A new working group, made up of more than 30 practitioners and scholars from several disciplines, is examining religious peacebuilding through a Catholic lens. The group intends to take inventory of the rich (and often underdeveloped) resources of Catholicism for peacebuilding, including the ubiquitous presence of local churches and Catholic relief, development and social justice agencies in conflict settings.

Through this "mapping" exercise, the group seeks to develop greater understanding, articulation, self-awareness - and, eventually, collaboration - among the diverse Catholic groups and agencies already engaged in work for peace and justice. This would be a first step toward enlarging the ranks of "Catholic peacebuilders" and promoting deeper collaboration with other religious and secular peacebuilding groups. At a fall meeting of the working group held at Maryknoll Mission Center in Ossining, New York, the group decided to call itself the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.

The group is currently composed of representatives from the Kroc Institute, the United States Institute of Peace, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Maryknoll Research Center, Catholic Relief Services, the Community of Sant'Egidio, Catholic University of America, Pax Christi, America magazine, Catholic Charities, and the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

Kroc Institute director Scott Appleby hopes the group will nurture a fresh examination of the peace tradition within Catholicism and thereby prepare Christian peace-makers for effective engagement with the new challenges arising from the present distinctive historical moment of conflict and global unrest. He particularly welcomes the opportunity to explore these issues with participants involved in religious peacebuilding on the ground.

"My own scholarship and that of several colleagues here at the Institute builds upon peacebuilding as a grass roots phenomenon," Appleby said. "Every society has a religious dimension, with people of faith who can be resources for community building and nonviolent conflict resolution."

Todd Whitmore, Associate Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, thinks the group will generate new perspectives on the relevance of Catholic teaching to contemporary issues. Whitmore, who specializes in moral theology, particularly social ethics, is the director of Notre Dame's Program in Catholic Social Tradition.

Today, Whitmore says, Catholicism requires a more highly developed and nuanced vision of peace. Peace is not simply the absence of war. Peace, he says, is linked to the common good. "It seeks a certain quality of relationship between persons or between nations." From a Catholic perspective, Whitmore contends, the violent attacks of September 11, 2001 exposed underlying global inequities which need to be addressed.

John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute, and a Mennonite member of the working group, sees the Catholic Church as a significant untapped resource for peacebuilding around the globe. Based on his many years of experience in peacebuilding, Lederach maintains that the Catholic Church is uniquely positioned as a transnational actor to serve as a locus for peacebuilding. Since the Church functions on every level of society in many different regions around the world, it fosters cross-cutting ties and relationships critical to peacebuilding.

Prior to the fall 2002 meeting at Maryknoll, the group gathered, for the first time, in conjunction with a Notre Dame conference on "The New 'New Things': Catholic Social Teaching and the Twenty-First Century." Held on April 4-6, the conference was organized by the Program on Catholic Social Teaching and was cosponsored by the Kroc Institute, the Kellogg Institute, and the Henkels Visiting Scholars Series. Talks on Catholic peacebuilding were offered as joint sessions of the conference on Friday, April 4.

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