{"id":6194,"date":"2025-08-07T21:38:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liderescatolicos.net\/how-to-promote-a-culture-of-peace-in-times-of-war\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T02:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:27:13","slug":"how-to-promote-a-culture-of-peace-in-times-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liderescatolicos.net\/en\/how-to-promote-a-culture-of-peace-in-times-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"How to promote a culture of peace in times of war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brother \u00c1lvaro Rodr\u00edguez Echeverr\u00eda, <\/strong>FSC. Former Superior General of the Brothers of Christian Schools and collaborator of the International Academy of Catholic Leaders <\/em><\/p>\n\n

The war in Ukraine, which in one way or another is affecting us all, and the many other little-known wars in our world, also call us to reflect in a special way on peace and how to build a culture of peace. Peace is not only the absence of war. It requires knowledge, collaboration and effective alliances, solidarity, effectiveness, and commitment. That is why I find Pope Francis’ repeated invitation to pray and act for peace very pertinent. We know that wars are opposed to God’s plan and create greater problems, that war is never the answer and that we must be builders of peace. Jorge Debravo, a Costa Rican poet, said: <\/p>\n\n

I do not offer you peace, brother man,because peace is not a medal:peace is an enslaved landand we have to go and free it\u2026Throwing ourselves into love is enough.<\/p>\n\n

Love imposes on us as a vital necessity for peace and the well-being of humanity, to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue and to silence strident and degrading confrontations. If this intercultural and interreligious perspective is not followed, we run the risk of promoting and sacralizing the globalization of violence. It is necessary to forge paths of dialogue, mutual recognition and reciprocal respect and, above all, of bonds of solidarity and mercy. In many countries we do not have wars, but xenophobia and attitudes against emigrants have been growing dangerously and today we are more aware of the persecution that many Christians suffer in the world and of the new martyrs. We must all work towards building a world without borders, where everyone feels at home; where there is no ethnic, cultural, or religious discrimination; where a spirit of respect, dialogue, and tolerance is lived; where we work for peace in justice; where we know how to accept differences; where children can dream of a better world. <\/p>\n\n

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    \n
  1. Let the children sing, let them raise their voices<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    When we talk about peace, we must think about children and the world they are going to inherit. If we want peace to be possible, we must start with them. Gandhi said: If we want to achieve true peace in this world and if we want to carry out a true war against war, we must start with the children. And if they grow up united in their natural innocence, we will not have to fight anymore, but we will go from love to love and from peace to peace. <\/p>\n\n

    There are situations to which we cannot remain indifferent. We can think of child soldiers; children who witness episodes of domestic violence every year, children forced to work, children used in dangerous activities and, therefore, intrinsically violent; children involved in prostitution and pornography, and victims of child trafficking for this purpose. It is important to know and make known this reality, to pray for these children and, to the extent of our possibilities, to be part of the associations that fight against this scourge, which shames humanity. We know that today, unfortunately, both in the societies of the North and in those of the South, children constitute the most fragile and vulnerable link. It is a drama that knows no geographical or social borders and affects millions of minors also in economically advanced countries, because it has its roots in a culture and in behaviors that do not recognize the child as a bearer of rights and as a person to whom we must listen with great attention. <\/p>\n\n

    A culture of peace has as its first step the defense of the rights of children and adolescents, which we must carry deeply anchored in our hearts, aware that the children and young people of today will be the men and women who tomorrow will be able to change with their attitudes and convictions, all types of practice that goes against peace.<\/p>\n\n

    <\/div>\n\n
      \n
    1. The best antidote: humanize and fight against indifference<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

      Personally, I am convinced that one of the biggest problems we are experiencing today is dehumanization. Our society, with its undeniable advances, has forgotten certain dimensions that remain fundamental to the human being. Although the center of the current theme is the man-woman, there is no doubt that the unilateral advance of progress has left essential aspects of their being in the shadows. And even worse, we must not forget that for many the problem is lacking the minimum necessary. A culture of peace commits us to respond to the basic needs of our fellow human beings. <\/p>\n\n

      A culture of peace is helping to acquire an adequate hierarchy of values that gives meaning to human life. A culture of peace must favor the development of interiority, of gratuitous love, of generous giving. A culture of peace is to ensure that young people integrate into their person the rational with the emotional; feelings and instincts, will and fragility. Today it is important that we offer an integrating humanistic proposal with ethical bases since one of the biggest problems we are experiencing is the dehumanization in which we are falling. To dehumanization is added indifference. <\/p>\n\n

      Pope Francis, in his message for the Day of Peace of 2016, warned us of what he called the globalization of indifference. It may be that we are well informed, but everything remains in a vague knowledge that does not commit us or awaken our compassion. That is why the Pope invites us to promote a culture of mercy to overcome indifference and make us creative in the search for solidarity actions. <\/p>\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n
        \n
      1. The cry of the poor and the cry of the earth<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

        The earth is our common home, in it we realize ourselves as people, we meet others, we discover God. Pope Francis, in Laudato Si, invites us to start from a systemic perspective that makes us feel like members of two communities. On the one hand, we are members of humanity and on the other we belong to the earth house. If we want to build a culture of peace, we must commit ourselves to an integral ecology that responds to the cries of the poor and the cry of the earth. <\/p>\n\n

        Both memberships commit us ethically and invite us to a conversion.Both dimensions must be present in our culture of peace. As members of humanity, we are called to respect each person and to defend their rights, especially those of the poor and most vulnerable. As members of the earth, our common home, we are called to live a new lifestyle based on care, compassion, shared sobriety. A real alliance between humanity and the environment. Authentic human development has a moral character and implies full respect for the human person, but it must also pay attention to the natural world and \u00abtake into account the nature of each being and its mutual connection in an ordered system (LS. 5). This implies a change from an anthropocentric vision to an ecocentric vision, in which we all feel in relation to all creatures, according to the new paradigm that is now emerging, and that with Saint Francis makes us ask the Lord: make me an instrument of peace. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        By Brother \u00c1lvaro Rodr\u00edguez Echeverr\u00eda, FSC. Former Superior General of the Brothers of Christian Schools and collaborator of the International Academy of Catholic Leaders The war in Ukraine, which in one way or another is affecting us all, and the many other little-known wars in our world, also call us to reflect in a special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-archive"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to promote a culture of peace in times of war -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/liderescatolicos.net\/en\/how-to-promote-a-culture-of-peace-in-times-of-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to promote a culture of peace in times of war -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Brother \u00c1lvaro Rodr\u00edguez Echeverr\u00eda, FSC. 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