#17, “Start a revolution! Shake things up! The world is deaf. You have to open its ears.” Fr. John Dear on Pope Francis—The Most Radical Pope in History.

Fr. John shares his own outreach to Pope Francis and the Vatican on nonviolence; reflects on the great themes of Pope Francis; and in particular, reviews Francis’ extraordinary efforts at peacemaking and how he started to turn the church back to its roots in Gospel nonviolence. In this episode he reflects on the life and death, of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.

He calls Francis “the most radical, most progressive, most nonviolent, most prophetic, most peace-activist-oriented pope in history, and therefore, the greatest pope in history, hands down.”

“I give thanks because Francis spoke out so boldly, so prophetically in word and deed for justice, the poor, disarmament, peace, creation, mercy, nonviolence, and the nonviolent Jesus; that we had him for 12 years; that did not resign and retire, but kept at it till the last day, Easter Sunday, and that we got to live during his time.

I think he’s one of our greatest saints, and I hope he will be named a Doctor of the Church.”

“Let us pray for a more widespread culture of nonviolence,” Francis said, “that will progress when countries and citizens alike resort less and less to the use of arms.” Fr. John calls us to honor Pope Francis by rising to the occasion, speaking out, and resisting war, injustice, poverty, racism, corporate greed, fascism, genocide in Gaza, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, that we might be Gospel peacemakers like Francis.

Listen as Fr. John recounts the times Pope Francis went into the world at risk of his own safety to actively promote peacemaking and reconciliation in the world, many of which never made the media headlines. A truly unique POV on the most radical Pope ever in history and certainly in our lifetime.

#TheNonviolentJesus

BeatitudesCenter.org

#16 "We are experiencing the thrashing of empire and death throes of capitalism", says Dorothy Day's granddaughter Martha Hennessy in this week's conversation with Fr. John Dear. Dorothy Day was an activist, author, anarchist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Martha Hennessy, also a longtime peace activist, lives on her family farm in Vermont and volunteers part time for the last fifteen years at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City. She speaks regularly on the issues of war, poverty, the works of mercy, and nuclear weapons, and has traveled to Russia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Korea to witness for peace.

She reminds us that "solutions will never come from the state... we need to "find one's niche...to create a new world from the shell of the old world, to create a society where it's easy to be good."

John asks Martha about Dorothy’s shocking, brilliant statement after Pearl Harbor saying “Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount.” Even if everyone else runs off to war, they will obey the teachings of Jesus and not support war. Dorothy Day said "No" to every. single. war.

Martha says that "the U.S. church desperately needs her (Dorothy Day) as a saint: (as a) laywoman, a mother, a grandmother...and Pope Francis recognizes her as a saint. She was a mystic, she was touched by God. She was an extraordinary grandmother."

Martha tells about her recent arrest on Ash Wednesday outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations calling upon the U.S. to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; her work at Maryhouse; her imprisonment for the King’s Bay Plowshares disarmament action; and her grandmother’s impending canonization.

beatitudescenter.com

catholicworker.org

#15: "Contrary to what a lot of people see or think, there is more protest and resistance to Trump than you see or read in the mainstream media" with Eric Stoner, co-founder and editor of WagingNonviolence.org

On Feb 28 up to 4oM people participated in the economic blackout boycott, making it one of the most successful acts of non-compliance in U.S. history.

John Dear speaks with Eric Stoner, founding editor of WagingNonviolence.org, an independent, non-profit media platform that covers social movements and grassroots activism around the world on all issues of justice, disarmament and creation. Since 2009, it has published original reporting on nonviolent action from contributors in more than 90 countries.

Eric and friends started this clearinghouse of nonviolent movements in the 2000s from scratch, and today it regularly gets over 1.3 million readers looking for news about people power movements that you will never hear on the mainstream media.

John asks Eric about the signs of movement and hope in recent months against the growing authoritarianism and oligarchy, as well as stories of movements from around the world, and Eric says surprisingly that covering the world from the perspective of nonviolence actually gives him hope because so many people are struggling hard for positive social change.Eric also shares the 10 points based on Daniel Hunter's article published on November 6,

Eric Stoner: "Boycotting is the most important tool in protesting, hands down".

wagingnonviolence.org

choosedemocracy.org

beatitudescenter.org