The Age of Peace
Millennials
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 07/11/16
Millennials
Monday, July 11, 2016jsc
I wrote in July 2012 “I believe the boomers and their children could rise to be America's next great generation just as their great-grandparents did, if they would but learn the lesson. It is in their DNA, but I do not yet see this manifestation in sight as of today”
In July of 2016 in this election year the millennials have spoken … they are the manifestation of the values that our great grandparents embraced to become the greatest generation of Americans.
Millennials can be America’s next great generation … embracing the way of community and peace.
They see the folly of individualism and war.
This gives me hope that perhaps the worst will be avoided.
Peace through Justice their motto.
Global War On Terror May Never End
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 06/09/16
The Global War on Terror May Never End
Reflections Memorial Day
May 30, 2016jsc
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“© Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A U.S. Marine salutes at a makeshift memorial for fallen soldiers during Rolling Thunder on in Washington, D.C. For those who served during the War on Terror, there's no formal way for…
WASHINGTON — Seven thousand U.S. troops have died fighting terrorism, but they may never be memorialized on the National Mall like fallen soldiers of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Pittsburgh veteran Andrew Brennan is leading an effort to make sure his fallen comrades get a memorial to their service and that survivors of the war on terrorism get a tribute of their own on the National Mall, a place to gather with fellow veterans of the war on terror.
First, he has to persuade Congress to overturn the 1986 Commemorative Works Act, which requires a war to be over for 10 years before a memorial can be built.
The reason: The global war on terror is being fought on multiple fronts around the world and may never end.”
That, “The global war on terror … may never end” certainly speaks a basic truth about the age of terror in which we live … the war on terror, war forever, is widely accepted as our future.
United States of American’s veterans of the war on terror are seeing no end to the war on terror in sight. They grow impatient for recognition of their valor in this war even as this war is not over.
Their legal efforts to get a monument built are blocked by laws that assume war ends and builds into law a ten year period of grace after war before war monuments can be erected.
With no end of war in sight, what to do in the meantime to formally honor the dead of the war on terror?
That understandable query aside, what about the grave danger present in the belief that this war “may never end”. Sun Tzu, arguably one of the greatest military philosophers, predicts unending war, war for the sake of war, ends in catastrophe war.
My reflections on Memorial Day 2016 deeply concerned that most seem so unaware of the grave danger of a war on terror that “may never end”. With 9/11 as the measure we are fifteen years into what some are predicting is a One Hundred Year War.
History tells us all wars end. What will be left standing Memorial Day 2116?
The question before us: Will humanity rise up to demand a peaceful end to the age of terror in time to avoid WWIII and end war forever? Imagine all nations, states, tribes, all peoples represented at the global peace table with the whole world witnessing the implementation of the Kellogg Briand Pact signed by our grandparents in 1928, the lesson of WWI to end war forever.
The wisdom of the elders through the ages have spoken and given us the tools to end war forever. In our time we shall finish the job to put that wisdom and those tools into action, peace through justice our motto.
This would be the greatest story of our generation, our praises sung unto generations to come.
God grant the mercy so that the innocent of humanity to stand as one non-violently demanding peace leaders to lead us to a peaceful end of war on terror.
This would be a grace given for humanity to awaken to that mercy in time to prevent the Age of Catastrophe.
Mepkin Abbey: Discernment
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 02/09/16I am returning to Mepkin Abbey for period of discernment Mid Feb-April 2016
Abortion: Catholics Making Some Noise At Pastors Door
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 02/09/16
January 24, 2016
Dear Father Norm,
Thank you for all you do as pastor of St. Anne’s Retirement Community.
At the urging of Pope Francis to make some noise, to knock on the pastor’s door, below our thinking on abortion.
We write about abortion in response to your homily given Friday January 22, “A Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Church”, for the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations … committed through abortions.
We stand shoulder to shoulder as one with you on the matter of the sanctity and primacy of life. And take pride in our Church which has a long history of building a more just society based on that teaching. No less so, ironically enough, than in the matter of rights of women. And like most of humanity we still have a long, long way to go on that issue.
In the matter of abortion we believe it truth that a just and moral society is one in which the nearer zero the election of abortive surgery the better … all this to the greater Glory of God.
Your homily gives voice to the Church’s legal strategy to reduce abortion … overturn the law encoded in Roe v Wade which assures a citizen the right to abortion in a medically certified facility. The problem with this strategy is that abortion is the symptom of the problem. Removing the symptom could make matters worse and will not solve the problem. Why, because women know overturning Roe v Wade will reincarnate the injustice, the back room butchery done to women that prompted the Church to rightly condemn abortion in the first place… driving the practice underground again, a grave danger to women.
In the matter of First Amendment rights some of us believe overturning Roe v Wade is an intrusion of Church into State. Our Church’s stance risks violating the civil rights of all of us as assured under the law of the land.
Whatever the moral considerations, the problem with abortions is the demand for them. The solution to the problem of abortion is to reduce demand to near zero by bringing to near zero unwanted pregnancy.
The good news is the knowledge to bring unwanted pregnancy rates to near zero is scientifically established.
It is for these reasons that majorities of the people of God want the right to abortion protected by law as codified in Roe v Wade in the hope they never need its protection.
We remember Jesus came not to overturn the law but to fulfill it. Mercy.
In the matter of Roe v Wade an argument can be made to render onto Caesar what is Caesar’s. Instead of overturning Roe v Wade make an end run around it that reduces the need for abortive procedures to near zero.
The outcome is a just society in which abortive surgery is a woman’s right protected by law and covered by health insurance, but rarely used. This is a woman’s right protected by the Constitution. Now if women could get together to push for an equal rights amendment … that would set the house of patriarchy on fire.
We understand that living the sanctity of life can get messy and for our sins we ask God’s mercy.
In the Peace of Christ,
Louise Beighley
JanStephen Cavanaugh
World War ISIS 2015: World War III 2115
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 01/23/16
The winds of war blew ill in 2015. The end-of-year cover on Time
was “World War ISIS”. We live in a time of war ever-increasing and never-ending,
and, unless something intervenes, WWIII by 2115 is within the realm of
possibility.
Pope Francis began 2015 calling for the end of war, and ended 2015
with his teaching on climate: the interface of ever-intensifying war and global
warming is his prophetic warning.
In our age what is local is global, what is global is local;
humanity is a global family not just in spirit, but in reality. When we
are as concerned about a rape and killing of sister by brother in India or
Syria, or wherever as we are about the rape and killing of a member of our own
family … this will be humanity living global consciousness. Einstein said
this change of consciousness is needed to avoid catastrophic war.
Avoiding WWIII and ending war altogether is the Kennedy to the
moon challenge of this generation.
All that is needed is the human imagination and global will to
make it happen.
What will wake humanity up? “Only a global emergency on a scale
greater than anything we’ve yet seen can accomplish that - the sort of crisis
that forces a new level of global cooperation base on the world’s true balance
of power. It might be war, a financial crisis, a public health threat,
catastrophic terrorism, an environmental disaster. Though that crisis is
approaching, we’re unlikely to get there in 2016. When it finally comes it
will be the biggest story of our time.”(Time December 28, 2015)
I bear witness to these matters and work and pray deeply that out our
children’s children do not have to suffer the age of catastrophe.
