FAST FOOD AD 2026, Twenty-Ninth Helping

                                                             

Is it not sheer fantasy to believe that the bishops of the institutional Church, as it is presently structured and as it presently operates, will ever proclaim what Jesus proclaims about violence, that is, the Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies as an imperative obligation of discipleship and not merely as an available option if the disciple cannot think of a better way of responding to violence and enmity? The presumption behind that question, indeed the implicit assertion within it, is that the bishops in the institutional Church in its present form will never do their job and “Teach them to obey all that I Have commanded you.” They will never teach what Jesus teaches about love and nonviolence.

Some of my readers might object to the above conclusion, noting that the last three Popes have publicly rejected violence as a way for Christians and/or they have publicly stated that nonviolence is the Way of Jesus. They would point to the historical fact that Pope John Paul II on September 29, 1979 in Drogheda, Ireland said, “To all of you who are listening I say: do not believe in violence; do not support violence. It is not the Christian way. It is not the way of the Catholic Church. I appeal to the young people. I say to you, with all the love I have for you: Do not follow any leaders who train you in the ways of inflicting death.” They would also point to Pope Benedict XVI’s words on March 11, 2012: “The truth is that it is impossible to interpret Jesus as violent. Violence is contrary to the Kingdom of God. It is an instrument of the Antichrist. Violence never serves man, but dehumanizes him,” as well as his Good Friday proclamation in 2012, “Violence never comes from God. Jesus is thus a strong voice against every type of violence.” And perhaps most of all they would invoke Pope Francis who on several occasions during his papacy had said approximately what he said on August 19, 2013, “Faith and violence are incompatible! Faith and violence are incompatible,” or on January 1, 2017, “To be true followers of Jesus today also includes embracing his teaching about nonviolence.”

There is no contesting that the three most recent popes made such statements. Not one of those Papal pronouncements mentioned above, however, means what it seemingly says. Not one of them means following Jesus’ teaching and example in the Gospels of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies as the only Way of responding to evil in any and all of its manifestations. While all those Papal statements are self-evidently Gospel truth as stated, not one of those Popes meant them to be taken literally as the universal teaching of the Catholic Church. They were all spoken with unspoken mental reservations. Those unspoken mental reservations change the meaning of those statements from being proclamations of nonviolence to being proclamations of Christian Just War Theory masquerading as Jesus’ Nonviolence. For the three Popes mentioned above, nonviolence simultaneously means nonviolence and not-nonviolence. This is verified by other words they spoke and deed they did.

For example, Pope  Francis’ August 13, 2013 words about nonviolence were as clear on the surface as Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict’s statements on the nonviolence of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ. Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace Message made nonviolence a required condition for being a “true follower of Jesus.” Yet on March 13, 2015 he said, “On some occasions it is necessary to repel an ongoing assault proportionately to avoid damage caused by the aggressor, and the need to neutralize him could lead to his elimination.”

Since the Fourth Century to this day all papal statements on nonviolence have meant in theory and in practice, “Speak nonviolence, but carry a big stick.” That big stick is the justification of Christians using violence. “Speak nonviolence, but carry a big stick,” is not a teaching of Jesus, nor is it what Jesus meant in His Great Commission given to Peter and the Apostles, when He said  in His final earthly communication to them, “Teach them (the Baptized) to obey all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20).