A Mennonite-Catholic contribution to the Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace
A consultation co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Mennonite World Conference in October 2007 submitted a joint contribution to the World Council of Churches for the end of the Decade to Overcome Violence Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace.
The statement affirms that "nonviolence is normative for Christians", but acknowledges a range of Christian attitudes, from just war to active non-violence and pacifism. It urges the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) to "work toward the goal of achieving an ecumenical consensus on ways Christians might advocate, together to replace violence as a means to resolve serious conflict in society." It suggests to seriously study the positions on conscientious objection, selective conscientious objection, "the responsibility to protect" better known as international humanitarian intervention, and "just policing" as an alternative to just war.
The document is an outgrowth of the International Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue concluded in 2003 and it drew on the dialogue's five-year report Called Together to Be Peacemakers.
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