Abstract
Even as the Second Vatican Council called the Catholic Church to rethink war in the modern world, the shape of the modern world was shifting. Now, in the tug-of-war between globalization and resurgent cultural identities, borders are increasingly in flux. It is an opportunity for Christians to rediscover their calling as a transnational people of peace. For if we all are living in diaspora anyway, Catholics might even become catholic again for the first time.
Gerald W. Schlabach is a professor of moral theology at the University of St. Thomas, former chair of Justice and Peace Studies, and a leader in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. He is currently completing a book on Catholic peace theology entitled A Pilgrim People: Becoming a Catholic Peace Church. His New Frontiers lecture will summarize that work, while drawing on his decades of ecumenical dialogue for peace.