Читать книгу Blessed Peacemakers - Robin Jarrell - Страница 30

26 January 1930—

Peace Prelate

In late March 2003, a Roman Catholic prelate was led away in plastic handcuffs by Washington DC police. Along with other religious leaders and two Nobel Peace Prize recipients, he had been protesting the Iraq War in front of the White House. His arrest shocked many Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic, both those who opposed and those who supported the war. But for Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop of Michigan, it was nothing new. He’d been arrested once before, in 1999, also for peace witnessing at the White House.

The official Roman Catholic position on warfare—a position shared by all Christian denominations except a handful of historic peace churches—is that all wars are regrettable but some are morally justifiable if entered into for the right reasons and fought in the right way. But Gumbleton, a longtime pacifist who champions “peacemaking as a way of life,” rejects this position despite being a member of the ecclesial hierarchy. He is one of the few prelates of the Church willing to take a public anti-war stance, much less to be arrested for his convictions.

Gumbleton was consecrated bishop in 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War, and he immediately took advantage of his new position to urge American withdrawal from a conflict that eventually killed fifty thousand Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. At the time, he was the only Catholic bishop who publicly opposed the war.

Also while serving as bishop, Gumbleton became one of the founders of the American branch of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace organization, as well as Bread for the World, an organization that addresses the problem of world hunger. As president of both organizations, he frequently traveled around the world to meet with victims of war and economic injustice. He has consistently spoken out for the protection of human rights and in support of international disarmament, particularly of nuclear weapons. One of his continuous messages is that Christians are confronted with a fundamental choice between what he calls “pax Americana” and pax Christi. The first entails “bombing, killing, wherever we decide.” The second means heeding the life and message of Jesus as revealed in the gospels: “you listen to what Jesus says, you watch how He acts; you follow His life. If Jesus didn’t reject violence . . . you may as well say you know nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. He rejected violence for any reason, any reason whatsoever.”

Gumbleton’s vocal defense of pacifism has made him a persistent thorn in the Vatican’s side, as have his recent public declarations in defense of gay rights. But even in retirement, he continues to encourage people toward “the very profound conversion of mind and heart” to nonviolence.