Nonviolence and Peace

Published in Listín Diario
(Dominican Republic) on 30 January 2019
by Msgr. Ramón Benito de la Rosa y Carpio (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Madeleine Brink. Edited by Eric Stimson.
The final days of January remind us to think about people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi and other men and women that have lived and worked with nonviolence.

Their nonviolence is muscular and similar to that of Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, those who work for peace.”*

Nonviolence and peace do not mean being passive. Rather, they mean using nonviolence as an instrument for peace.

We all know that one of the great evils of the world is the lack of peace, which is violence. There are many types of violence, including violence between countries and violence spread from the powerful nations – the United States and others in Europe – who use it in service of their ambitions and their wealth at the expense of other regions of the globe. But let’s also remember violence within a country.

In the Dominican Republic, we must face the violence of the wealthy toward the poor. Nor can we turn our faces from the violence we see most often: street violence and violence within our families.

Nonviolence and peace. Let me say clearly that fathers and mothers must use nonviolent methods to discipline their children. Nonviolent methods: models such as Gandhi can show us how to proceed on this road, a road that leads to the future.

When a person is violent, he or she is closer to the caves and fires of our ancestors and further from the future. Violence is a sign of backwardness. Peace and peaceful methods, on the other hand, are a sign of progress and growth.

The powerful countries – and with this I’ll end – that use violence to increase their wealth and to exploit the riches of other nations might be very technically advanced, but they are humanly quite underdeveloped.

See you tomorrow, if God, and you, and I allow.

*Editor’s note: This quote, though accurately translated, could not be verified.


Los últimos días de enero nos recuerdan y nos ponen sobre el tapete aquellos hombres como Martin Luther King, Gandhi y decenas más de hombres y mujeres, que han trabajado con la no violencia.

Y no es la no violencia que no hace nada, sino la no violencia en el sentido que le daba Jesucristo: “Dichosos los pacíficos, los que trabajan por la paz”.

La no violencia y la paz significan no estarse quieto: la no violencia significa usar la no violencia como un instrumento para la paz.

Todos nosotros sabemos que uno de los grandes males del mundo es la falta de paz, es la violencia. Hablamos de la violencia entre las naciones, las naciones poderosas -como Estados Unidos y otras de Europa-, que usan la violencia y no traen paz a los pueblos, por sus ambiciones y por su dinero, pero pensamos también en la violencia entre los países y dentro de un mismo país.

En la República Dominicana, no lo podemos negar, está la violencia de los que tienen más riquezas frente a aquellos que no las tienen, y la violencia -en la que más nos fijamos-, es la violencia de la calle, y además de esto, pensemos en la violencia intrafamiliar.

No violencia y paz. Permítanme acentuar cómo los papás, los padres, han de usar métodos no violentos para la educación de sus hijos. Métodos no violentos: siempre estos modelos -como Gandhi-, nos enseñan cuál es el camino que debemos seguir, y ese es el camino futuro.

Cuando una persona es violenta, está más cerca de la caverna, de las fieras, que de un ser humano avanzado. La violencia es signo todavía de un gran atraso histórico; la paz y métodos de paz, son un signo de avance, de crecimiento.

Las naciones poderosas -y con esto termino-, que usan la violencia para enriquecerse y apoderarse de las riquezas de las otras naciones, pueden estar muy avanzadas técnicamente, pero humanamente muy atrasadas.

Hasta mañana, si Dios, usted y yo lo queremos.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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