and their love of death. The name “Plowshares” comes from the biblical text (Is. 2:4, Micah 4:3): “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”
1420. —. Steadfastness of the Saints.
See 1219.
1421. —. The Words Our Saviour Gave Us. Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1985.
Not seen.
1422. Catonsville Nine — Milwaukee Fourteen Defense Committee, ed. Delivered Into Resistance. New Haven: Advocate Press, 1969.
A collection of documents, including the Statement of the Catonsville Nine, the Meditation of the Nine, the Statement of the Milwaukee Fourteen, and essays by James Forest, Staughton Lynd, Barbara Deming, William Kunstler, Robert Shaull, and Daniel Berrigan. Includes a good reading list.
1423. Deedy, John. Apologies Good Friends. An Interim Biography of Daniel Berrigan. Chicago: Fides Claretian, 1981.
Not seen.
1424. Fowler, Robert Booth. “Prophetic Religion in the United States,” Humanities in Society 6 (Winter 1983): 5-70.
Not seen.
1425. Grace, Tom. “Living on the Front Lines,” Fellowship 49, 4 (April 1983): 11-13.
On the life and commitments of Philip Berrigan. Reviews the Baltimore Courthouse, Catonsville 9, and Harrisburg 8 trials, his marriage to Elizabeth McAlister and excommunication. Berrigan discusses American materialism, its kinship to the U.S.S.R., and the desire of both systems for economic domination. The U.S. needs a nonviolent revolution, but this, Berrigan sees, is not coming. The American political process, instead, keeps us snared by its promise of material riches.
1426. Keerdoja, E., and W. Slate. “Berrigans, Still Marching,” Newsweek 93 (March 26, 1979): 16.
A brief look at the life of Philip and Elizabeth McAlister in Baltimore’s Jonah House community, a peace commune, and their speaking tours against the U.S. “death trap.”
1427. Jones, Arthur. “Pershing Plowshares Eight on Freedom Road,” National Catholic Reporter 22, 28 (May 9, 1986): 7.
On the release of Paul Mango, the last imprisoned member of the Pershing Plowshares to be freed to half-way houses or to probation, two years after their conviction for damaging nuclear missile equipment on Easter 1984. Like most of the Pershing and other Plowshares members, Mango will be returning to activist life, as a member of the Catholic Worker.
1428. Klejment, Anne. The Berrigans. A Bibliography of Published Works by Daniel, Philip, and Elizabeth McAlister Berrigan. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1979.
The entries, without annotation, are arranged by person, chronologically up to 1979. With indexes by titles, first line, and authors. Not surprisingly, most of the materials are by Daniel Berrigan. The collection is introduced by a brief essay and a chronology.
1429. Meconis, Charles A. With Clumsy Grace: The American Catholic Left 1961-1975. New York: Seabury-Continuum, 1979.
A good narrative history.
1430. McAlister, Elizabeth. “On Civil Disobedience,” Pax Christi 10, 2 (June 1985): 16-17.
Not seen.
1431. O’Rourke, William. The Harrisburg Seven and the New Catholic Left. New York: Crowell, 1972.
A complete history of the pre-trial, jury selection process, and trial for this alleged conspiracy by the “Catholic Left” to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and to bomb heating facilities in Washington, DC. While all defendants were acquitted, the trial tied up the “Catholic left” for years.
1432. “Plowshares Actions,” CPF Bulletin, May 1984, 4-5.
Brief synopses of the Plowshares 8 appeal process, the AVCO (July 14, 1983) Plowshares trial, the Griffiss Plowshares case (Thanksgiving 1983), and the Pershing II Plowshares actions.
1433. “Plowshares Update,” The Nation 240, 2 (Jan. 19, 1985): 45.
Briefly reviews the Plowshares 8, Trident 2 Plowshares, Griffiss Plowshares, and Pershing Plowshares cases, characterizing them, favorably, as “Luddism against the war machine.”
1434. “Vindication,” Christian Century 101 (March 7, 1984): 242.
On the overturning of the conviction of Plowshares members because of trial irregularities.
The Sanctuary Movement
1435. Boteler, William, M.M., and Luise Ahrens, M.M. “Editorial: Support for the Sanctuary Movement,” Maryknoll 79, 8 (August 1985): 28-29.
The need for justice both within the U.S. and toward the poor and displaced of the world.
1436. Bruning, Fred. “The Church Against the State,” Macleans (March 11, 1985): 9.
Not seen.
1437. “Church Alien Aid Defended in Trial; Lawyers for Group Sheltering Fleeing Latins Tell Court of Religious Motives,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1985: 7.
A review of the Tucson case.
1438. “Crackdown on the Sanctuaries,” Time (Jan. 28, 1985): 17.
The INS has decided to move against the movement .
1439. Drinan, Robert F., S.J. “The Sanctuary Movement on Trial,” America (Aug. 17, 1985): 81.
Not seen.
1440. Ebert-Miner, Allan. “The Politics of Asylum,” The Progressive, 49,8 (August 1985): 23.
Salvadoran refugees are “economic,” not “political” according to the State Dept.
1441. Frame, Randy. “Churches Violate Federal Law to Shelter Illegal Aliens,” Christianity Today (March 16, 1984): 31.
Conscience confronts human law.
1442. Golden, Renny, and Michael McConnell. Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad. Chicago: Guild Books, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.
The best introduction and survey available at the time.
1443. Hansell, Dean. “Sanctuary Movement Worker Convicted in Texas,” Fellowship 50, 7-8 (July/August 1984): 34.
Focuses on the Catholics in the movement.
1444. Hentoff, Nat. “Snoops in the Pews,” The Progressive 49,8 (August 1985): 24-26.
Ecumenical efforts of Roman Catholics, Quakers, mainline Protestants, and Jews who defy the government through their underground railroad. Reviews the central issue in the Tucson trial of Sanctuary workers: government bugging of Bible-study classes in Arizona. Hentoff compares the tactic to those of the Gestapo agents who sat in on church sermons in Nazi Germany and the government informants used in the U.S.S.R. and Czechoslovakia.
1445. Jorstad, Eric. “No Routine Smugglers: Reverberations from the Sanctuary Trial,” Commonweal 113, 17 (Oct. 10, 1986): 522-25.
Reviews the legal case of the Tucson Sanctuary trial, procedural problems in the judges instructions to the jury, questions the ethics and legality of Federal evidence gathering, discusses the guilty feelings of the jurors who convicted eight of the eleven defendants, reviews states and cities that have declared themselves sanctuary zones. Concludes that the situation is now at a stalemate.
1446. King, Wayne. “When Is a Criminal Conspiracy Also an Act of Conscience? The Sanctuary Movement on Trial,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 1985: E1.
The conflict between the dictates of religious conscience and U.S. law forbidding the aiding of illegal aliens entering the country. The trial of Sanctuary defendants pits these two outlooks against one another.
1447. McCarthy, Tim. “Mixed Sanctuary Verdicts End Controversial Six-Month Trial,” NCR 22, 28 (May 9, 1986): 1, 19-20.
Eight of the eleven defendants were convicted for smuggling aliens into the United States. The federal prosecutors argued that the altruism of the Sanctuary people was irrelevant to the case, since this was simply a matter of immigration law. The sentences were considered extremely harsh. Both government prosecutors and right-wing critics have long attempted to remove the movement from its essentially religious motives and roots, Federal prosecutor Reno calling it an “evil unto itself” and a “threat to society.”
Essentially the government has attempted to hide the real truth, that these immigrants are refugees from persecution, from the threats of death squads, survivors of massacres, relatives of the disappeared in the U.S.-backed holocaust of Central America. In response the churches have come together to cry out for justice and to bear witness to this truth that the government would conceal by physically aiding the victims find sanctuary in the United States.
1448. McGrath, Ellie. “Bringing Sanctuary to Trial; A Tucson Case Provides a Major Test of Church Against State,” Time (Oct. 28, 1985): 69.
A review of the issues.
1449. “Politics Mixed with Prayer,” U.S. News & World Report (Dec. 30, 1985): 115.
Not seen.
1450. “Religious Liberalism Revived,” America (July 20, 1985): 23.
The Sanctuary movement reveals that despite the age of Reaganism, there remain forces within the church dedicateds to social justice.
1451. Quammen, N. “Keepers of the Flame,” Esquire, June 1985, 253.
Not seen.
1452. “Sanctuary Movement — A National Debate,” Nuestro, September 1985, 12.
Not seen.
1453. Scherer, Peggy. “Offering Sanctuary,” Catholic Worker 52, 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 1, 3.
Traces the story of one refugee from Guatemala, escaping the threat of murder by the paramilitary, her journey north, and the aid given her by the Sanctuary movement. Briefly examines the repressive and violent role of the U.S. government in Central America and the activity of the INS in prosecuting these Sanctuary people and deporting as many of the estimated 500,000 refugees that they can find. Catholics aiding these brothers and sisters do so in the spirit of solidarity urged by Pacem in Terris.
1454. Stengel, Richard. “Sanctuary Without Safety,” Time (July 9 1984): 68.
On the beginnings of prosecutions of the Sanctuary people and the likelihood that the INS will become increasingly punitive toward both refugees and sanctuary workers.
1455. “Threat to Religious Liberty,” Christian Century (Nov. 13, 1985): 1021.
Not seen.
1456. Tolan, Sandy, and Carol Ann Bassett. “Operation Sojourner; Informers in the Sanctuary Movement,” The Nation 241, 2 (July 20/27, 1985): 40-44.
Examines the issues raised by Federal INA infiltration, not only of Sojourner meetings, but of Bible classes conducted by members of the movement, including Central American refugees. Begins to focus on the true conflict between God’s law and human law posed by the movement.
1457. “Violating the Sanctuary,” America (Feb. 9, 1985): 97.
INS efforts to infiltrate Sanctuary groups by spying of church and Bible-study sessions.
The Bishops and the Bomb
1458. Allen, John. “The Bishops’ Letter: Challenge...What Response?” The Objector 4, 1 (Sept. 1, 1983): 4.
Reviews the final draft of the bishops’ letter and concludes that it will confront many Catholics for the first time with the morality of war. The letter uses both pacifist and just-war traditions, condemns attacks on population centers, first strikes, limited retaliation, questions deterrence and the morality of nuclear war at all. Allen stresses that after the pastoral Catholics seem to be left with only two choices: service to their country either in military defense or in nonviolent action, with the imperative that Catholics seek to define nonviolent methods of defense. He notes that we must avoid dehumanizing service people as instruments of war, and that the Department of Defense is now worried over the rise of pacifism. The letter stresses the rights of conscience and appears to approve selective conscientious objection.
1459. Benedictines for Peace. Reflection Guide on the Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response. Pastoral Letter of U.S. Catholic Bishops. Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, O.S.B., ed. Chicago: Pax Christi, 1983.
The complete text of the pastoral interspersed with commentary. Each section of the pastoral is accompanied by appropriate questions for reflection. Attractively illustrated.
1460. Bernardin, J.L. “Pacem in Terris: Twenty Years Later,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 40 (February 1984): 11-14.
Not seen.
1461. “Bishops: Catholic Personnel Must Look at Own Role in Nuclear Warfare,” The Objector 3, 3 (December 1982): 5-6.
The military is becoming concerned about sections in the draft of the bishops’ pastoral calling on personnel in the military and the defense industries to reexamine their roles in the light of Christian teaching and contemporary moral problems, and then to act on their consciences to leave such lives.
1462. Caplan, R. “People Who Are Deducting Defense,” The Nation (April 6, 1985): 399-400.
A growing number of Americans, including many Catholics, are deducting that portion of their taxes that would otherwise go to fund defense spending. They do this out of the same logic that compels conscientious objectors to refuse military service.
1463. Castelli, Jim. The Bishops and the Bomb. Garden City, NY: Doubleday-Image, 1983.
On the three different drafts of the pastoral letter and the politics, both ecclesiastical and secular, behind the process. Prints text of 1480 on pp. 185-276.
1464. “Catholic Orders Sell G.E. Stock,” Fellowship 50, 7-8 (July/August 1984): 35.
Twenty-six Roman Catholic orders sell 49,000 shares worth $2.4 million to protest G.E. involvement with nuclear and other weapons programs, after trying unsuccessfully to persuade the company to pull out of such war production.
1465. The Church and the Arms Race. Cambridge, MA: Pax Christi, 1977.
Not seen.
1466. Clarke, T.E., “To Make Peace, Evangelize Culture,” America 150 (June 2, 1984): 413-17.
The path to peace is not direct but involves a total conversion of individuals and our culture of violence and materialism.
1467. Cornell, Thomas. “War and Peace Pastoral,” Catholic Peace Fellowship Bulletin, March 1983, 1-2.
The second draft of the pastoral is far stronger than the first, giving more attention to the pacifist tradition, recognizing nonviolence as a principle, and using the just-war tradition to deny the morality of civil defense. Its parameters for nuclear war are so restrictive as to make it morally impossible. The letter will make a big difference in Catholic thought, not overnight, but it will cause more and more people to change their minds. It will form the will to make peace.
1468. Hehir, J. Bryan. “The Catholic Church and the Arms Race,” Worldview 21 (July/August 1978): 13-18.
Not seen.
1469. Hunthausen, Most Rev. Raymond. “Faith and Disarmament.” See 1484, 1-2.
The bishop of Seattle, Washington, an area heavily dependent on the U.S. Trident submarine, shocked his diocese with his announcement in June 1981 that he would withhold 50% of his taxes to protest nuclear arms. Such action is more terrifying to Americans than the thought of nuclear annihilation, for the alternative is the abandonment of America’s privileged life-style and our terror over other peoples. This is our nation’s great sin. Catholics must, therefore, abandon their passivity. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have sunk into our very souls and changed our Christianity. Our consent to the use of nuclear weapons is the taproot of all violence in our society. When such crimes are being prepared in our names, we must speak out against this new holocaust.
Politics are incapable of removing the despair of the nuclear age, we therefore need a deepening of faith and prayer to break the cycle. Yet such a gospel life is not easy. It requires Christians to take up their cross and to suffer persecution for their imitation of Christ. In this modern Catholics can imitate the lives of the early Christians under Rome who were punished for treason to the state. “Some would call what I am urging ‘civil disobedience.’ I prefer to see it as obedience to God.”
1470. Kenny, Most. Rev. Michael. “The Way of Jesus.” See 1484, 4.
The bishop of Juneau, Alaska declares that he has always been a loyal citizen of the United States and still believes in its ideals and constitution and affirms that he accepts his responsibilities as a citizen, recognizing that many countries are far worse than the U.S. Yet over time the bishop has come to see nonviolence as the only course for Christians. His pacifism is personal, however. He will not condemn others who are engaged in what they honestly believe to be the legitimate defense of their country. He notes, however, that nonviolence, and the martyrdom it produced, was the seed of the church for its first 300 years.
1471. Kownacki, Sr. Mary Lou, O.S.B. A Race to Nowhere: An Arms Race Primer for Catholics. Chicago: Pax Christi, 1985.
Well illustrated, with sectional bibliographies, this booklet discusses the general problem of armaments, the supposed Soviet threat, the cost of such military spending at home and around the world, the teachings of the Judaeo-Christian tradition on war and peace, including the pacifist and just-war traditions, and alternatives to the arms race.
1472. Matthiesen, Most Rev. Leroy T. “The Arms Race, Learning to Speak Out,” Catholic Worker 51, 5 (August 1984): 1-2, 8.
Begins with a description of the activities of the Pantex nuclear arms factory in Amarillo, within his diocese, the final, and only, assembly plant for all U.S. nuclear weapons. Matthiesen, a native of this conservative city, began to question the morality of this center, preaching his first sermon on the justness of nuclear weapons on Christmas 1980. At first people gave only intellectual assent to the problem. He followed this with a written letter, then visited someone arrested for a demonstration outside the plant. He then received clandestine visits from Catholics troubled by their involvement with the production of nuclear weapons.
Following statements by several bishops, including Raymond Hunthausen (See 1469), Matthiesen himself wrote urging Catholics to reconsider their defense work. This finally caused an uproar, because it called on people to reexamine the very foundations of their lives and livelihoods. Gradually, however, the bishop is getting a lot of support, still clandestine, for his outspoken stance. Gradually, the courage of others will make us all gather strength.
1473. —. “The Production and Stockpiling of the Neutron Bomb.” See 1484, 4.
This bishop caused a furor in Texas for his call for workers in nuclear-weapons industries to leave their jobs. He launched a fund to ease their transition to peace industries. Condemning the neutron bomb, he declared, “enough of this greater and greater destructive capability. Let us stop this madness.”
1474. Murnion, Philip J. Catholics and Nuclear War: A Commentary on The Challenge of Peace. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
Prints text of 1480 on pages 245-38. Analyses by Gordon Zahn, J. Bryan Hehir, David O’Brien, James Finn, and other leading Catholic peacemakers. Articles examine the text from several points of view, however, including the pastoral’s background, the Catholic peace tradition, the biblical roots of the letter, pacifism and just war, nuclear war and deterrence, world order, and the significance of the document for the life of the church in conscience, prayer, and penance.
1475. Newman, Judy. “CO, Nuclear Weapons, and the Bishops’ Letter,” The Objector 6, 3 (December 1985): 4. See also 1358.
Focuses on some of the issues where the bishops have not been as clear as they could have been: deterrence, the role of Roman Catholics in the armed forces, the issues of individual conscience, and selective conscientious objection are among them.
1476. Ostling, Richard N., and others. “The Bishops and the Bomb,” Time (Nov. 29, 1982): 68-77.
Reviews the issues involved in the pastoral, outlines the debate among the bishops, and focuses on some of the leading personalities of the conference. The article also examines some of the changes within American Catholicism itself, from a defensive, immigrant church to a major social and religious force in the United States, briefly reviewing the change in tone of the bishops’ previous pastoral letters and the historical roots of the church’s stand on peace.
1477. “Peace Fund,” Christian Century, March 3, 1982.
On Bishop Leroy Mathiesen’s fund to help Pantex nuclear-weapons employees transfer to peace-economy work.
1478. Quinn, Most Rev. John R. “The Very Survival of the Human Race Is At Stake.” See 1484, 3.
The arms race has become the major cause of insecurity in our lives. The Catholic church clearly teaches that nuclear weapons are evil. What response is therefore necessary? Cooperation with peace movements like the Freeze, opposition to Department of Defense nuclear war plans, conversion of military technology, and work for bilateral disarmament. The arms race destroys the human race in human terms, robbing fully one-third of the world of basic livelihoods. “The billions of dollars presently being spent on arms each year throughout the world are surely an appalling form of theft in a world where so many persons die each day of starvation and privation.” As Einstein warned, we must change of ways of thinking to keep in step with the new destructive technologies that we have unleashed.
1479. Roth, R.J. “The Bishops’ Pastoral and Individual Conscience,” America 150 (March 31, 1984): 237-39.
Not seen.
1480. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response. Washington, DC: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1983.
The text of the controversial pastoral on war and peace. Part One discusses peace in the modern world, first from a historical perspective of peace theory and action from the Bible, then from the developing theory of the just war. Part Two discusses the problem of war and peace in the modern world, religious leadership in the debate, and then carefully analyzes the use of nuclear weapons, examining their use against population centers, as first-strike weapons, and in the context of limited nuclear war. The bishops then go on to assess the moral worth of the theory of deterrence and venture tentatively into policy questions.
Part Three recommends specific policies for promoting peace through arms control, replacement of nuclear by conventional armaments, and civil defense. The bishops then take a hard look at nonviolent means of defense, recommending that these be given equal attention with military defense. They then discuss the role of conscience in making peace before reviewing the Catholic tradition of internationalism and world order, reviewing the present chaotic state of the world between the superpowers, and stressing the need for global interdependence.
Part Four lays bare the pastoral’s theological heart: the church as a community of conscience, prayer and penance, not a hierarchical structure of law and obedience, and recommends certain forms of working for peace. These include educational programs to help form consciences, the reverence for life that underpins all peacemaking, the role of prayer, and finally of penance and conversion. Peace is finally defined as the challenge and the gift of Christ, and the future hope of Christians.
1481. —. Daughters of St. Paul, eds. Boston, 1983.
Another edition.
1482. —. Edited in The Catholic Standard. Washington, DC, 1983.
Another edition.
1483. —. To Live in Jesus Christ: A Pastoral Reflection on the Moral Life. Washington, D.C., 1976.
The bishops’ previous condemnation of nuclear arms, even as a deterrent.
1484. U.S. Bishops Speak Against Nuclear Arms. Catholic Peace Fellowship, Peace Education Supplement 4. New York: Catholic Peace Fellowship, 1981.
Includes 1469, 1470, 1473, 1478.
1485. Wallis, Jim, ed. Peacemakers. Christian Voices from the New Abolitionist Movement. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.
The varieties of modern responses to nuclear and conventional war.
1486. Zahn, Gordon. “On Not Writing a Dead Letter,” Commonweal (March 8, 1985): 141-43.
Not seen.
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