This Thursday, April 11, is the 61st anniversary of the publication of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), which has been a formative document for Pax Christi. The following paragraphs are excerpts from an essay written by Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Joe Fahey, a founding member of Pax Christi USA and one of its first general secretaries, and published by the Journal of Social Encounters, Vol. 8, Issue 1.
By Joe Fahey
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
The essay examines the historical context that led to Pope John XXIII’s proposal for a global “public authority” in his encyclical Pacem in Terris. The catalyst for this letter was the Cuban Missile Crisis that occurred between October 22 and October 29, 1962. Pope John offered to mediate that crisis, and President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev agreed and eventually came to an agreement not only to end the crisis but also to negotiate a limited nuclear test ban treaty. In the last year of his life, a time for him of “metanoia” (change of heart), President Kennedy attempted to end the Cold War and promote nuclear disarmament. That metanoia coincided with John XXIII’s prophetic vision, and it may have been the reason for President Kennedy’s assassination. This essay also explores the core principles of Pacem in Terris that lead to John’s call for a “public authority” as the most realistic strategy to end war itself and to secure peace for all nations. Finally, the essay briefly reflects on the European Union as a successful regional model that could help shape the global governance envisioned by John XXIII.
Introduction
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the BhagavadGita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
Robert Oppenheimer, after witnessing the first atomic bomb test in 1945
Today, our home on planet Earth is in peril of a nuclear war, whether caused by intention, by mistake, or by accident. The reality is that we have come close to nuclear war many times since
1945, and this threat continues to this day.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (www.thebulletin.org) has persistently cautioned us about the threat of nuclear war through its Doomsday Clock. In 1947, the Clock’s first reading was seven minutes to midnight. In 1963, with the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Clock read 12 minutes to midnight. The Clock’s furthest point from doomsday was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 with the end of the Cold War. In 2023, with the advent of the war in Ukraine in 2022 and with the Israeli/Palestine war in 2023, the Clock now reads an astonishing 90 seconds to midnight. In short, we are closer to nuclear war today than at any time since the Clock was invented.
Nevertheless, there is a peaceful path open to us to end this madness. Pope John XXIII’s behind-the-scenes assistance in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and his fervent call for world peace through a global “public authority” in his 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris both offer hope for a future based on international law and mutual respect.
To fully appreciate the importance of John’s intention and call, we first need to understand the threatening context of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which John secretly played a key role and which led him to issue Pacem in Terris. To understand that threatening context, I will first summarize the story told in Norman Cousins, The Improbable Triumvirate: John F. Kennedy, Pope John, and Nikita Khrushchev (W.W. Norton, 1972), an important book strangely overlooked by many leading historians of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
We also need to understand the powerful forces resisting John’s vision and how that resistance may have led to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. For that story, I will next summarize claims made by James Douglass in his extensively documented book JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters, (Orbis Books, 2008). (Establishment historians of the Kennedy assassination—many of whom accept the “lone gunman” theory–ignore this book.) After that, I will explain the three key principles for global governance that Pacem in Terris articulates and briefly discuss the European Union (EU) as a model that could be expanded to the global level. …
Use this link to read the entire essay at the Journal of Social Encounters.
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After clicking on the link for the entire essay, I read it slowing and carefully and admit I was unaware of the role played by Pope John XXIII and the metanoia of Presidents Khrushchev and Kennedy, all of which prevented the end of the world in 1963. Regarding the roles of the United Nations and the European Union as necessary components for global peace and even fraternity, my initial reaction is less optimistic based on what is happening right before our noses: the European Union has become the lackey of a warmongering NATO that deliberately, following orders by the United States, provoked the Russian Federation into a proxy war. Just imagine for one moment what the U. S. would have done had China and Canada decided to enter into a military-economic alliance. As for the United Nations: right now it’s a puppet for the United States and Israel. It can’t even stop the American/Israeli genocide in Gaza. One thing for sure that we can intuit from the article: Biden need not worry about making enemies of the security state, as befell Kennedy. Biden is the best friend the arms dealers and manufacturers have ever had and a president most terrified of the pro-Israel lobbies (read AIPAC).
David-Ross Gerling, PhD