“Catholicism has something vital to learn from other religious traditions,” says Cyprian Consiglio, Sec. Gen. of Monastic Interfaith Dialogue

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, a well-known composer and musician, the former prior of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, Cal., and now the Sec. General of Monastic Interfaith Dialogue in Rome, a movement within the Benedictine and Cistercian orders that promotes interfaith dialogue between monastic communities of different religions.

He is the author of several books including Prayer In the Cave of the Heart: the Universal Call to Contemplation; Spirit, Soul, Body: Toward an Integral Christianity Spirituality, and most recently, Epiphanies of Nature and Grace.

“Catholicism and Christianity in general have something vital to learn from other religious traditions,” he tells John. “The world really depends on dialogue between the world religions. So many of our conflicts are based on our ignorance of other religions.”

Recently when someone criticized him for wasting his time on a peripheral issue, he responded that every day the front page news is full of horrific violence based in Muslim fundamentalism, Jewish Zionism and Christian nationalism.

"Everyone has a warped understanding of God", he says.

Nothing could be more relevant. “Evil is very gaudy, loud and colorful; building deep bonds of friendship among the religious traditions around the world is quieter and sturdier. It’s another aspect of peacemaking,” he says.

“One of the most important things we need right now is interreligious dialogue. We all need to find the next step in our maturity in the understanding of God.”

Listen in and be inspired! God bless you all!

beatitudescenter.org

https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

johndear.org

🌻 John

Today I speak with Wamuyu Wachira from Nairobi, Kenya, Pres. of Pax Christi International

Sr. Wamũyũ, president of Pax Christi International, the official global Catholic peace movement, is a scholar, educator and peace practitioner with a PhD in Peace Studies. She serves as Senior Lecturer and Program leader in Peace and Conflict Studies at St. Paul University in Nairobi.

“Nonviolence is a way of love, compassion, mercy and peace,” she says. “Pax Christi has 120 member organizations worldwide and has been promoting peace, justice and human rights for 81 years."

"We believe peace is possible and the cycles of violence can be broken. We try to look at nonviolent ways to resolve conflict and war. We are committed to gospel nonviolence and call the Church to dedicate itself to gospel nonviolence."

“I believe the Beatitudes should be part of our DNA. If someone cuts my finger, I want them to see nonviolence flow out of it."

"We have to diffuse evil by first disarming ourselves. We have to choose daily the path of nonviolence. Don't give up!” she concludes. “You never know who sees you and is inspired by your nonviolent living.”

Listen in and be inspired! God bless you all,

🌻 Fr. John

www.paxchristi.net

beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with my friend Dennis Kucinich, former congressman from Ohio from 1997 to 2013 who has been an outspoken voice against war.

He was perhaps the leading voice against the US war on Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of people. He also called for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

I met Dennis about a month after 9/11, when New Jersey Peace Action decided to give us their annual peacemaker awards together. We were both told to meet on a Sunday morning at a country club in New Jersey, and when we each got there around 10 am, as I recall, we were the only ones there. So, we took a long walk on the golf course, shared our stories and became friends. Later, at the luncheon, we spoke to a room full of New Jersey peace activists.

“It is possible to live a life that espouses peace?” Dennis Kucinich asks. “What is peace? It's an active presence of a capacity for reflection and alignment with love, brother and sisterhood and understanding the meaning of the golden rule."

"We are interconnected and interdependent and we are all Children of God. We are at a pivot point in the history of the US right now. Unless we stop licensing, funding and creating implements of war, we will not survive as a nation."

“War is one of the gravest offences because it takes away people's lives in a way that makes no sense. "

"War is original sin."

Kucinich spontaneously recites a poem for us:

"I have only just a minute

Only 60 seconds in it

Forced upon me, can't refuse it

Didn't seek it, didn't choose it

But isn't up to me to use it

Give account if I abuse it

Heaven help me if I lose it

Just one tiny little minute

But eternity is in it"

- Sister Lucia

Listen in and be inspired!

beatitudescenter.org

🌻, John

This week The Nonviolent Jesus podcast brings 2 special episodes:

Today (part 1 of 2), I speak with my friend Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. A few years earlier, I had baptized Colleen’s daughter at a very happy family event.

On Thursday’s episode, (part 2 of 2), I’ll share my own stories as the Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at Ground Zero. You can also read more stories about this period of my life in my book "A Persistent Peace".

On September 11th, Colleen's brother Bill was at a one day conference at Windows on the World, on the top of the World Trade Center. In the awful days afterwards, she met with other family members to seek nonviolent alternatives to the cycles of violence, and to enhance civilian protection.

They formed “September 11th Families For Peaceful Tomorrows,” which has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Its name comes from the Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, "Wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

These days, she continues to work with Peaceful Tomorrows in a variety of ways, including the pursuit of justice and accountability for the death of Bill and nearly 3000 others, by numerous visits to observe the military commissions at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.

Colleen talks about her brother, the founding of “Peaceful Tomorrows,” her trips to Guantanamo, and their work marching for and promoting peace, even in Afghanistan.

We also talk about her amazing mother, who told me as we left Ground Zero how she felt about the bombing of Afghanistan, words that have stayed with me to this very day.

For the 25th anniversary, Colleen is organizing a peace walk on Sept. 10th from Union Square to Ground Zero where they will hold an evening vigil. www.peacefultomorrows.org

“Nonviolence is what Jesus taught and it is hard to believe but until we all truly believe it and make that leap, we are stuck in this inhuman world,” she says.

Listen in and be inspired!

God bless you,

🌻 Fr. John

This week I speak with my friend Fr. Greg Boyle, one of the most well known and beloved religious leaders in the world. A Jesuit priest, he has spent decades accompanying and working with young people and gang members in Los Angeles, and creating new alternatives with them.

Fr. Greg is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries and Homeboy Global Network with 300 organizations in the US and 50 outside the country.

It is the world's largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program, and former pastor of Dolores Mission Church, the poorest church in the city. Between 1988-1998, there were close to a 1000 people per year killed in that L.A. area from gang-related crime.

His books include: Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion; Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship; Creating a Culture of Tenderness: Embracing Our Kinship with All of Life; The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness; and Forgive Everyone Everything.

I ask him about his motto: “We are all unshakably good – no exceptions. We belong to each other – with no exceptions.” “We are trying to offer a model of community, being connected and relational wholeness,” Fr. Greg said. "There's no such thing as a bad person. We’re all good people, and we’re all sick trying to get well."

"Gang violence is all about a lethal absence of hope."

So we’re trying to nurture a movement where people invest in each other and with folks on the margins.

Fr. Boyle tells me about the four things Jesus took seriously, and what the gang members have taught him about God's unconditional love.

Greg said so many amazing things: “We've lost our confidence in love and the God of love is hoping we will regain that. It's important to find the larger love that animates you. It's always about going forward. Love is always the next thing to do, one loving foot in front of the next."

"The point of the love of God is to disarm us and lead us to be peacemakers.”

Listen in, be inspired, and share the podcast with your friends.

Onward in peace with the nonviolent Jesus!

🌻, Fr. John

www.homeboyindustries.org

beatitudescenter.org

One of the key prophets, saints, teachers and models for me is Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador who was assassinated while saying Mass in San Salvador on March 24, 1980.

I lived and worked in a refugee camp in 1985, and traveled back nearly twenty times, including his beatification Mass in San Salvador. To me, he is the epitome of the modern day prophet who denounces war, poverty, and killing, calls people to be converted to the nonviolent Jesus, and announces the coming of God’s reign of justice, disarmament and peace.

On this episode I speak with Professor Todd Walatka of Notre Dame, author of a new book, “Words of Life: The Preaching of St. Oscar Romero.”

Todd Walatka teaches about Catholic theology after Vatican II, Latin American theology, Catholic social teaching, and Christian spirituality. He is also the editor of Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching, which examines the life of Romero in light of contemporary work for justice and human development.

“If you hear Romero's words or know anything about his life, you immediately think, ‘This is the gospel!’” Todd says. “Romero asked us: ‘What is the Good News today? What does it demand of our very lives today? Romero truly believed that the Word of God can change our lives.”

Discover more about Saint Oscar Romero here:

orbisbooks.org

beatitudescenter.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

Come join me on Substack: https://substack.com/@fatherjohndear

🌻, John

On this episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, a global movement to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. Tim expanded the organization from one million athletes to over six million athletes in more than 170 countries around the world.

After passing on the CEO torch, he wondered how the spirit of the athletes of Special Olympics might provide a model for our divided world. He started a conversation with hundreds of young people, faith leaders, educators, philosophers, scientists, activists and political figures on how we might reclaim our common humanity.

He formed the nonprofit UNITE which uses what he calls the “Dignity Index,” a new tool to help Americans disagree without demonizing each other.

Tim went to Yale, got his Master's degree from Catholic University, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Connecticut. Before joining the Special Olympics in 1996, he co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the leading school reform organization in the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).

On the side, he is a Hollywood producer of several films including “Amistad.”

He is coauthor of “Fully Alive – Discovering What Matters Most,” and co-editor of “The Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening.” In May, Notre Dame awarded him the Laetare Medal.

“My parents were innovation machines,” Tim tells me. “They were problem solvers.”

His mother started the Special Olympics by asking, "'What if we just spoke each others' language and ate each others’ food?’" That was peace-building.

Last year the volunteer army of human goodness created 80,000 Special Olympics events.

"Go to an event! There's a recognizable presence of human dignity and therefore divine energy. There's a different vibrational field. The Special Olympics is a peacemaking movement.” www.specialolympics.org

When I ask Tim about Unite and the Dignity Index, he says it’s based on the insight that “our problems are not based on our differences but how we treat each other when we differ. When we treat each other with dignity, we have a good chance of solving our problems. We try to learn how to treat each other with dignity and reduce contempt.”

Listen in as Tim describes various ways to respond to others in keeping with human dignity. God bless you!

🌻, John

beatitudescenter.org

Meet me over on Substack https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

www.dignity.us

www.timothyshriver.com

This week I speak with David Beckmann, former president of Bread for the World, one of the best groups fighting poverty in the world (www.bread.org).

His many books include: Eden Revival; The Overseas List; Grace at the Table; Exodus from Hunger, and his latest book, “Poverty Abolitionists: Faith, activism, and Hope for Difficult Times. www.davidbeckmann.org

“In recent decades, the world has made dramatic progress against poverty. But now, the second Trump administration has pushed that progress into full reverse. I'm so appalled that we are systematically dismantling things that are important to the poor in the U.S. and the world. It's certainly possible to end poverty where starvation and malnutrition exist. We don't have to have millions of kids go without food in the U.S., yet we do.

“The most progressive community in the U.S. are atheists - they are not waiting for God to solve the world's problems. Our hope is built on Jesus' promise of the kingdom of God, but we have to do our share and advocate for justice and an end to poverty,” he says.

In the end, he calls us to “seek and form loving, justice-seeking churches; to think critically about our faith and the work to end poverty; and to open our hearts to God's universal, forgiving love. Those who imagine a loving, forgiving God—not a violent, punishing god--are more inclined to work for justice and the end of poverty.”

Listen in and be inspired to join the movement to abolish poverty!

www.beatitudescenter.org

Come join me on Substack: https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

www.davidbeckmann.org

www.bread.org

🌻, John