Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
February 28, 2001
Peace activist Esquivel a man of faith, prayer
By Alwen Bledsoe
The Register interviewed 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel during a PeaceJam conference Feb. 24 at Regis University.
Register: How have your religious beliefs affected your work?
I was raised by the Franciscans, in a sense that's my formation, a very religious formation. Although, not withstanding the kind of formation that I had in school, there were two people who really had a very profound impact on my life and who contributed the most to my religious awakening. One of those people was Ghandi and the other was Thomas Merton. And in addition to them I think it was just the experience of faith lived out together with other people throughout Latin America. To understand my faith and faith in general from a more profoundly spiritual perspective, and to understand its meaning and its significance in every person's life, these are processes which in a sense are in constant evolution, they are constantly changing, they are processes which go on throughout one's entire life. They continue to evolve throughout one's entire life. There are figures like Lanza de Vasto and Dom Helder Camara.
Your organization, the Peace and Justice Service, is described as having a Christian understanding of life. How does your Christianity interact with your human rights work?
The Peace and Justice Service was born with an ecumenical Christian inspiration. People, pastors, priests, religious and lay people from different faith traditions from throughout Latin America came together in its founding. And precisely because it is ecumenical, people of different faith traditions are members of the organization, and in fact, many who consider themselves agnostic are also members because they identify with the spirit and goals of our organization. Logically speaking, the Christian inspiration has an impact as we understand human rights to be in the sense of life, in the sense of human dignity, in the sense of all people's rights and struggles to defend and promote human dignity.
You were imprisoned in 1977 for your opposition of the Argentine government, what sustained you through that imprisonment and through the torture you endured?
For me, prayer was very important. And the experience of beginning to understand faith from the experience of suffering and through an experience of pain. Oftentimes, that experience is so much an abstraction and not real, and so to begin to understand and live one's faith through pain and through suffering and being at the margin. But it was a very difficult process. It was a time of much questioning because those who were torturing me, for instance, also called themselves Christians. And all the crimes that they committed, they committed them in the name of the defense of so called "Western Christian civilization." Another experience that was very difficult for me, that took a long time for me to be able to deal with, was reflecting on Christ's words as he is tried and put to the cross. He says, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." It took me a long time, and a lot of reflection, to be able to see that I think what Christ was saying there was, as he was saying to these people who tortured me and others, that they don't understand that the man or woman they are torturing is their own sister, or their own brother.
How likely do you think it is that the external debt will be forgiven?
There is a growing movement around the world which seeks the cancellation of the debt. This movement is growing particularly within society, among the organizations of societies, not so much among governments, where we haven't seen much action yet. In Argentina, Beverly Keene is the person who does a lot of this work, she is engaged in the struggle. From Argentina and from Latin America there's been a big push to come together throughout the South, reach common positions between Latin America, Africa, and Asia in order to call more forcefully for the cancellation of the debt. Why have you chosen PeaceJam as a venue for your work with young people and what's important about reaching youth with your message of non-violence? I work with young people all the time and I think the work with young people is very important. PeaceJam has been working for several years now with different Nobel Peace Laureates to try and help young people have an opportunity to reflect on their own values and their own contributions to peace. I think this is a very valuable initiative and one well worth supporting. There are lots of similar initiatives in different countries and I think this is a very vital part of work for human rights and for peace-work with young people to help them develop their own awareness, their own comprehension of their values, and to see and to reflect on how they can become positive parts of society. What do you think our society can do to promote peace in our children as opposed to the violence so many of them exhibit? Violence is not something that is generated spontaneously. It is something which has to be nurtured. I think that society in general, families, communities, perhaps don't pay enough attention to the ways in which violence is fostered in television, for instance. There are studies in this country that show that a young person by the time he or she reaches 18 years of age has seen or been exposed to more than 200,000 scenes of violence, 40,000 murders on the television. What impact does this have on children, on society? To confront the situation, to transform the situation, what we need is for it to come into the educational process, to be part of the educational process. Society in general needs to become aware and recognize this reality and then help all members of society, both young people and others, to recognize and reflect on the consequences these forms of violence have and how that triggers greater and greater levels of violence. How can it be that young people come to school armed, for instance? Where did they get those arms? Where did they get them? This is not a process in which young people are alone. What do you see as the Church's role in human rights work? It's simple: to live out the Gospel. Put it into practice. If people are going to church or participating in Mass ... without a social commitment, they're not really living out the Gospel, not really living out their faith. It is as in the New Testament itself, when Paul says, where is faith? Faith is seen and experienced through works, through deeds. Religion and faith is not something that has to do with the relationship between one person and God. It has to do with the relationship with all of humanity, and through that, relationship with God. What are the greatest obstacles we face in becoming a society of peace? I think one of the biggest obstacles is the conception and use of power to dominate. The problem of intolerance, indeed, even religious intolerance. And I think here the critical issue is really the lack of love, even within the Church. And that's why I think it's important for us to go deeper inside, to understand more fully the meaning of the Gospel, to really discover the vital energy, the vitality and the strength of spirituality.
