Talk will focus on loving enemies

"How do you learn to love your enemies?"

Rev. Louie Vitale, OFM, can answer that question -- and will, in a June 10 presentation at Siena College in Loudonville. Father Vitale is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, a former pastor and teacher and a peace activist.

The Franciscan priest is also co-founder of both Pace e Bene (Italian for "peace and all good"), a nonviolent group that works for peace and justice; and the Nevada Desert Experience, an anti-nuclear weapon movement begun in the 1980s. 

For more than 50 years, Father Vitale has dedicated his ministry to working for nonviolent solutions to violent governmental actions. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, he counseled draft resisters; he has joined human rights delegations to Central America and has been arrested several times, serving jail time in both Arizona and Georgia.

The former pastor of St. Boniface parish in San Francisco, he  worked with migrant farmworkers, immigrants, single mothers and children and the homeless. He was recently commissioned by his Franciscan religious order to become even more involved in social justice issues.

Peace talks

Thus, Father Vitale began a series of justice and peace-related talks. It had occurred to him while serving a prison sentence in Arizona that the public has become apathetic to government activities.

"I don't really script my talks," he noted. "My talk at Siena will be about people and societies that we consider to be our enemies: Who are these enemies? What do we know about them as a country or nation, as a people? What [does that show] about ourselves?

"When the U.S. invaded Iraq, the one question that kept coming into my head was, 'How many people will be killed in this war?' I began to ask: Why do we consider the Iraqis our enemies? We have decided to wreak the worst possible revenge on them that we possibly can; why? What do we know about them as a people? What do they know about us? What do they suffer as the result of our invasion of their country?"

"As Christians, we are directed to follow the teachings of Jesus. I think of His prayer, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do.' We are all part of the human family. Can we learn to forgive? Must we always take revenge?

"Many countries now have the ability to produce the nuclear bomb. It is no longer a question of if some country will use it, [but] who will use it and when."

Brothers and sisters

Restorative justice will be among Father Vitale's suggestions for changing attitudes toward "enemies." The restorative justice process encourages different sides to work toward peace through forgiveness.

"The time I've spent in county jails has given me a clear picture of what needs to be done to continue the moratorium on nuclear testing that we managed to initiate in Nevada. We should work for the abolition of all wars," he stated. "We need to get rid of the notion that we must seek violent revenge against our brothers and sisters of other countries in retaliation for their violent actions.

"I don't believe that God ever intended us to act this way. Whether it is in the testing of nuclear bombs or the use of what I like to call the 'enhanced interrogation' process of waterboarding to extract information from our enemies, we must keep in mind that we are all God's children.

"We must treat each other with the respect that we intend and expect to be treated with by others -- especially those we call our enemies."

(Father Vitale's talk will be held June 10 at Siena's Sarazen student union, following a 5 p.m. potluck dinner. A free-will offering will be accepted, with proceeds going to Pace e
Bene.)

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