AFP/Diana Sanchez
The Best Story Never Told Gerard F. Powers The Catholic Peacebuilding Network links Catholic Bishops’ Conferences, Catholic development agencies, universities, and independent peace organizations in an effort to enhance the study and practice of conflict prevention, conflict management, and post-conflict reconciliation in war-torn areas.
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is the catholic church a peacebuilding church? Is it a church that, in its daily life (not just in its teachings) is engaged in preventing violent conflict, limiting and stopping it when it occurs, and promoting rebuilding, healing, and reconciliation after the violence ends? In many places, the answer is yes. But much of that peacebuilding work is unknown, unheralded, and underanalyzed. The Church’s role in the Colombia conflict is a case in point. For too long, Colombia has been a poster child for intractable conflicts. But in the past three decades it has become an exemplar of Catholic peacebuilding. It has been five years since the historic peace accord between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas ended a five-decade insurgency. During his 2015 visit to Cuba, where the Colombia peace talks were dragging into their fourth year, Pope Francis is credited with contributing to a breakthrough in the talks. Two years later, his historic visit to Colombia gave a boost to implementation of the FARC accord and led to a temporary cease-fire with the ELN, a smaller rebel group not part of the FARC accord. The pope’s role in the peace processes was only possible because of the fertile peacebuilding ground prepared during decades of work by the Catholic community. The Church has accompanied the victims of violence, negotiated local cease-fires and hostage releases, promoted human rights, mobilized peace movements,
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and held vigils, disarmament days, and peace weeks. According to Professor John Paul Lederach, a renowned Mennonite peacebuilder who has trained many Catholic leaders, the Church’s “ubiquitous presence,” with relationships at every level and nearly every area of conflict, creates a depth and breadth of access that few religious or secular institutions enjoy. He concludes, “there are few places where the infrastructure and ecclesiology of Church structure so neatly aligns with the multilevel and multifaceted demands of peacebuilding.” The Colombian bishops were invited to be part of the FARC talks but decided not to take on such a political role, choosing instead to work with the wider civil society in supporting the process. The bishops did, however, play a key role in ensuring that civil society— and, for the first time in a formal peace process, victims— had a voice in the peace negotiations. And a group of bishops now facilitates the peace process between the government and the ELN. Now the Church is playing a major role in helping to implement the accord. Msgr. Héctor Fabio Henao, director of the bishops’ Social Pastorate/Caritas Colombia, was the first head of the National Council for Peace, which includes all major actors in Colombia. He now heads the official effort to establish peace councils in the territories most impacted by the violence. The official truth commission is headed by another priest, Fr. Francisco de Roux, S.J. The official monitor of these and other aspects of the FARC accord is the Barometer Project of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute, the first academic institution to play such a role. A key factor in the success of this novel effort is that it is done in partnership with the bishops’ Social Pastorate, which houses its Colombia-based staff. This partnership gives the project the credibility and access needed to navigate the complex process of monitoring implementation of the world’s most comprehensive peace accord.
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