By Bishop Gabino Zavala
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following address was given at the University of Great Falls on March 11, 2009 at the invitation of the university and the Diocese of Billings-Great Falls. Bishop Zavala announced Pax Christi USA's new nuclear disarmament campaign publicly following the address.
Thank you. I am so pleased and honored to be with you tonight. I would like to express my gratitude to the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings and the Catholic University of Great Falls for sponsoring tonight’s gathering. And I want to give special thanks to Bishop Warfel for this invitation to come, and also for his leadership in our Church on concerns of justice and peace, for he has served on the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Bishops Conference, and as a bishop member of Pax Christi USA.
I have been asked to share a reflection on the U.S. bishops’ landmark pastoral: “The Challenge of Peace,” written in 1983, by exploring the challenges of peace today, as well as the opportunities for charting new paths for peace for our country and our world.
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Also in this issue:
A movement of Lilliputians
By Johnny Zokovitch
I believe that it was at the Pax Christi USA National Assembly in Cleveland in 1996 when scripture scholar and teacher Ched Myers invoked the story of Gulliver and the Lilliputians (from Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift) to describe the task that is before the peace movement. For those unfamiliar with the story, Gulliver, the titular hero, is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of the Lilliputians.
The Lilliputians are a miniature people, with an average height of around 6 inches tall. To them Gulliver is a giant, and a threatening one at that. Their attempts to subdue Gulliver include hundreds of Lilliputians racing around Gulliver’s prone body, throwing tiny ropes over various parts, seeking to keep him immobilized, tied to the ground. Some Lilliputians are trying to fasten down his knee, others his wrist, some around his midsection, and so on.
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