Catholic Contributions to International Peace;Special rept

摘要

T he United States Institute of Peace launched its Religion and Peace making Initiative in July 2000, building on experience gained from an earlier Institute program entitled Religion, Ethics, and Human Rights. This new initiative endeavors to aid American religious organizations in being more active and more effective as international peacemakers. One component of this initiative has been the organization of a series of workshops on the peacemaking activities of various American religious communities. A workshop on Mennonite peace making was held in November. In December a workshop explored the sources of conflict resolution in Judaism. On February 5 the initiative organized a workshop on Catholic peacemaking. The purpose was to explore the peacemaking activities of key Catholic organizations and to explicate the distinctively Catholic nature of peacemaking by these and other Catholic organizations. The discussion focused on the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, and the lay organization Sant' Egidio. This Special Report summarizes the presentations at that workshop.