Spring 2024 Virtual Event

and SimonMary Asese Aihiokhai (University of Portland and CTSA Board Member).Both meetings were well attended by members of the Society.The theme of the second meeting was "Is Peace Possible in a World of Violence?"It met on April 8, 2024.Given the violent conflicts around the world, the session invited CTSA members to consider what resources the Catholic theological tradition might offer to conversations about peacebuilding.Each of the panelist spoke from their experience and disciplinary expertise.Heather DuBois considered how disciples can "do some 'thing' that is particular to our place, our vulnerabilities, our strengths, our relationships" in conflict resolution.Engaging the work of John Paul Lederach and his distinction between "episodes" of conflict and epicenters of conflict-those "patterns and relational contexts that persist over time, fueling episodes"-she argued that the change we seek is only possible by attending to both episodes and epicenters.This entails "giv[ing] up the dream of perfection in order to increase the good" and investing in "iterative processes of changes because there is no single fix" in the work of peacebuilding.Eli McCarthy introduced the framework of just peace and its adoption in ecclesial settings in recent decades.He explained how just peace strategies, which are always contextual in nature and attend to those most directly affected by violence, seek (1) to build virtues and skillsets to transform conflict, (2) to break cycles of violence, and (3) to build more sustainable peace.McCarthy described and unpacked several norms that ought to shape each of these three goals.He then related the framework of just peace to the War in Gaza, noting that any resolution, which may be advocated for through peaceful civil disobedience in both the United States and Israel, must break the dynamics and patterns of violence that preceded the war and have been made manifest in it.Lilian Ehidiamhen argued that peace is possible when Gospel nonviolence is practiced.Developing her argument, she traced how early Christians first followed Gospel nonviolence before later developing just war theory.She noted that while just war theory was used to justify allied involvement in the two world wars of the twentieth