by GSR Staff
"Peacemaking and contemplation are so intimately related that one can hardly exist without the other. This truth can be appreciated by recognizing that violence depends on distorting the object or the victim of violence, turning the victim into an impersonal object which can then be injured or even killed.
"An army officer told me that killing in war is much easier now that soldiers don’t have to see the faces of the enemy. In modern war we are able to describe the death of people as 'collateral damage.' Psychologically, it would be impossible to kill anyone on whom one had just been casting a loving glance. The day we teach people to look at persons behind the abstractions, to glance benevolently at them, the military-industrial complex will have a serious problem."
- Sr. Mary Evelyn Jegen, SND, co-founder of Pax Christi USA, from an interview with Jim Forest, c. 1980s. Jegen passed away July 4, 2014, at the age of 86.
Related - Holy Land bishops criticize 'collective punishment' of Palestinians by CNS at National Catholic Reporter