SALLY'S SALON...LET'S TALK
About...PEACEMAKING
SALLY’S SALON…LET’S TALK
About…PEACEMAKING
The world is waiting for something to cheer about. The conversation in recent times has been concentrated on words that have little connection to a solution of the reality we are facing. We hear profusely about the divisions that lead to hostility within nations and throughout the world. We hear about the lives being destroyed with the advanced methods being used to deal with these divisions and the alliances that are being formed to support them. We hear insulting and hateful words from angry people taking one side or another of reported happenings.
We deceive ourselves in depending upon strength instead of justice to be the way to solve problems, into thinking that our arguments and our deals can resolve situations that do not include a profound examination and caring about what the people actually involved in the problems are experiencing. To limit the violence we need institutions such as the UN to provide peacekeepers We don’t need institutions such as NATO to add the fuel of more bodies and more weapons to increase the violence. Most of all what we really need has been missing. We need PEACEMAKING.
PEACEMAKING is a skill. It was supposed to be a skill of the U.S. State Department, but in recent years it has been lost, or more accurately, replaced with bribes, threats, and sanctions. It’s a skill that can be learned through exposure to a socially conscious environment that is provided in the person’s education, along with relational skills that they possess, and their openness to absorb the values embedded in their own natural tendencies which have not been distracted by false enticements. This is my thoroughly inadequate perception, but perhaps an introduction to what it takes to be a peacemaker as I offer the recommendation to turn to one: Pope Leo XIV.
Most of us have heard that we have a new Pope, Leo XIV, an American priest , Robert Francis Prevost from South Chicago who has spent years working among the poor in Peru and living out the teachings of Augustinian theology as practiced by his predecessor Leo III, who is known for his encyclical of the working class, Rerum Novarum; influenced by beloved Pope Francis and his message for an inclusive world peace and justice ; and also shaped by his work as Head of the Church Dicastery of Bishops that dealt with many church issues including a reformation of church hierarchy , gender equality and establishment of ecumenical contacts among Christian and other religious groups. Among Pope Leo XIV ‘s first messages to the world was an offer to Mediate for Global World Peace, an offer he is eminently qualified to fulfill.
I Don’t know how an appointment of Mediator for Global Peace gets accomplished in a war-torn world, but the availability of one is a step that should be greeted with thanks and the sound of many Voices calling for Pope Leo XIV ‘s appointment.
CHEERS that we are hopefully at a turning point which will insert a new maturity into a fearful and confused humanity.
CHEERS for PEACEMAKING.
We need peacemakers, BUT especially we need a United Nations with the power to hold accountable nations that do not comply with the UN Charter that they have signed. Enough with words , it is urgent to have the legal authority to stop these aggressive wars . When will the UN demand this of its members.?