Honor the Peace Builders

By Kenneth Hackett
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 4/29/04)

Ten years ago this month in Rwanda a campaign of genocide by nationalist Hutus produced a mass murder of nearly 1 million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. It was one of the greatest tragedies in recent history, and the world, in many respects, stood by and allowed it to happen.

We at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have done a lot this month — through written words, artwork, events and prayer — to remember the tragedy, to honor the spirit of those who died and the courage of the survivors, and to reflect again upon our failures from the past. The horror of the genocide rocked us to our core. But it also changed us fundamentally, and for the better.

No, there is no silver lining in the attempted extinction of a people. But the genocide had the effect of reinforcing our identity as a Catholic agency, our commitment to protecting life, promoting dignity and fostering just and peaceful relationships among all peoples. Significantly, we began complementing our emergency and development activities with programs that enable reconciliation and peace.

Admittedly, "peace building" sounds somewhat intangible, but we pursued this idealistic end through pragmatic means such as education, media, dialogue, counseling, troop demobilization, business development and reconstruction. And though peace building did not begin with Rwanda, the increased commitment to peace and reconciliation on the part of the Church and its agencies is one of the positive legacies of that tragedy.

That commitment, and its consequent sacrifice, was graphically illustrated a few months ago when the pope’s ambassador to the war-torn African nation of Burundi, bordering Rwanda, was shot to death for his work in reconciliation. In death, Archbishop Michael Courtney, who spent his years in Burundi pursuing peace, joined the more than 300,000 others killed in that country’s decade of bloodshed. His death was no more or less tragic than any of the rest, but it symbolized the worldwide efforts of the Church to achieve justice and peace in places where danger is great, yet international attention and resources are minimal.

The Church’s participation has been crucial to peace building in many countries around the world, particularly those like Rwanda and Congo, where the percentage of Catholics is high. But the Church has also been active in some of the world’s largest Islamic nations, as well, like Pakistan and Indonesia, predominantly Hindu India and the Philippines and Nigeria, where Christian-Muslim relations are often manipulated to fuel conflict.

The depth and breadth of the Church’s structure — from archbishops to lay leaders to priests in remote locales, with organizations like CRS filling the gaps — makes it one of the few institutions that can reach individuals at all levels of society, from the seats of power to the people in the Church benches. This pervasive presence, enabling linkages with secular, Muslim, Hindu and other like-minded local groups, is particularly crucial to peace efforts in a post-Cold-War environment where, as University of Notre Dame professor R. Scott Appleby has written, "the enemy may be one’s literal neighbor."

No longer are most wars fought between nation states, with diplomacy waged purely among national leaders. Now, conflicts largely occur within borders, often involving a dizzying array of warring factions — at least five, in the case of Burundi. Such labyrinthine clashes fought along ethnic and religious lines, and often driven by a lust for resources and power, cannot be bandaged from the outside. They must be unstitched and knitted back together from within, by individuals deeply embedded and respected at the local level. The Church and its vast network of partners are on the ground, doing just that.

In volatile West Africa, the Church has partnered with regional organizations to establish a conflict-prevention early warning and response network along the Mano River basin in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where 250,000 people have died from conflict in the past decade and a half. Through this early warning and response framework, individuals at the village level can alert the vast network whenever conflicts flare in a particular area, activating an immediate local, regional and international response.

Through such efforts, individuals and communities are empowered to defuse conflict before it spreads, and rebuild in its wake by overcoming tensions and exploring common goals. Such programs do wonders at the village level, but they also spread into the wider world, making it a bit more harmonious and safe, for all of us.

CRS will never forget Rwanda, or how it stamped us forever. But as we reflect upon that evil and the terror and trauma it engendered, we must also honor the good — those who work for peace every minute of every day. It is a service for God and humanity, this building of peace, but it is not without its price. In fact, some pay for it with their lives.

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