By Moira Dynon B.Sc.
1965 Hobart
In 1965 Moira wrote this paper, which was presented at the 22nd National Conference of the Australian Council of Catholic Women at Hobart Tasmania, 21-28th August 1965 on behalf of the Catholic Women’s Social Guild of Victoria and Wagga Wagga.
Introduction
‘To live together in peace with one another as good neighbours …’
These few words taken from the Charter of the United Nations sum up what men and women throughout the world believe to be a way of life that is right. They represent what has been man’s aspirations through the ages. Modern advances in science and technology, atomic energy and the exploration of outer space have opened up new vistas for human progress and prosperity; they have also brought the threat of catastrophic destruction if man’s foolishness outstrips his wisdom. The only guarantee of survival is peace and the will and the means to maintain it. Today the alternative to mutual annihilation is international co-operation.
In his encyclical letter, Mense Maio (The Month of May) 1965, His Holiness Pope Paul appealed to the world’s leaders ‘not to remain deaf to the unanimous desire of mankind which wants peace’. He said, ‘When we look at the present needs of the Church or at the state of peace in the world, we have compelling reasons for believing that the present hour is especially grave … Today, as if no lesson had been learned from the tragic experiences of the two conflicts which shed blood in the first half of our century, we have the dreadful spectacle in certain parts of the world of antagonism on the increase between peoples, and see repeated the dangerous phenomenon of recourse to arms instead of to negotiation to settle disputes of the opposing parties. This means that the populations of entire nations are subjected to unspeakable sufferings caused by agitation, guerrilla warfare, acts of war, ever growing in extent and intensity, which could at any moment produce the spark of a terrible fresh conflict’.
His Holiness begged world leaders to engage in ‘conversations and negotiations’ and to do ‘all in their power to preserve the peace’. He described the international situation as ‘darker and more uncertain than ever, now that grave new threats are endangering the supreme benefit of world peace’. The Pope remarked ‘with a heavy heart’ the lack of respect for ‘the sacred and inviolable character of human life. … We cannot fail to raise Our voice in defence of the dignity of man and of Christian civilisation. We cannot fail to condemn the acts of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, the practice of holding hostages and of taking reprisals against unarmed civilians. These are crimes which not only reverse the development of the sense of what is fair and human, but also embitter even more the hearts of those in conflict’. After stressing the grave state of the world, Pope Paul underlined the fact that peace ‘is not merely of our own making. It is also, and particularly, a gift from God. Mankind will enjoy peace when we finally deserve to receive it from Almighty God.’
Time and time again Pope Paul has called on world leaders to stop the ‘flames of discord’ from erupting into a major war. In June His Holiness said that a war would be an ‘irreversible and fatal occurrence’. It would ‘not be the end of difficulties but the end of civilisation’. Referring to the savage struggles in Vietnam, the Congo, Sante Domingo and Algeria the Pope made an anguished appeal for peace and civil concord and added, ‘Our heart opens to comforting visions of a better future for a peaceful and brotherly co-existence of peoples.’
As we heed the words of Pope Paul and as we turn our thoughts to the conflicts and struggles taking place in many parts of the world we may ask the question – Is there friendship in the world?
We live at a time when foreign affairs now have strong new ties with the domestic life of every country. These new ties come from modern communications which bring instantly to the homes of citizens in every country the news of events from round the world, from modern weapons which make the threat of nuclear war anywhere a life and death issue for every nation. In our age, Communists, using force and intrigue, seek to bring about a Communist-dominated world. Our convictions demand that we resolutely oppose with all our might that effort to dominate the world. We know it is right that the strong should help the weak, that the wealthy should help the poor emerge from their hunger and that nations should be free from the coercion of others.
Peace on Earth
The late Pope John XXIII addressed his encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’ (Peace on Earth) to ‘all men of good will’ and called on them to meet one another as fellow human beings. He regarded humanity as one family and saw all members of this family as closely related. ‘It is not true that some human beings are by nature superior and others inferior. All men are equal in their natural dignity’. Every human being is a person possessed of certain universal, inviolable and inalienable rights and duties. The foundation of every human society and order among men relates to their being endowed by God with intelligence and free will. Pope John enjoined men of all faiths to consider the terrible danger of nuclear destruction that hangs above mankind. Pacem in Terris was a proposal for action, to be undertaken by men of many nations, to be undertaken co-operatively. The encyclical is a letter from a gentle and loving elder brother to his younger brothers in all nations and all lands, urging them to find the means for co-operating and caring for each other.
Pope John declared that peace and welfare, freedom and justice are inseparable parts of a constituent order and called for human action to achieve world order now. Pope John laid down the framework for the building of bridges between men and showed that differences between men need not end in disaster. The encyclical raised most of the important questions between the great powers and its pronouncement produced discussion and raised hopes throughout the world. The Pope’s vision was of restoring ‘the order established by God’. Is that vision compatible with one that has a totally different view of nature, an utterly different understanding of the ends of human life, of the secular order and of the laws of the universe and of history?
Could the fact that there are different ideas of what constitutes peace on earth be the final source of human division, bringing us to the brink of destruction? Or is there some bridge, some unifying philosophy, acceptable to all parties, which can reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable? That of course is the difficult question. That of course is the question that must be faced by the leaders of the world and all mankind. But one thing is certain, peace is not something to be inherited by aspirations alone. It will be attained, if at all, by action in its service.
Last February, more than 60 high-ranking statesmen and leading scholars gathered in New York to examine one of the central problems of our time: the search for peace. They were brought together specifically to discuss the problem of peace in the context of the encyclical of Pope John. The Convocation was a political meeting to discuss peace, not peace through the medium of war and terror but lasting peace based on ‘Pacem in Terris’. The meeting was unique in several ways, not least of which was the frank and sustained exchange of views, philosophies, and specific proposals that took place among people of widely differing national and political backgrounds. World leaders including U. Thant, Secretary General of U.N., Senator Hubert Humphrey, Vice-President of United States, the Deputy Prime Ministers of Italy, Israel and Belgium, Madame Pandit of India, Lord Caradon and Barbara Ward from the United Kingdom, and leaders from 20 countries including some from Communist countries and new African nations. For three days the participants wrestled with the requirements of peace in the presence of an invited audience of more than 2300 including our Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. David Hay. It has been stated that there was a tangible feeling that something of great importance was taking place as these earnest men and women of many faiths, and of no faith, paraded their differences and examined their national consciences. A new conversation between the world’s leaders took place on a level somewhere between apathy and panic and an attempt was made to justify the words of Pope John who, in commenting on ‘Pacem in Terris’ just before his death, said of it ‘We are convinced the doctrine it offers to the world will prevail by its very clarity. Presented to our contemporaries without partisan bias, it can only foster the growth in the world of those who worthily and with glory will be called builders and makers of peace.’
An important contribution Pope John made in the encyclical was that he made it respectable to discuss peace on a world-wide basis. For a long time anyone in Australia, and in the U.S.A. who discussed peace was considered a Communist or a fellow traveller. Pope John gave the world a moral basis for this discussion. As Barbara Ward said to the Convocation on Pacem in Terris, ‘the underlying assumption of the whole encyclical is that mankind forms a single human family, that it must express this relationship in mutual love and solidarity, and that its urgent need is to institutionalize the forces of reason and compassion instead of only the drives of greed and war.’
But the important point for us, the important point of both ‘Pacem in Terris’ and ‘Mater et Magistra’, Pope John’s earlier encyclical, is that if we do not reduce the intolerable suffering in the Asian, African and Latin American continents, we will get explosions. This is in the major tradition of Catholic thought, which has been constantly insistent on reducing human sufferings. Pope John emphasised the Christian principle that the goods of the earth were intended by the Creator to satisfy the needs of all mankind. It is a violation of natural law for more than half of the people of the world to live in misery and abject poverty, without hope for the future.
International Co-operation
‘The central problem of our time – one that is shared by all races and nationalities – is to discover the things, the qualities, and interests that people have in common so that durable institutions can be designed for mankind’s survival. The ideological differences in the world have produced on each side of each curtain a press that searches for areas of conflict between men and nations rather than for opportunities for harmony. A press can create a national mood; and each one has done so, with the result that every community the world over is now filled with suspicion. The result is ominous, for the nuclear holocaust is the ultimate end-product of modern conflicts. … The task of this age is to search for building blocks out of which a consensus among nations can be found – a consensus that will provide the ways and means of survival. We can respect one another even though we fall far short of total agreement. Respect is the start of co-operation and co-operation often ends in friendship’ (US Supreme Court Justice, and civil libertarian William Douglas).
Speaking in the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10th November, 1961, the late Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, after having reviewed the urgent problems facing the world, said:
‘I cannot suggest any rapid or magic ways of dealing with the problems of the world. But I find that perhaps the worst difficulty we have to face is to fight something you cannot grip: an atmosphere, the imponderables of life, how people suddenly are filled with fear, passion and hatred. How can we deal with them?… The essential thing about this world is co-operation, and even today, between countries which are opposed to each other in the political and other fields, there is a vast amount of co-operation. …A great deal is said about every point of conflict, perhaps it would be a truer picture if the co-operative elements in the world today were put forward and we were made to think that the world depends on co-operation and not on conflict.’
Mr. Nehru then went on to suggest that the General Assembly resolve to call upon all countries of the world to devote a year to the furtherance of ‘co-operative activities in any field – political, cultural and whatever fields there may be, and there are thousands of fields. That perhaps would direct some of our energy and some of our thinking to this idea of co-operation, which would create an atmosphere for solving the problems more easily. That by itself will not solve any problems, but it will lessen this destruction and conflict which now afflict the world.’
This year 1965 has been designated by the General Assembly of the United Nations as International Co-operation Year (I.C.Y.). In a message to the Australian National I.C.Y. Convention held in Canberra in May, the Secretary General of the United Nations, U. Thant, said: ‘I have no doubt that the conclusion of your deliberations will be that international co-operation is the only viable way towards peace and progress’.
I have no hesitation in saying that U. Thant accurately anticipated the findings and conclusions of the Australian I.C.Y. Convention.
Today as we turn our thoughts to ‘Friendship in the World’ it is well to remember that respect is the start of co-operation and co-operation often ends in friendship. The shrinking of distances and the ready access to information has made us more aware of other people, has made us more aware that 2/3 of mankind is economically undeveloped and that is only a polite way of saying under-fed, under-housed, under-educated and under-productive. Since 1945 old enemies have become new friends, old comrades in arms now find themselves in opposite camps. Beneath the present political realignments the world is in fact divided in many ways. It is divided ideologically; it is divided racially; and it is divided economically.
‘These divisions must be faced and discussed with reason and determination. We ignore them at our peril, for if they are allowed to persist and grow larger they will unleash, as they already show signs of doing, darker forces of bigotry, fear, resentment and racial hatred than the world has ever seen. We cannot agree to live in such a nightmare, still less to bequeath it to our children. Though its current problems are great and its present authority uncertain, the United Nations does provide a forum in which these divisions can be discussed and gradually reduced within the framework of the common interest in peace and justice, and with the safeguards that only an organisation representative of all peoples, all interests and all motivations can provide’. (U. Thant, Feb. 1965.)
In 1961, US President, John Kennedy said that the United Nations will:
‘either grow to meet the challenge of an age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its vigour, to cripple its powers we would condemn the future …but the great question which confronted this body in 1945 is still before us: whether man’s cherished hopes for progress and freedom are to be destroyed by terror and disruption; whether the foul winds of war can be tamed in time to free the cooling winds of reason; and whether the pledges of our charter are to be fulfilled or defied; pledges to secure peace, progress, human rights and world law … Until all the powerful are just, the weak will be secure only in the strength of this Assembly’.
Certainly we must do all in our power to promote the strengthening of the United Nations but the ‘man in the street’ must be brought to realize that international co-operation is his business as much as it is that of the diplomats and the Secretariat Members in New York and in all other Headquarters of the United Nations Organisations. For us, the members of the Australian Council of Catholic Women, international co-operation is certainly our business. For us, the teaching of Christ provides the deepest principle of all – the principle that all man’s duties to God and to his fellows are an expression of love. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with thy whole mind and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’. And we know that the poor, the sick, the hungry and the destitute men, women and children in Asia, Latin America and Africa are all our neighbours.
We have reached the biggest crisis in the history` of our race. Scientists have given mankind enormous new powers. The problem of the world today is whether the people and the Governments will have the goodwill and the intelligence to use these powers for the promotion of the welfare of the peoples of all countries of the world. The world is now so small that the peoples and the nations must either co-operate to their mutual advantage, or fight for their mutual destruction. The peoples of the world must be educated to the crying needs of their neighbours, irrespective of race or colour or creed and thus assure to all mankind the triumph of human dignity in that they shall not live out a life of disease, pestilence and hunger. As Christians we bear a special responsibility to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the healing of those who are sick, to help shelter those who are not sheltered, to use our strength to help the weak.
Hunger
Within one day’s flight from Australia, some 1600 million people will go to bed tonight sick and hungry, and tomorrow they will still be sick and hungry. In India, nearly half the babies born die before they reach the age of 5 – not from neglect but from malnutrition. Here in Australia, we are 11 million people living in the shadow of the vast, hungry, sick continent of Asia. Behind the glamour of the tourist spots of Asia, behind the glamour of bright lights and ornate palaces, live millions of hungry, sick people. Many suffer from that lack of energy which comes from generations of hunger and generations of malnutrition.
In a speech delivered to the Second Vatican Council, Mr. James J. Norris, an American layman, (President of the International Catholic Migration Commission and assistant to the executive director of the American Bishops’ Catholic Relief Services), said:
‘In the last decade the problem of poverty – one of the oldest and deepest that confronts the Christian conscience – has taken on a new shape, new dimensions and new urgency. ‘The poor you have always with you’ – yes, but today the poor are with us in a new revolutionary context, because modern science, medicine and technology have helped to bring about a single economy, a neighbourhood that is independent, but largely lacking the institutions and the policies that express solidarity, compassion, and human obligations. In this lopsided community one small group of nations has become immensely wealthy. These nations represent 16 per cent of the world’s peoples and they own 70 per cent of its wealth … Meanwhile three quarters of the human race live in a state of poverty bordering on or below the subsistence level. The gap between the rich and the poor is rapidly widening – side by side the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer in a single world community. This is a wholly unprecedented historical fact, and it presents the Christian conscience of the Western nations with a challenge. There will be no meaning to their Christian profession or humane traditions if they forget that wealth is a trust and that` property carries social obligations and that riches on the scale of the West’s modern riches must be redeemed by generosity … This problem is not only the concern of the wealthy nations. In our complex twentieth century world, the knowledge, and the technical assistance of the more economically developed countries, but as wise leaders in these countries insist, the development must come from the local resources, both material and human, which God has given to these lands.’
More than half of mankind lives in poverty and misery. In the words of Mr. Norris:
‘This type of utter poverty brings with it other human sufferings. The first is hunger – a constant, gnawing, hunger that is never satisfied day or night. Poverty brings diseases that cannot be cured because there are no medical services. Poverty brings disease in lands where the great majority of people cannot read or write. Poverty brings bad housing, slums that breed crime, and sin. Poverty means that a mother looks at her new born infant knowing that it will probably die before the year is out. For millions of people poverty means that life expectancy is 35 years. For millions of people living in this kind of poverty, death is a sweet release.
A loving human family does not permit its members to suffer in this way. When all the members of our Christian family become aware of the extent of suffering and privation among the poor of the world, surely they will make certain that their wealthy lands will not fail to respond to their Christian obligation.’
Can the war against hunger be won? An appreciation of the situation at any stage of a war involves three things: a review of the existing situation, an assessment of resources available or potential, and suggestions for the correct application of those resources in the next stage. In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the twin facts that more than one half of the people of the world are underfed, and at the same time that the world population is increasing at a rapid rate. In the light of this it might reasonably have been hoped that the world would have turned with all possible vigour to meet the challenge of feeding the peoples of the world. But despite all the efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Food Programme, despite the success of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, the latest statistics in F.A.O. show that food production is barely keeping pace with the growth of population.
For success in its war on hunger the world needs three things: resources, knowledge and the will to use both. Resources there are. The world knows how to increase yields – by better farming, by the increased use of fertiliser, or irrigation, or improved seeds and many other ways. It knows, too, the kind of training needed to equip farmers for the tasks of the twentieth century. The question is – have we the will to use all these things effectively? There is another unused, ill-managed asset of greater importance even than those – man himself. Millions of human beings are permanently unemployed; millions more are under-employed. This is particularly the case in the developing countries where lack of knowledge and capital plus the lack of energy due to malnutrition result in only a fraction of the total possible man-hours being worked. Here is a resource of incalculable value if only it can be marshalled.
The war against hunger can and must be won. There is a growing recognition of the fact that there will be no lasting peace or security in the world until hunger and want can be eliminated. The problems which face us are vast, but so too are our resources. It needs only that we shall match those resources with our will to victory. For us, the Catholic Women of Australia, there is a special responsibility to devote ourselves to the cause of lifting forever from the world the ‘ancient and shameful shadow of hunger’. In the words of Mr. James Norris, ‘the constantly widening gap between the rich and the poor demands now a sustained, realistic, dedicated campaign to bring full Christian activity to bear upon these problems’.
With the establishment this year by our Bishops of Catholic Overseas Relief, the Bishops of Australia have provided us with a practical means whereby we can promote our friendship with the peoples of the economically developing countries. Also deserving our fullest support are the Catholic Missions, and our own World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations which is making a major contribution both by providing trained personnel and finance for the United Nations world literacy campaign and the campaigns against poverty, hunger and disease.
Recently it was announced that U.N.E.S.C.O. is preparing to go ahead with plans that have been formulated for helping the world’s 700 million illiterates. That literacy and economic progress are linked is something on which most experts agree. Dr. Mark Blauq of London University’s Institute of Education and an expert economist working with U.N.E.S.C.O. regards an average 40 per cent literacy rate as a kind of threshold that a developing country must break through in order to achieve real economic dynamism. And it has been claimed by experts that one-tenth of the world’s annual expenditure on armaments would be sufficient to wipe out illiteracy.
Action required
If we, the Catholic women of Australia, wish to apply responsibly Pope John’s Encyclical, if we are sincere in our desire to promote friendship and understanding in the world, we must face up to and meet our responsibilities. As Catholics we must support, each in her own way, the practical means of assistance to the poor and needy which have been set up by our Bishops and by our World Union of Catholic Women Organisations. But our responsibilities do not end there. As citizens of Australia, each in her own way, we have to play our part in supporting those organisations working for the needy, for example Freedom From Hunger Campaign, Save The Children Fund, United Nations Activities, Aid for Refugees and Aid to India.
In Australia we are inclined to congratulate ourselves on the Colombo Plan on which we are expending five million pounds annually. The Colombo Plan is commendable but it is only a mere drop in the ocean. The Australian proposal to give preferential treatment to imports of certain goods from developing countries was an imaginative move and has given a lead to the world’s industrialised countries in the matter of trade with the developing countries. It would have been even more commendable if such small quotas had not been fixed at the start and the list of preferred items had been larger. Commendable too was our gift of 150,000 tons of wheat to help meet India’s current food crisis.
But Australia faces the challenge to do more to help the economically developing countries. This means more short-term aid for relief and long-term aid that would assist these countries in their development programmes including the grow-more-food projects. To remain secure and prosperous, it is vital that Australia extend to the economically developing countries of Asia the kind of co-operation that will help to inspire hope, confidence and progress. The type of aid required is aid given for the right purpose to the right people for the right things, given with no improper strings and given in the spirit of friendship and co-operation.
Our small population limits what we can do, but those who advocate one per cent of our national income have the right idea. There are many things that can and must be done. Our plan should be to understand and acknowledge the needs and hopes of people of other lands, and especially of Asia, and to help them to enjoy more than a mere existence. In this plan the Federal Government has a large and important role to play and our politicians have got to be pushed. It is the job of the people to push them. We have in this country a Government which derives its power from the consent of the governed – the people. From those same people must come the dreams, the faith, the hopes and the works which fashion the great purpose of government. From the people must come the private compassion and personal commitment by which struggles for justice and wars against poverty are won. Australia’s strength in foreign affairs does not rest in Canberra alone. It rests on the people of Australia. It rests on our leaders and moulders of public opinion. It rests on our many and valuable organisations.
Clarion call for action
From this Conference let there come a clarion call for action:
- Action to devote one per cent of our national home income to assist the world’s needy.
- Action to establish an Australian Peace Corps similar to that established by the United States of America.
- Action to give much greater assistance to India where 1/3 of all the inhabitants of the developing world live. It is our great good fortune that so many of the developing people should live in India under a Government committed to growth in freedom. The smallness of our contribution in India’s current food crisis leaves much to be desired.
- Action to give financial and technical assistance to the United Nations and its agencies. We demand action by our Government, our diplomats and the Press to strengthen the United Nations in the minds of the Australian people and to refrain from unduly emphasising the present United Nations difficulties whilst omitting to adequately lay before Australians the great benefits that United Nations has brought to mankind.
- Action to emphasise that United Nations is essential as a world organisation for the present and the future. We might well ask the question, ‘Are we expecting too much of the United Nations?’ and ‘How much is Australia prepared to co-operate in the United Nations?’
- Action to offer a home in Australia to some of the homeless orphans now swarming Vietnam. Is this gesture of co-operation too much to expect of our political representatives?
If we are sincere in our desire to promote friendship and understanding in the world, let the seeing see, the hearing hear and those who are able, act. Let it be known that we, the people of Australia, join with those who seek to advance their human dignity and to claim their legitimate rights as human beings.
And I think that it is particularly appropriate that we, the women of Australia, should heed the muffled calls of the poor, the sick, the hungry and the destitute. Let us work towards our objective step by step and side by side with all those of goodwill who strive to make a better and a peaceful world. And let us be inspired by the words of the late President John F. Kennedy:
‘The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation. There is no battle on earth or in space more important for peace and progress cannot be maintained in a world half fed and half hungry … If we can all persevere, if we can in every land … look beyond our own shores and ambitions, then surely the age will dawn in which the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.’
Friendship in the world can be promoted by co-operation and understanding. Let us do all in our power to demonstrate the supreme value of Christian love, justice, truth and peace.