Ciaron O'Reilly

Some Christians seek to redress injustice through direct protest and civil disobedience. One Australian who has chosen this path is Ciaron O’Rielly. Ciaron’s actions in the cause of peace have seen him arrested and imprisoned on a number of occasions. Ciaron is a member of the Catholic Worker Movement founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day.

What are core principles and values on which this organisation is based?

The Catholic Worker Movement is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person.

Who are some of the people involved and what are their stories?

Today 225 Catholic Worker communities remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

Where and in what contexts has the Catholic Worker Movement been active?

The Catholic Worker movement was founded in 1933 during the Great Depression by Dorothy Day at the urging of Peter Maurin. It is best known for houses of hospitality located in run-down sections of many cities, though a number of Catholic Worker centers exist in rural areas. Food, clothing, shelter and welcome is extended by unpaid volunteers to those in need according to the ability of each household. In 1995 there were 134 Catholic Worker communities, all but three in the United States.

When and why did Dorothy Day found the movement?

On May 1, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, The Catholic Worker newspaper made its debut with a first issue of twenty-five hundred copies. Dorothy Day and a few others hawked the paper in Union Square for a penny a copy (still the price) to passers-by.

War and Peace

Justice in Scripture

John 3:17-18

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

This passage means to me that God created his son to save the world from evil instead of harming the world. He has created him for all those people who believe in him with not be harmed but those who do not believe in him will be harmed as he is God’s one and only son.

What is Justice?

 

 

Case Study: The human spirit in times of chaos

World War II

World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world’s nations including all of the great powers. They eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most wide spread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units from over 30 different countries.

World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to stabilise post-war relations and fight more effectively in the Cold War.

Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians. Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were ethnic Russians (5,756,000), followed by ethnic Ukrainians (1,377,400). One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or wounded in that war. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.

Case Study: Genocide in Cambodia

The Cambodian Genocide occurred throughout 1975-1979. 1.7 million People were killed, which is approximately 20% of Cambodia's population. It was politically motivated genocide, in which all religious leaders, intellectuals, former members of the (non-Communist) government and military, and even those who were simply literate were targeted. Pol Pot, who was the leader of the largest faction of the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Red) Communists, felt that, in order the make a communist utopia, he would have to eliminate all traces of the corrupt former regime and start fresh at year zero.

Throughout the genocide, all political and civil rights were abolished. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labour camps. Factories, schools and universities were shut down; so were hospitals. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional people in any field (including the army) were murdered, together with their extended families. Religion was banned, all leading Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Music and radio sets were also banned. It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing, or crying. One Khmer slogan ran 'To spare you is no profit; to destroy you is no loss.'

More than 20 years later, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is bringing the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge to trial for their crimes against humanity. On June 26, 2010, the ECCC found Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, sentencing him to 35 years in prison. Kaing Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge deputy and chairman of S-21, is the first of four former leaders charged to stand trial before the ECCC.

Why is their suffering?

The notion of suffering is a difficult concept for us to understand. We can start to ask difficult questions and there are not a lot of easy answers. We do, however, have the promise that God will always be with us.

I deal with the concept of suffering by thinking though what I am suffering and talking about it with someone. I think suffering exists because no one is perfect and at a time in every ones lives each and every person has a time of suffering whether it is little suffering or whether it is a lot of suffering. It does not really affect my understanding of God but it does make me wonder why people suffer is God is there for everyone.

Some suffering is hard for us to solve, but there is some suffering in the world that we can help alleviate. The one thing that I would always stand up and fight against is my family and friends as they are the one thing that really matters in life.