What does Pope Francis say about nonviolence?

Over the course of his ten-year papacy Pope Francis has played a critical role in advancing nonviolence. His appeal for the world to pray for a nonviolent culture is just the most recent call to the Church and the world to take up the way of active and creative nonviolence in the face of a global culture of violence and injustice. This is a consistent theme of Pope Francis: confronting the reality of violence with active and transformative Gospel nonviolence.

St. Pope John Paul II said that “violence is the enemy of justice,” and “it violates our dignity”; Pope Benedict XVI said that “loving the enemy is the nucleus of the Christian revolution” and “it’s impossible to interpret Jesus as violent”; and Pope Francis said, “[T]he true strength of the Christian is the power of truth and love, which leads to the renunciation of all violence. Faith and violence are incompatible.”