Assistant Editor
Reducing violence was the focus for a panel discussion last week at Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany.
Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Albany Diocese was one of 10 people from local government, law enforcement, education and aid agencies who addressed the struggle to create peace in the Capital District and across the country. The forum was titled, "Stemming the Tide of Violence."
The Bishop's task, he said, was made more difficult by the events of Sept. 11. While religious doctrines have often been used to justify violence, said Bishop Hubbard, all of the world's major religions promote in their founding principles forgiveness, tolerance and peacemaking.
Reaction
Bishop Hubbard noted that the day after September's terrorist attack on the U.S., ecumenical leaders released a document titled, "Deny Them Their Victory: A Religious Response to Terrorism."
The document read in part: "We must not...indiscriminately retaliate....We can deny them their victory by refusing to submit to a world created in their image and likeness....America must be a safe place for all of our citizens in their diversity."
After the attack, the Bishop said, officials of the Albany Diocese put information on nonviolence on the diocesan website (www.rcda.org), met with Muslim clergy to offer support, and participated in the many prayer vigils and forums held around the Diocese.
"These forums reinforced our strong conviction that Arab- and Muslim-Americans are not our enemies," and gave people strength not to give in to hatred, he said.
Forms of violence
However, Bishop Hubbard added, violence isn't limited to terrorism: Domestic violence, starvation, capital punishment, racism, sexism, ageism, nativism and homophobia are all forms of violence.
"It is time to address the more fundamental causes of violence," he stated.
The Bishop noted that many initiatives have been started in the Albany Diocese to do just that, particularly in schools: peer mediation and conflict resolution programs, mentoring for younger students, youth ministry "Stand Against Violence" programs, a "Positive Adolescent Development" program currently in the works, and Catholic Charities-run domestic violence shelters and other programs.
Bishop Hubbard also expressed frustration that the most vulnerable people in the community are being served by employees who are on the lowest end of the socieconomic ladder themselves. He called for better pay for those in such agencies, saying: "We have to, as a society, raise our priorities."