Recognizing the 63rd Anniversary of the atomic nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

Article for the August 3, 2008, St. Francis FORUM front page.  By Jim Varani leader of our parish efforts in Opposition to Indiscriminate Warfare and Nuclear Disarmament.

 Hope is the virtue that binds our trust in God.  We learned as children that there are two major sins against hope – despair (which assumes that we are so wretched that a perfect God could not love us), and presumption (that God will somehow force us to love Him against our will).  At the communal level, hope is the basis for our recognition that God’s kingdom will, ultimately, prevail.  This does not absolve us from efforts to bring about His kingdom.  Quite the contrary, hope demands the opposite – that we commit ourselves body and soul to bringing about the triumph of God’s kingdom.  Through hope, we acknowledge that we exist for that purpose.  This is not ancillary – this is the reason for our being! 

 Each year in early August, our diocese asks us to consider the meaning of peace.  God’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace and justice.  Without justice, there can be no peace. Without peace, there will be no justice.  Pope John Paul II once said, “war is ultimate poverty.”  What can each of us do to foster peace?  With so much strife in the world today, with so much violence, it is not an easy question to answer.  It is unlikely that anything any one of us does will miraculously transform the world.  None-the-less, each of us is called to be a peacemaker.  Each of us is called to work, in some way, to bring about peace in the world.  Reminding us of that is why we celebrate Peace Sunday.

 The Peace and Justice Committee at St. Francis urges you to consider the ways in which you can work for peace.  One thing you can do is oppose the most egregious forms of indiscriminate warfare.  Please visit the Social Ministry Page of the parish website.  Follow the link to Opposition to Indiscriminate Warfare.  There you will find what you can do to promote nuclear disarmament and ways to help end the scourge of landmines and cluster bombs.  While we do not naively believe that banning these forms of mass murder will, in and of themselves, bring about the peace of God’s kingdom, it is a step in that direction. 

Also see: BY JAMES VARANI, "Activism at all levels needed to ensure nuclear disarmament."   See Ann Arbor News website. It is in the OPINION section "Other Voices":  Tuesday, May 13, 2008.