FRANCISCAN PEACE CENTER 2209 Buchanan Street, Suite 210 P.O. Box 280388 Nashville, TN 37228-0388 Phone: 615-313-3663 FAX: 615-313-7123 E-MAIL: Albert Merz, OFM - albertmerz@aol.com

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Franciscan Peace Center, a ministry of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, is to companion people on a spiritual journey to the true Source of Peace by embracing more fully the law within our hearts. Following the example of Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi, it will strive to help others reach out to become peacemakers in society.

The Franciscan Peace Center is committed to both the friars of the Province and to all people willing to continue the journey.

The philosophy of the Franciscan Peace Center is that peace among all peoples and with all creation springs forth from the love that throbs in the heart of each individual who embraces the law of God that is written there.¹ This law of God is summed up in the two great commandments of love: love of God and love of one another.² It is the belief of the Franciscan Peace Center that people need to be sincerely committed to live according to this law in order to be effective peacemakers. The Peace Center's focus is specifically on helping people grow in this commitment and is, therefore, different from the usual orientation of justice and peace centers where the emphasis is on dealing with economic, political and social change in the public arena.

The statement of Pope Paul VI in 1969, "If you want peace, work for justice," has become the universal operating motif for justice and peace efforts. However, success in bringing about a more just order in society has been limited. Differences of opinion regarding the definition of justice and the choice of issues to be dealt with have been part of the reason for the limited success. Another part of the reason lies in the fact that many efforts for justice in policy and practice have been directed at externals rather than at the inner convictions and motivational components of the human person. Without denying the great importance of working for economic, political and social justice, we feel that the transformation of the whole person is necessary to bring into existence a truly peaceful society. By embracing more fully the law of love that is written in our hearts, we emerge with a deeper desire and attitude for peace.

Our sense of urgency to become better peacemakers and to help others become peacemakers comes from the realization that, in our American society, from our very birth we are schooled in a culture of violence. "Consciously or not, we are continually being schooled in the logic and practice of emotional, verbal, physical or structural violence."³ Many contemporary voices are attempting to understand and analyze the pervasive character of this violence. Aware of this pervasiveness, we realize that peacemaking will necessarily involve getting at the root causes of violence. Our individual and social woundedness is where individual, social or cultural violence really begins. Francis of Assisi clearly realized this:

For Francis of Assisi violence was not something 'out there' that he had to resist with some active or passive technique. Violence is of the human heart. It is in everyone, and the way to peace is the way to peace of soul. It means first of all acknowledging one's own potential for evil and that of others, then embracing it and allowing the grace of God to redeem it. Yet one's potential for sin and violence can never be totally erased, for one is always free to reject the grace of God.⁴

Yet, Francis did not content himself with only confronting the violence within himself. Rather, having encountered, embraced and reached reconciliation with the violence within, he then sought to instill peace in his personal relationships and in all social relationships. We see that he prescribed an attitude of peace in his friars. His greeting to all he met was, "The Lord give you peace."⁵ In addition, in an era of hatred and violence toward Muslims, Francis went without arms and nonviolently to meet their Sultan.

So, too, we believe that to be peacemakers, we must address the violence that exists within us. After discovering the violence within, we move toward a greater awareness of the ways in which we are violent in our dealings with others individually or in groups. However, our reflection on the violence within ourselves and within our society cannot remain only a reflection if we want to grow in living the law written in our hearts. What we discover must lead us to want to seek reconciliation and instill peace in our personal relationships and in all of society.

Our Franciscan spirituality informs us that prayer and contemplation are essential if we hope to carry this out. Contemplation moves us to action and new experiences. These new experiences in turn bring us to a new moment for contemplation. In light of this, we not only propose a spiritual and educational program of transformation, but we also propose concrete involvement in peace-making activities on the local and/or national and/or international level.

Finally, the Franciscan Peace Center believes that the use of the principles of active nonviolence is the best way to address the issues of violence in our society. Active nonviolence is an approach that is growing out of the thought and practice of Mohandas Ghandi and its further development and use by Martin Luther King, Jr., and others. It is not to be confused with passivity. Instead, it is a creative, powerful and effective process for addressing and resolving conflict and for breaking the spiral of violence in our world. Active nonviolence holds that all human beings are meant to love and to be loved. In fact, the nonviolence practitioner yearns to transform all that separates human beings from their own integrity, from one another and from the earth and the whole world.⁶ We find that some of Francis' actions, though preceding the formulation of the principle of active nonviolence, nevertheless reflected it. This is evidenced in Francis' encounter with the Sultan and in his romanticized taming of the Wolf of Gubbio. Active nonviolence, it seems to us, is a true Franciscan ideal.

In summary, the Franciscan Peace Center is a ministry of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart. It currently is located in Nashville, Tennessee. Following the spirit and example of Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi, the staff reaches out to journey with others to discover and live more fully the law within our hearts, specifically focusing on becoming peacemakers in society. In fact, the Peace Center appropriately has named its program the Law Within Our Hearts. Whenever possible, the Center is committed to collaborate with other programs and strategies for peace.⁷ Finally, while the inspiration for the Center and its program is based on Franciscan spirituality within the Roman Catholic tradition, the Center is open to and collaborates with people of all beliefs and faith traditions.