Eaton & Levesque/Advancing Nonviolence, 9. No to War and Yes to So Much More

With reference to both Pope Francis’ peacebuilding efforts and his contributions to Catholic Social Teaching, this chapter maps some of the confluences among key concepts in Peace Studies and the current bishop of Rome’s peace witness. In particular, the Peace Studies concepts of principled nonviolence and positive peace are presented as antidotes to structural and direct violence. These concepts are employed in the mapping of both Francis’ involvement in geo-political peacebuilding and a selection of his insights from Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si’. The conclusion suggests the existence of mutually enhancing feedback loops among Pope Francis’ peace witness, principled nonviolence, and positive peace, which hold the potential to help grow socio-ecological flourishing in this world.