Catholic Peace Efforts Worldwide

The story of Catholicism itself is an interesting case study for the idea of reconciliation as a force of creating compatibility in the world.  In the span of just 100 years after the death of Christ, the religion had managed to break out of its foundations in heavily Jewish regions like Nazareth and Jerusalem, and had spread west into Greek and Latin speaking regions, as well as East into traditionally Persian areas, and the result was that Catholicism was a world religion from its very beginning.  It existed under a variety of different rulers and forms of government, was worshipped among people of different languages and backgrounds, and was embraced by the rich and poor alike.  This history lead directly into Section 83 of Gaudium et Spes that speaks of “Setting Up an International Community”. 

This section relates that “it is absolutely necessary for countries to cooperate more advantageously and more closely together tan to organize international bodies to work tirelessly for the creation of organizations which will foster peace”.  In many ways, the Church is an organization that works tirelessly for peace.  The Church has been criticized over the years for problems with its bureaucracy and rigid social conservatism, but there is no doubt that the Church as an organization has always stood for peace.  Even apart from the Vatican, the Church, in the sense of the universal group of worshippers, has also been a source of peace in a variety of ways, and is perhaps seen strongest in the charitable work done by the members of the Catholic Church.  One particularly great example of this is the work being done by organizations like Catholic Relief Services.  Organizations like this bring peace on a daily basis to the poor, neglected, abused, and forgotten throughout the entire world, and it is through this type of work that even the smallest Catholic parishioner is able to “work tirelessly for…peace”.  Here is a video of some of the work that they do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ejD8Ba5_k

I believe that the charity CRS does, which is just one of many organizations like it in the Catholic Church, is a prime example of the type of reconciliation that Gaudium et Spes preaches.