Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace

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On March 2, Gerry Lee, Director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, will join a panel of Catholic peacemakers to discuss Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Peace, which is commemorated every year on January 1. The event, entitled “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace” will be hosted by the Holy See Mission to the United Nations from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. in UN Conference Room 5 and will offer UN member states and non-governmental organizations with representatives to the UN further understanding of Pope Francis’ message.

H.E. Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, will lead the discussion and will speak about the content of the Holy Father’s message.

Pope Francis selected active nonviolence as his theme for this 50th World Day of Peace message at the request of participants of the Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference which was held in Rome in April 2016. This message is the first significant teaching of a pope on nonviolence.

The following participants of the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference – all leading Catholic peacemakers – will speak about their experiences with nonviolence as a style of politics for peace:

Marie Dennis, Co-President, Pax Christi International will speak about the practicality of active nonviolence.

Marie Dennis is Co-President of Pax Christi International, a position she shares with Bishop Kevin Dowling from South Africa.  She is a prime organizer of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International, and previously was director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, charged with bringing the global experience of Maryknoll missioners into the process of shaping policies of the U.S. and other governments, the United Nations and international financial institutions. She worked for Maryknoll from 1989 to 2012.

Ms. Dennis was named the 2016 person of the year by the National Catholic Reporter and was a Public’ Peace Prize laureate, also in 2016. She is a lay woman, a mother of six and a member of Assisi Community in Washington DC. She received honorary doctorates from Trinity Washington University and Alvernia University and is author or co-author of seven books, including Oscar Romero: Reflections on His Life and Writings, St. Francis and the Foolishness of God and Diversity of Vocations. Ms. Dennis is a national of the United States and is fluent in English.

Gerry Lee, Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns will speak about the proven effectiveness of nonviolence.

Gerry Lee is director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, engaging in advocacy on international justice and peace issues in Washington, DC and at the United Nations. He is also a founding partner of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and member of the steering committee which organized the 2016 Rome conference on Nonviolence and Just Peace, co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International.

Mr. Lee and his wife and their three daughters lived in a Venezuelan barrio with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners from 1984-94, where his work focused on community organizing and human rights advocacy. He then served on the staff of the lay missioners, including several years on its leadership team, until 2006. From 2007-12 Gerry was active in the U.S. food justice movement, specializing in urban farming in inner city Philadelphia. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received his Masters of Divinity degree from Weston Jesuit School of Theology. Mr. Lee is a national of the United States and is fluent in English and Spanish.

Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, Associate Professor of International Relations, The Catholic University of Americain Washington, DC, will speak about nonviolence, terrorism, and the responsibility to protect.

Dr. Cusimano Love is on the Core Group for the Department of State’s working group on Religion and Foreign Policy, charged with making recommendations to the Secretary of State and the Federal Advisory Commission on how the U.S. government can better engage with civil society and religious actors in foreign policy.  She served as  a Fellow at the Commission on International Religious Freedom, where she is working with the Foreign Service Institute in creating new training and education materials on religion and foreign policy. She teaches graduate and undergraduate International Relations courses at Catholic University and the Pentagon, such as Security, Peace Studies, Just Peace, U.S. Foreign Policy, Terrorism, Globalization, and The Problem of Sovereignty.

Two of her recent books are “Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda” (4th Edition, 2011), “Morality Matters: Ethics and the War on Terrorism” (forthcoming at Cornell University Press). She serves on: the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ International Justice and Peace Committee, where she advises the bishops on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy, and engages in advocacy with the U.S. government; the Advisory Board of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, a network of practitioners, academics, clergy, and laity from around the world in the field of Catholic peacebuilding; the board and Communications Committee of Jesuit Refugee Services, an international refugee relief and advocacy group active in over 60 countries. Dr. Cusimano Love is a national of the United States and is fluent in English.

Father Francisco de Roux, S.J. founder, Development and Peace Program, Magdalena Region, Columbia, will speak about the practice of nonviolence in a conflict zone.

Father de Roux founded the Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio (Magdalena Medio Peace and Development Program), in Bogota, Colombia, in 1995, to develop sustainable economic empowerment programs in rural Colombia where impoverished communities caught in the midst of war find it difficult to resist involvement in the conflict. The program was awarded the Colombia National Peace Prize in 2001. In 2008 he left the leadership of the program to become the head of the Jesuit community in Colombia, and has since worked as a consultant to numerous international organizations on issues of economic solidarity, development, justice and peace.   

Father de Roux was ordained in 1975 and subsequently worked for El Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), a Jesuit think tank, first as a researcher , then as the director of the Program for Peace de la Compania de Jesus, and ultimately as director of CINEP until he founded the Magdalena Medio Peace and Development Program in 1995. Francisco holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Letters, and Theology, from the Universidad Javeriana, Master’s degrees in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá and the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris. He has written and co-written several books, including “Los Precios de la Paz.” In August of 2016 he offered to be exchanged for a kidnapped former member of Congress in Colombia.  He was present in Colombia when the Congress approved a revised peace accord with the country’s largest rebel group, thus ending the fifty year civil war. Father de Roux is a national of Colombia and is fluent in Spanish and English.

In addition, the following representative of an agency of the United Nations will speak about her experience with nonviolence as a style of politics for peace:

Dr. Rima Salah, Former Deputy Executive Director, UNICEFwill speak about nonviolence and a peaceful and inclusive society.

Dr. Salah has had a distinguished career with UNICEF.  She was appointed Deputy Executive Director from 2004 to 2007, after joining the organization in 1987 as Project Officer for Social Mobilisation in Quetta, Pakistan.  In 1989, she was promoted to the position of Resident Project Officer, and in 1992, Dr. Salah began a four year assignment as UNICEF Representative in Burkina Faso.  She was then appointed as UNICEF Representative in Vietnam in 1995.  In 1999, she was promoted to Regional Director for West and Central Africa Office.

Prior to UNICEF, Dr. Salah lectured in Anthropology, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology.  She also worked with non-governmental organizations in Jerusalem as well as in the Jordanian Ministry of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology (SUNY-Binghamton), Master’s degrees in Education & Sociology and Cultural Anthropology (SUNY-Fredonia) and an undergraduate degree in Sociology & Social Work (Beirut College for Women-Lebanon). Dr. Salah is a national of Jordan and is fluent in Arabic, English and French.