from the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
HONG KONG (August 5, 2014). As an international Catholic Missionary Society, we have lived and served for nearly 100 years in many countries around the world that have been scarred by war, dictatorships, military oppression and low-grade conflict.
We know the devastation that violence causes in all its forms as a result of political intolerance and ideological aggression. Through our ministry with migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced peoples, we encounter in a particular way the human suffering as a result of systemic violence.
Therefore, it is with deep sadness we watch the on-going and escalating killings, destruction, and repeatedly broken ceasefires in Gaza. We condemn the use of military force. We mourn the loss of so many innocent lives, especially children. We pray for the families who have lost their loved one and for the countless injured due to the bombings.
We join with Pope Francis, partner organizations like Pax Christi International, Caritas Internationales and with millions of people around the world when he implored during his recent Angelus speech from St. Peter’s Square on July 27, “Brothers and sisters, never war, never war!”. As a member organization of Pax Christi International (PCI), we endorse this statement from PCI of July 11, 2014…