Introduction
This section lists all the reflections, essays and meditations by others including Bishops, Priests, Pastors and Laity relating to Gospel Non-Violence. To read only Fr. McCarthy’s writings, visit https://www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org/reflections
2. Hiroshima Hymn – My Name is George Zabelka by Peter Kearney
Now I am an old man, soon to meet my God
My journey here is almost at an end.
But before the journey’s over there’s one place I must go
Can’t get into heaven till I face up to my hell.
My name is George Zabelka, an ordinary man
And in answer to your questions, my story I will tell.
I was raised to be a Christian in the fashion of the day
Seemed all I had to do was follow rules
So it seemed right to join the army on that island in the sea
Where I was chaplain to the 509th bomb crews.
And I gave the boys a blessing as they flew that August day…
Hiroshima still sleeping and no word did I say.
CHORUS: So I go to light a candle that will shine in the night
For my brother I have wronged, my sister I have killed.
Come light a million candles in the tomb of the night
And we’ll see the light of morning rise again.
Well something deep inside me knew the truth of what I’d done
And my nightmares brought the terror home to me.
I knew the dark and loveless spirit, the cold and clever lie
That held the power and condemned those towns to die
And I know I was no better than the men on Calvary
Who had their orders and followed thoughtlessly.
I know that war has always been, it’s a habit deeply formed
And every land thinks God is on its side.
And the Church has offered blessings and talked about ‘just wars’
Inside with Caesar leaving Christ outside the door
But I say this stage is over, the bomb has changed it all…
Together we will rise up or together we must fall.
And now I am an old man, soon to meet my God
My journey here is almost at an end.
But before the journey’s over I’m going to Japan
As a pilgrim, a small and sorry man
To kneel and beg forgiveness in the hope to reconcile…
One step begins the journey along the homeward mile.
You can download a copy here: Hiroshima Hymn George Zabelka by Peter Kearney
Written by Peter Kearney and you can visit his site: https://www.facebook.com/PeterKearneySongs or buy the song from https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/signs-of-hope/id594398410
3. Rejection of the War Against the People of Iraq
Bishop Botean states that any direct participation and support of this war against the people of Iraq is objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin. Beyond a reasonable doubt this war is morally incompatible with the Person and Way of Jesus Christ. With moral certainty I say to you it does not meet even the minimal standards of the Catholic just war theory.
4. Introduction to Bishop Botean’s Pastoral Letter on Participation/Support of the Iraqi War
In this Pastoral Letter, Bishop Botean declares to those who are actively one with him by Baptism and by faith in Christ and His Church that this war is intrinsically evil and therefore morally impermissible for them. It is the equivalent of a Church being informed by its highest spiritual authority that it is under a Divine mandate to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience, if legally required to participate in this war.
5. Blessed Are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Land by P. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap (Pontifical Household Preacher)
The beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus and thus, we should not only imitate them but also make them our own.
Father Cantalamessa’s Lenten reflections have focused on the Eight Beatitudes; today’s was: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” To understand the full meaning of meekness, the Pontifical Household preacher underlined two constant associations of the Bible and ancient Christian exhortations: meekness and humility, and meekness and patience. One shows the interior dispositions from which meekness springs; the other the attitudes one should have toward one’s neighbor: affability, gentleness, courtesy.
The Gospels are the demonstration of Christ’s meekness, in its dual aspect of humility and patience. The maximum proof of Christ’s meekness is in his passion. There is no wrath, there are no threats: When he was reviled he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten. But Jesus did much more than give us an example of meekness and heroic patience; he made of meekness and nonviolence the sign of true greatness.
6. Mother’s Day Proclamation: A Day of Peace, Nonviolence Reconciliation by Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Take a moment to contemplate the real origins of Mother’s Day: the belief that women can create peace and justice through nonviolent love and community rooted in humanity rather than in geographical gangs.
The movement to set aside a day for women’s peacemaking began with two women: Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe. Jarvis, a West Virginia mother of 11, worked to improve rural sanitation and healthcare before and during the Civil War. When the war ended, she worked to reconcile Union and Confederate families in her state.
Julia Ward Howe, the author of Battle Hymn of the Republic, witnessed the atrocities committed by both sides during the Civil War. Howe was appalled, not only by the fatal casualties of violence, but by the other effects of war: economic devastation in both the North and the South, disease, and physical and mental disability. She devoted herself to building an international community of women creating peaceful resolution to conflicts.
7. Pastoral Letter for Great Lent 2015 by Bishop John Michael
“My dream for 2015 was is that we may find freedom from all the things that hold our hearts and minds bound, and especially from the tyranny of things that we ourselves have manufactured, in our fearful imaginings, about life, about ourselves, and about one another. My dream for our diocese in 2015 is that together, by God’s grace, each one of our parishes will find the courage to dream anew.”
8. The Eucharist, Sacrament of Nonviolenceby Archbishop Cyril S. Bustros
Recently the Catholic Church held a Synod of the World’s Catholic Bishops in Rome (October 2-23, 2005). A World Synod is not an Ecumenical Council, but it is the most serious gathering of bishops short of that. Bishops are selected for it by their fellow bishops in a geographical area and some are designated to be there by the Pope. A Synod can deal with many topics or just one topic. In the case of the recent Synod the only topic it dealt with was the Eucharist. In this particular Synod each official participant was allowed one presentation to the Synod. The Eucharist, Sacrament of Nonviolence, is the presentation given to the Synod by Archbishop Cyril S. Bustros, a Papal designee.
9. Edith Stein – ‘Miracle’ Did Auschwitz Victim’s Intercession Save Benedicta’s Life? By Church World, Maine’s Catholic Weekly (v57, no43) 14 May 1987.
Teresia Benedicta McCarthy is a happy, healthy little two-year-old named after a Jewish Carmelite nun killed at Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1942. A few weeks ago, Benedicta was literally at death’s door from accidental poisoning. Many who know the child, including doctors and nurses who were caring for her, believe that her complete recovery is due to a miracle. Her family and the legion of friends who prayed for a healing are convinced Benedicta is alive today through the intercession of Blessed Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein) who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Cologne, Germany on May 1, 1987.