Stephanie E. Effevottu, Ph.D.

stephanieeffevottu@gmail.com

All through history, religion has constituted a major aspect of human social existence, serving as a source of moral value and identity for most individuals and groups. The societal impact of religion is also reflected in the tangible contributions made by different religious groups towards meeting basic social needs and spurring positive change especially in developing countries with weak social welfare systems. Religious traditions also contain certain fundamental precepts and values that teach the culture of peace and contribute to peacebuilding, such as love of the enemy, non-violence, justice, empathy, forgiveness, compassion, and solidarity with the underprivileged and the oppressed. For example, the principle of “do to others what you want others to do to you (the golden rule)” constitutes one of the most unanimously-accepted ethical principles, and is found in the sacred scriptures of nearly every religion.

However, despite the significant role of religion in shaping human development, its role in peacebuilding is often overlooked or underestimated. In fact, religion is often seen as a barrier to peacebuilding because of the religious undertone surrounding most violent conflicts. However, in a country like Nigeria where over eighty percent of the population identifies with one religious grouping or the other, it is crucial to understand religious dynamics in violence and the means to engaging the religious ideas, actors, and institutions in efforts to build peace. Additionally, a deeper investigation into most of the conflicts associated with religion will show the presence of other socio-economic and political grievances. Moreover, in some of the world most conflict prone societies, peace would have been impossible to build without an understanding of the positive role of religious peacebuilding organisations like the Roman Catholic Church.

As a vital element of civil society institutions worldwide, the Catholic Church has a rich tradition of reflection on war and peace. However, while the Church’s teachings on issues like euthanasia, just war, and abortion are quite known by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, very few people are familiar with the Church’s teachings on issues of socio-economic justice, human rights, post-conflict reconciliation, and peace.

Furthermore, for some people, the damage that Catholicism has done across the world is much more glaring than any of the benefits it has brought. Issues like clerical sex abuse, cases of paedophilia among priests, nepotism, abuses of indulgences, unequal treatment of women, and involvement or negligence in genocidal killings, as in the case of Rwanda, are highlighted as examples of unbearable ugliness of the Catholic Church.

Despite these shortcomings, the Catholic Church has developed teachings on peace and justice that address global challenges of democracy and human rights, economic and social development, interreligious dialogue, conflict resolution, among others. Globally, the Church has been making substantial contributions to the work of peacebuilding. From South Sudan, Columbia, to Iraq and the Philippines, the Catholic communities, including Catholic humanitarian aid agencies and Catholic non-governmental organizations like Caritas and Catholic Relief Services are deeply involved in the task of peacebuilding. These actors play an integral role in conflict transformation and peacebuilding through advocacy, mediation, negotiation, reconciliation, peace education, inter-religious dialogue facilitation, overseeing demobilisation efforts, and so on. The Church’s effort at peacebuilding also include capacity development, integral human development, human capital development, socio-economic empowerment, and advocacy in issues relating to conflicts.

Catholic peacebuilding is anchored on and imbedded in the Bible; the documents of the Church (the catechism of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs), Papal Encyclical Letters, documents of the Second Vatican Council, and the publications of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace); the theology of the Church, and the pastoral teachings of Popes. According to Scott Appleby, “peacebuilding is a vocation rooted in the Catholic sacramental and anthropological worldview, but also inherently ecumenical, interreligious, and open to the secular world”.

The Bible remains one of the fundamental reference points for Catholic peacebuilding. It must, however, be noted that peace teachings within the Bible remains one of the most controversial especially because the roots of violence can also be found in the Bible itself (Genesis 6:5-7; Joshua 6: 20-21; 1 Samuel 15: 33). Jesus’s attitude towards peace and violence as demonstrated in the Bible also remains vague and, to some extent, contradictory. In Matthew 5:9, Jesus avowed, “Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children”. Nevertheless, in Matthew 10:34-36, he cautions, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; your worst enemies will be the members of your own family”. Again, in 1 Peter 3:10-11, it is written, “Whoever wants to enjoy life and wishes to see good times must keep away from speaking evil and stop telling lies. They must turn away from evil and do good; they must strive for peace with all their hearts”. Thus, although there are many scriptures in the Bible that support war, bloodshed, and human killings, there are also many citations in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible that refer to peace, the importance of peace, and how peace can be achieved in the world. The Bible also illuminates numerous values of peacebuilding ranging from love and forgiveness to justice and peace (Matt 5: 44-45; Matt 12:29-31; Matt 24: 34-40; Matt 28:18; Mark 12: 29-31. Luke 2:14, Luke 4:8).

Apart from the Bible, the Catholic Church also has a doctrine of social teaching that supports the development of peaceful and just societies. By social teachings, we refer to the documents of the hierarchical magisterium (papal, episcopal, and conciliar documents) of the Church dealing with social issues. Catholic Social Teaching (CST) encompasses vital statements of the Popes, ranging from apostolic letters, papal encyclicals to Conciliar documents on issues related to economics, politics, culture, etc. This social doctrine provides insights into how the Church should respond to societal challenges. For the Church, the dissemination of these social teaching constitutes an integral aspect of its prophetic role and its evangelizing mission, which is to spread the good news of the kingdom of God to all humanity. The social teachings of the Catholic Church concerning issues of peace and development have their root in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 Rerum Novarum (The Workers’ Charter), which deals with the grave difficulties arising from the Industrial Revolution and the plight of the workers. This was followed by Pope Pius XI’s encyclical in 1931, titled “Quadragesimo Anno” in which he also addressed the problems of industrialisation but within the context of worldwide depression. These social teachings have developed considerably over the years, with subsequent Popes broadening the scope of Catholic social teachings to include the question of peace, social justice, and development for all.

Catholic peacebuilding effort is also centred on certain fundamental principles of Catholic Social Teachings such as the fundamental dignity of the human person, the common good, sacredness of human life, and the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, a peacebuilding approach that now comes under the framework of Integral Human Development (IHD). The Catholic Church’s integral human development (IHD) framework was first presented by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical titled Populorum Progression (On the Development of Peoples). According to him, peace and development goes together, with IHD taking into account the development of the individual person as well as the society in general. Pope VI believes that without integral development of all people, peace will always be fragile. To him, the development of peoples must be well rounded; it must foster the development of each and of the whole man.

In Nigeria, the Catholic Church has been a major stakeholder in the country’s peacebuilding efforts. Through institutions like the Catholic Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CCFN), also known as Caritas Nigeria, and other lay organizations like the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Women Organisation, Catholic Men Organisation, and Catholic Youth Organisations, the Church has developed and sustained several peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development initiatives. It has provided affordable access to quality social services and infrastructures like hospitals and schools to people in various parts of the country, particularly those in deprived and distressed areas that are sometimes inaccessible to the government.

It has also contributed to reducing vulnerability among marginalized population such as widows, orphans, and the disabled. Through its communiques, homilies, and pastoral letters, the Church also preach about peace, social justice, reconciliation, and brotherliness, as well as condemned various forms of violence and structural injustice.