Freising Peace Movement: "The Sermon on the Mount is not a government program - but a goal"

Created: 04/18/2022, 11:00 am

Pause, reflect and ask questions: Pax Christi spokesman Ernst Fischer explains the goals of the Christian peace movement.

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The speaker of the Freisinger group of the international Christian peace movement Pax-Christi, Ernst Fischer, speaks about war, peace and the anger of the people.

Freising

– Pax Christi, the Freising group of the international Christian peace movement, has already initiated three vigils against the war in Ukraine, numerous talks, the design of a peace way of the cross and food for thought through leaflets: The peace movement was and is present, but what does it want with it reach their actions?

What is your destination?

Ernst Fischer, spokesman for Pax Christi Freising and chairman of the Katholisches Kreisbildungswerk (KBW), gives answers in an interview with KBW spokeswoman Claudia Bauer.

Fischer, in the face of the terrible news that reaches us every day, many people are left speechless and feel angry and powerless.

Does Pax Christi have any words for that?

We, too, blame a Russian president.

We, too, are horrified by the victims of the war - and like every war, the one in Ukraine also produces unspeakable suffering.

We really shouldn't be surprised.

We only suppressed the images from Yemen or Syria.

As a Christian peace movement, we too have many questions and too few answers.

But we must ask these questions!

We must allow these questions and face them openly.

Don't the pictures and news from Ukraine infuriate you too?

Of course, it's hard to contain anger at Putin.

But the consequences of our anger are already showing: We resort to clichéd condemnations such as "The Russians." We stylize the dead on the Ukrainian side as heroes, and we keep silent about the Russian dead.

We dub pacifists "useful idiots".

We let ourselves be carried away by our emotions and one can get the impression that our society has replaced cool heads with anger, sadness and fear.

We, as a peace movement, therefore plead for the time to pause, to think.

However, the mood in society and in the media is different.

Discussions about supplying weapons, upgrading one's own military.

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We observe this and ask ourselves: is everything that applied before February 24, before Russian troops invaded Ukraine, really wrong?

Does the love of peace, indeed the love of enemies, no longer apply?

On Maundy Thursday 2000 years ago, Jesus asked Peter: "Put the sword away!" The Pope and the Church say: There is no such thing as a just war.

Has all this been wrong for six weeks now?

It is already clear to us: the Sermon on the Mount is not a government program.

But it is a goal to which Christians should be committed.

At the beginning you spoke about pausing and about questions that you have to ask yourself in the current situation.

What questions do you mean by that?

It's harder to end a war than to start one.

Of course, the aggressor can and should end it.

Our human sense of justice also demands this.

But objectively, the attacked can also end it.

Of course we don't have a solution to the problem either, but we ask ourselves: What is the ultimate goal right now?

How can you really avoid further victims?

Pausing means also allowing such thoughts and asking what the goal of an ongoing war is and what sacrifices it costs.

What is Pax Christi's position on the plans of Germany and other EU countries to significantly increase the defense budget?

So it is important to take a look into the future: how will western societies have changed once the war in Ukraine is over?

In the words of Pope Francis - "Every war makes the world worse" - we ask ourselves: Do we really want a militarized society that allows violence as a tool of politics?

Do we want a preparation for a war?

Or a preparation for a peace?

And the argument that Germany has to protect itself doesn't count?

If you want peace, prepare peace.

All possibilities of civil resistance must be promoted and practiced.

All our resources must serve this goal.

There are enough examples in history that have been successful: Mahatma Ghandi, ML King, the women of Northern Ireland.

But even today, grandmothers in Moscow take to the squares with white sheets, or Ukrainian citizens in sandals call on the Russian invaders to retreat.

We know, of course, that we are currently in the minority with our stance, but we have the confidence and experience that peace processes take decades and that we need perseverance.

There are enough positive examples of this.

We have been able to experience them for the last 70 years.

Back to people's anger and emotions.

What do you think could help them?

It's hard to get out of the spiral of emotions when everything is so acute and close.

But it is important to always take a step back and not be guided by negative feelings alone.

Humans are not just made up of emotions, they can also reflect.

Exchange can help, there are many ways to pause.

Pax Christi chooses the service for this: Become still in the community, feel yourself and ask yourself: What am I contributing to peace?

Good to know

Pax Christi invites people to pause during a peace service on Sunday, April 30, at 6 p.m. in the Church of St. Georg Freising.