This article explores issues surrounding celibacy that have been amplified by the exposure of the sexual abuse crisis within the Catholic Church, which, for some, has called such a lifestyle into question. Taking the view that celibacy can be healthy and life-giving, provided that it is discerned well, the authors consider the ways in which an unintegrated celibate life can and does cause harm and has contributed to the scandal, though not the cause of it in and of itself. Moreover, when celibacy is a gift of the Spirit, it can help to bring about a renewed, deepened understanding of sexuality needed for the Church and the world.

I offer examples of what Catholic liturgical law regards as liturgical abuses. I provide examples of practices that are not formal abuses but raise questions of clericalism, noting that clericalism has contributed to the Catholic sex abuse crisis. I discuss (a) recourse to the tabernacle for distribution of Communion at Mass; (b) reserving one chalice at Mass for the exclusive use of the presider; (c) the installation Mass of Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia; and (d) a Mass in Buffalo in the wake of the resignation of then-Bishop Richard Malone. The paper concludes with reflections on what it means to offer worship to God that is necessarily imperfect.

While the Catholic Church has taken a number of steps to create a safe environment for children, its largely procedural approach to the sexual abuse crisis leaves a lot to be desired. If the Catholic Church wants to identify and counteract the elements that precipitated this crisis, it needs to enlist Catholic universities and parents, as universities possess the intellectual resources to understand the crisis in its full depth and breadth and parents are the most capable protectors of children in the Catholic Church. Empowering these two constituencies and relying on them to lead child protection efforts represent the best chance to overcome a legacy of pain and distrust and to create a Church that is nurturing and safe for its children.

Although blame for systemic sexual abuse in the Catholic church primarily rests with the perpetrators and institutional actors who engaged in cover-up, regular people also failed in their duties, both their secular or civil duties and their moral and religious duties. Using the language of social sin, this article examines responsibility for social sin and the structures of sin that contributed to the abuse of children within the church community. Using the tools of Catholic social teaching—especially the framework of “conversion, communion, and solidarity”—the article articulates some tenets of social morality in the wake of sexual abuse and cover-up. A conversion experience is needed to see how ordinary actions unintentionally contribute to injustice and social sin, and how structures of sin lead to intentional decisions that would not otherwise be pursued. Catholic social teaching helps to provide a framework for thinking through some of the obligations of ordinary folks in the aftermath of the collective failure to protect children from abuse and the structural injustices that encouraged it to continue.

How to transcend the conceptual walls of war? How to bring together former enemies? This paper looks at Victus, a theatre group in which victims and former combatants of different armed groups in Colombia (guerrilla, paramilitary, army) united in and off the stage, in a reconciliation process mediated through art. It will sustain that this configures a sort of micro-“laboratory” of reconciliation: a common space of interaction that has allowed different actors to transcend the borders of armed conflict, to humanize the “other”, and to generate multiple processes of transformation and peacebuilding, which, despite being imperfect, are meaningful.

The paper examines the contentions and contestations over the anti-influx bills passed in 2015 by the legislature of India’s northeastern state of Manipur. Passed in the backdrop of the demand from the state’s valley-dwelling majority Meitei community for a legal framework to regulate influx of “outsiders”, the bills evoked hostile reception from the hill-dwelling tribal communities. This paper sees the contestations that ensued over the bills as an emanation of the enduring hill-valley divide in the state. The bills’ contents and various provisions, as explicated in the paper, bear the weighty imprint of the majoritarian impulses that seek to erode the extant institutional and legal safeguards for tribals. This unsettles the tribals who perceive the bills as a trespass in their distinctive constitutional status. The paper concludes by underlining the import of a cautious public policy making, lending agency to the tribals and a deliberative policy-making processes.

This article examines cross border resource management and how the practice affects sustainable peace in eastern Africa. It explores ways of coping with resource scarcity; examines necessary reforms and highlights holistic resource management paradigm in support of sustainable peace. Due to insufficient targeted research to generate information to multilaterally mitigate policy gaps and inform interventions on continued degradation and recurrence of resource-induced conflicts; this article consolidates knowledge towards sustainable management of shared resources to avert conflicts due to increased resource demands, structural inequalities and competition. Ensuing peace provides grounds for unlocking more opportunities and synergies towards greater regional progression. Resource scarcity perspective is used in a descriptive approach with a sample of 385 engaged through self-administered questionnaires. Findings show weak compliance and enforcement of relevant regulations, dissimilar resource management practices across borders, inadequate financing of programmes, over-dependency on resources and non-holistic approaches as main contributors to the diminishing resource base amid population growth, resource competition and conflicts. Thus, well managed resources promise stable livelihoods, economic wellness and further help avert competition and disagreements.

By relying on the methods of classical experiment, journal keeping, and focus group interview, using a random opportunistic sample of twenty students in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this mixed methods research examined how sustained practices of self-examination over a week translated into peacemaking within the lives of the self-examinants and in their social interactions. The findings of the study showed that daily routine practice of self-examination would contribute to enhancing the self-examinants’ capacities for peacemaking.

LGBT describes those who are drawn to other LGBT individuals. These individuals identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In India, homosexuality is nothing new. India is regarded as a nation that embraces and accepts all cultures and customs. However, Indian society is still conservative when it comes to tolerating homosexuality in the general population, and despite the fact that the LGBT community is widely accepted around the world, we still do not wish to embrace LGBT individuals in our ostensibly modern society. In India, sexual minorities are frequently the targets of hate crimes. They are taken advantage of verbally, physically, and sexually since they are easy prey. In order to better understand the LGBTQ community and treat them with respect and dignity rather than labelling them, this study presents a brief summary of the LGBTQ community as well as other glossaries and words of the same group. This review demonstrates social problems like stigma and discrimination, which are still widespread in our Indian society even after the passage of Act 377. It also demonstrates how stigma and discrimination cause mental health problems in people, which in turn lead to suicide because of the severity of their mental health issues.