The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence
Our Sections
The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence explores and advances Gospel nonviolence through three interconnected areas of study and action. Each area brings together theologians, scholars, practitioners, and pastoral leaders to deepen understanding, promote formation, and generate real-world impact.
Together, these sections help illuminate the theological foundations, practical strategies, and lived experiences of nonviolence—across Church life, global society, and everyday contexts.
How is nonviolence central to the Catholic faith?
Gospel Nonviolence and the Life of the Church
How is nonviolence central to the Catholic faith?
Gospel Nonviolence and the Life of the Church
This group of theologians, scriptural scholars, ethicists, and pastoral specialists works on specific topics regarding nonviolence as a spirituality, a way of life, a method of change, and a universal ethic as related to scripture, the Christian tradition, the teachings of the Church, a new ethical framework, and the life and mission of the Church (education, formation, ministry, pastoral life, etc.).
This concentration includes demonstrating how the Church can integrate Gospel nonviolence throughout its life and work; how a new moral framework of “active nonviolence and just peace” can enable the institutional Church as a moral authority to be more consistent with the nonviolent creativity of the Gospel; and how the Church can learn from and partner with the world’s religions to spread and activate nonviolence throughout the world.
Gospel Nonviolence and the Life of the Church
Resources
By Rose Marie Berger
by Ken Butigan
CNI Rountable
Summary Results of 2018 Catholic Nonviolence Initiative roundtable process
Results of 2018 Catholic Nonviolence Initiative roundtable process
Results of 2018 Catholic Nonviolence Initiative roundtable process
How does nonviolence work?
Effective Nonviolent Practices and Strategic Power
How does nonviolence work?
Effective Nonviolent Practices and Strategic Power
Strategic nonviolence offers alternatives to violence and passivity. This group of scholars and practitioners focuses on illuminating the strategies, models, dynamics, practices, and findings that indicate its effectiveness.
This work gathers and researches the effectiveness of nonviolent strategies (building on the research being undertaken by scholars worldwide) and explores the effectiveness of nonviolent strategies related to real-world problems. It also focuses on illuminating those strategies, models, dynamics, and practices in the digital world and the uses of artificial intelligence.
What are concrete examples of nonviolence in action from around the world, especially the existential peripheries?
This group of practitioners and scholars documents the lived experience of nonviolence in the communities, particularly marginalized communities, around the world by gathering and illuminating case studies of nonviolent practice within and across disciplines and contexts to understand the deeper connections among various forms of violence and how nonviolence can function as a cross-cutting praxis to generate a more sustainable transformation.
It focuses on everyday nonviolence practices in plural and multidimensional contexts like family, schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods, the digital world, etc.
