As we enter the Jubilee Year it seems appropriate to deepen our reflections on the righting of relationships broken by violence. In each issue of NewsNotes during the year 2000 we will begin with a brief reflection on this topic.
Society now has the means to cure disease and eliminate poverty and starvation.
The twentieth century has also seen the creation of a set of universal norms which, if implemented, would go a long way toward making war unnecessary and impossible. We have witnessed inspiring and successful experiments with active non-violence in struggles for independence and civil rights by unarmed peoples' movements. And this century has seen the replacement of authoritarian forms of government by democratic governance and the increasing role of civil society in the affairs of humanity. Recent years have seen outbreaks of genocide, brutal attacks against civilians and the spread of horrendous weapons of mass destruction capable of ending life on much or all of the planet. Indigenous populations continue to be denied their rights to self-determination.