Bishops need to speak out on violence

 

My lifelong study, reflection, and prayer on the mystery of Christ’s suffering and death has taught me one thing: Jesus rejected violence in any form for whatever reason. Pope John Paul II has taught that the just war is a practical impossibility in our modern world. As Jesus did and taught, so great men such as Ghandi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have preached non-violence.

How, therefore, can bishops be silent when the NRA proposes putting guns in every school, encouraging teachers to arm themselves in their classrooms? Where is the leadership of our church? Why are they silent? If this were a question of abortion, same-sex marriage or religious freedom, they would be in the forefront of those issues. Isn’t this national question explicitly a pro-life issue? Isn’t the NRA’s proposal specifically an anti-life proposal?

I’m not going to take a partisan stance on this question before the bishops speak. I know what my sense of Gospel values is; will the bishops affirm my perception or will they teach something else?

Don Henderson

Baltimore

Copyright (c) Jan. 24, 2013 CatholicReview.org 

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