Fr. John Hugo

Written in 1981, with tensions high between the United States and then Soviet Union, with the nuclear disarmament movement gaining ground in the U.S. and Europe, and with the U.S. bishops beginning work on their unprecedented letter on war and peace, this manifesto was distributed worldwide and translated into several languages. It is by far the most radical and the most apocalyptic of Father Hugo's pacifist tracts.

Christians of the World, unite! Men and women of all religions, let us unite! All men and women of good will, let us unite! Too long have we been scandalously divided over differences of belief. However weighty these may appear, they shrink into insignificance when compared to the threat currently launched against what we all cherish, namely, the very order of Creation itself, given to us all by the Maker of us all. Like maniacs, those occupying the seats of power are planning to destroy, indeed annihilate, whole populations, the very earth its fruitfulness, its capacity to sustain life. A total war is declared against the Creator whom we all love, honor and worship.

What we do must be done without violence, as befits followers of the God of peace. But it must be done. Let us march forward in our struggle as Jesus moved inexorably toward Jerusalem, on a donkey, revealing thereby His intent to establish without violence and in love His Father's kingdom of peace.

Not even as a last resort can violence be approved; any more than Jesus would then consent to violence. "Put your sword into its sheath," He said to Peter at the last, critical moment (Jn 18:11).

If we act without violence, we need nevertheless to act with determination. Let us prevent money collected by governments for the public good to be used against the common good of the race. Let us refuse to allow our tax money to be converted into diabolic machines for the slaughter of our brothers and sisters all over the world.

Let us halt the plundering of this planet earth to proliferate these deadly machines. Let us turn around the ominous tendency in our society to concentrate control of material resources in those centers of power where they are readily converted into the cruel instruments of death and destruction blandly and hygienically described by those trafficking in them as "military hardware."

Let our workers, the common men and women of the world, refuse to create these machines destined for the extermination of their fellow workers. Let us block the continuing effort to pervert our youth by training them to operate these engines of horror.

More than that, let us outlaw conscription. This ignominious institution, hypocritically invoking the name of democracy, has made universal the vilest and most degrading slavery that the world has ever known, a slavery that condemns its victims to maim and kill their fellow humans by the most cruel means imaginable. Let us end the rash exploitation of nuclear power, which contaminates and renders uninhabitable this fair earth, God's gift to all.

Let us once and for all refuse to give allegiance to any god of battles, serving rather the God of peace. "All who take the sword shall perish by the sword" (Mt 26:52).

Too long have we delayed. Now at last, on the brink of universal ruin, we cannot avoid seeing the absolute need to love all our fellows (at the least!) as we love ourselves, desiring and seeking for them the basic needs of a truly human life, if we are ourselves to survive to give homage to the one Father of all.

Is this matter hopeless? We can only begin to practice hope, G.K. Chesterton observed, when things seem hopeless. Dorothy Day, one of the great peacemakers of our time, remained ever hopeful, even in the dark days of World War II, confident in the ultimate potentialities of the common people and in the providence of our Father in heaven. She liked to cite these words of William James: I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible, molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of men's pride.

In a Christian society it is love that penetrates the crannies of the world: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us." (Rom 5:5). Charity is God's love moving through the the little ones of the world, beloved by God from Old Testament times are now the only ones who can hobble the leaders in their madness. Let the voices of these little ones swell from their villages and neighborhoods into a thunderous roar demanding peace, and survival.

From their rank, too, let more leaders rise up like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Archbishop Oscar Romero. These, and others inspired by them, can teach the techniques of nonviolent action.

Nonviolent resistance, nonparticipation, nonsupport, protests, fasting, civil disobedience, conscientious objection can be effective weapons in the service of love. For any law that is immoral, since it cannot reflect the goodness of God, is without moral force.

Scripture confirms our hope: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor 1:27-29).

Finally, let the little people form a great chorus of prayer. As Tennyson said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain… night and day."

Many would like to do more than pray. Indeed, we do need to do more than pray. Jesus bestowed a special blessing on peacemakers (Mt 5:9).

A basic teaching of Christianity is that God wills the happiness and salvation of all peoples. He is the "one God and Father of us all" (Eph 4:6). Because of this Jesus told His disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19). To love your neighbor as yourself means opening your hearts to all, regardless of race, nationality, sex or religion.

To live according to this universal love we must therefore learn, accept and practice what is surely the most difficult truth of Christianity: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven and who makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:44-45).

We are to become "like God" (cf. Mt 5:48). This is indeed the great distinctive teaching of Jesus as He brought the Old Law to perfection: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17). Love extended even to enemies is this fulfillment. Here also is the fulfillment of the deep desire of all human beings to live in peace among themselves. Religion, then, should lead nations to peace. Paul places peace among the gifts of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).

Religion that is not political, said Gandhi, is not religion. That is to say, authentic religion does not seek the welfare of this or that party or group to the disadvantage of the other, but rather works for the common good of all. Peace is the final good of a community. "Peace is my farewell gift to you," said Jesus. "I do not give it to you as the world gives peace" (Jn 14:27).

This is the only way in which we can hope to establish universally the kingdom of God, which is the Sermon on the Mount transposed into political actuality: Willingness to suffer rather than to inflict suffering, to die rather than to kill, which is what Jesus meant when he said, and afterwards carried out in practice — "The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent bear it away" (Mt 11:12). Jesus had described Himself as "meek and humble of heart" (Mt 1 1 :29). In His death He passed the fullest limit of humility.

The needed prayer for peace is much more than the addition of a few petitions or more verbal prayers added to routine devotions. It can mean only prayer in the sense of Jesus as He explained to the disciples why they had been unable to heal the afflicted boy (Mt 17:21). What is needed is the prayer of deep faith.

"The appointed time is very short" (1 Cor 7:29). God will have the last word: it will be either the kingdom of God or extinction. "For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the only Son of God" (Jn 3:17-18).

The form given of the prayer that we need has been given to us by Jesus Himself: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:9-10).