Living Synodality

Many Catholics living in violent conflict zones or in situations of structural injustice, along with Pax Christi International, Maryknoll, Pope Francis, and others, have been cultivating a tectonic shift toward centering active nonviolence in Catholic social ethics and approaches to conflict. This essay will illuminate how Catholic community organizing and strategic campaigns can both contribute to this shift and be enhanced by such a shift. The first part will describe salient features of this shift in Catholic theology and social ethics. The second part will assess components of Catholic community organizing and strategic campaigns that distinctly contribute to this shift. The third part will offer some initial suggestions for how centering nonviolence can enhance Catholic community organizing and strategic campaigns. In turn, these dynamics between centering nonviolence and Catholic community organizing can better illuminate the way of Jesus and the love of Christ in both the Church and societies

Political science · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions