Chris Tucker, Catholic Relief Services’ U.S. regional director for the Mid-Atlantic, is quoted in this Catholic News Service story on the Annapolis Middle East peace talks earlier this week. Chris previously served as the CRS regional director of the Middle East and North Africa.

A view of Jerusalem. Photo by Tom Garofalo/CRS

As key leaders from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria and other nations gathered in Annapolis for a Nov. 26-28 Middle East peace conference and related meetings, local Catholic leaders said they were hopeful the meetings would trigger further discussions for making a lasting peace in the Holy Land.

Peace is attainable, they said, but it will take assertive leadership from the United States to make it a reality.

“I’m guardedly optimistic in the sense that I’m always happy when there’s some kind of negotiation going on in the Middle East,” said Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden, urban vicar for the archdiocese.

Bishop Madden previously served as associate secretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and director of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine office in Jerusalem.

He said the lack of strong leadership from the United States in recent years has been a contributing reason the peace process has stalled. He was hopeful the U.S.-led Annapolis conference would change that.

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Bishop Curtis J. Guillory celebrates Mass at St. Dominic’s Parish in Tubmanburg, Liberia. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS.

Most Rev. Curtis J. Guillory SVD, Bishop of Beaumont, Texas, who is on Catholic Relief Service’s Board of Directors, is visiting Liberia this week. Yesterday, Bishop Guillory visited St. Dominic’s Parish in Tubmanburg, which has received CRS funding over the years.

At the parish, Bishop Guillory was escorted by Father Gary Jenkins who arrived in Liberia in 1973 and stayed throughout the 14-year civil war. Father Gary works with and counsels children who were involved in the conflict. Bishop Guillory met with five young men involved in the war. He also celebrated Mass with community members, ate lunch with church staff, and visited students (and their dormitories). Here are his reflections about the day.

I’d heard about the child soldiers; I’d read about them. But to actually be present with them, especially the five we met with after lunch …

They were playing ball and all of a sudden they were picked up and taken to a camp. I can imagine the shock. These were kids. They were taken away from their parents, particularly their mothers. They were in a totally different environment, a very violent environment — and forced to carry a gun, forced to kill, forced to carry ammunition. Like the one boy said, you could never tell the commanders you were tired.

Yet there is hope for them. With Father Gary and Father Henry at St. Dominic’s Parish, there’s a solid community there to try to integrate them back into society, trying to help them deal with many traumas and to give them a sense that it’s not their fault. That’s one of the points I was trying to make. They’re not responsible for what they saw or what they did because it was forced upon them and if they didn’t do it they would have probably been killed.

When I was talking to them my heart was very heavy. I was trying to imagine what I would do in that situation. To be honest, it’s unimaginable. I guess I would hopefully turn out the way they did. These kids, like I told them, they are really heroes. Not only were they able to survive this ordeal, they seem to be dealing with it. They’re the leaders of the future.

Bishop Guillory at St. Dominic’s. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS.

The other thing that informed, impressed and inspired me was that those kids were thanking God that they were saved. The faith is just so strong, so vibrant, so alive. All of that is helping to integrate these kids and the whole community because everyone suffered from this extended and brutal and violent war.

I’ve been on the CRS Board now for four years. CRS brings skills. They bring resources, technology. But one of the things that I’ve always found to be CRS’ great gift was the spirit of compassion and understanding they bring. They’re involved with the people. They get involved in the lives of the people. They try to understand the customs and the culture. They come in and try to find out from the people what are their needs and in many cases how those needs ought to be met. CRS really tries to be as much as possible a part of the community, a part of the lives of the people. I think that brings about a great amount of respect, a great amount of trust.

CRS has the reputation of going to those remote places where people won’t go, don’t want to go or can’t go. We’re with the poorest of the poor.

Over the years, CRS has been very involved in the Catholic Peacebuilding Network. They are currently holding their international conference in Bogota, Colombia. Here is their latest communique: 

The 4^thInternational Conference of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network is being held June 25^th – 29^th in Bogota, with the theme: “Creating a climate of reconciliation: opening space for truth, justice and reparation.”

Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez, Archdiocese of Barranquilla, President, SNPS/Caritas Colombiana

Gerard F. Powers, Chairman, Steering Committee, Catholic Peacebuilding Network