Nonviolence is not cowardice. Nonviolence is, above all, a critique of violence. It denounces its misdeeds and contradictions. Far from redressing injustice, violence adds further injustice. Even when it does not kill people, it shows scant respect for their integrity or dignity.
Violence is a force, which escapes the control of reason.
Put positively, nonviolence is the affirmation of an alternative view of force. It is a clearsighted power, which uses means proportionate to the goal it sets itself. It is the power of reason and truth, the power of morality and the human spirit. It is what in Brazil is called principled firmness and in the Philippines the power of the weak, the power of the soul. Nonviolence is not mere passivity or an internal disposition, but a constant way of acting which names acts of violence for what they are, as Pope John Paul 11 consistently did before, during, and after the Gulf War.