Depending on where in our wide world you're watching from, I bid you good morning, good afternoon, or perhaps good evening. Welcome to the United States Institute of Peace. I'm David Yang, Vice President for Applied Conflict Transformation at USIP. Thank you for joining us today for this forum on the Catholic Church and Peace Building. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. So said Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, and so began the long peace building career of the Catholic Church. In our times that career has included diplomatic efforts at the highest levels, such as Pope John the 23rd's critical role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has also included the Church's support in the 1980s for the solidarity movement in Poland and the original People Power movement in the Philippines. This duality, the actions of the Catholic Church to support top-down and bottom-up peace building, explains our subtitle for today's discussion, bridging the gap between people power and peace processes. We would like to explore how the Catholic Church deftly juggles its roles of diplomat and mediator on the one hand and the people's champion for social justice on the other. As a former altar boy and a continuing student of the Catholic Church, I would observe that while this duality might pose tactical challenges, it is nevertheless rooted in a holistic strategy of Catholic peace building. In the contemporary history of the Church, this grand strategy of sorts dates from Pope John the 23rd's Pachamen Terrace, Peace on Earth. The April 1963 encyclical that Pope John issued shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis the previous October and shortly before his death that June. In the encyclical, Pope John states that God created human beings with a conscience so that we can all understand the natural order of the universe. Indeed, peace on earth depends on our proper understanding of natural laws. In Pope John's view, natural law governs three sets of relationships in our lives. First relations among our fellow humans, second relations among individuals in the state, and third relations among states. First in our relations with each other, Pope John echoes the natural law tradition of human rights. He writes that every human has, quote, the right to live, the right to bodily integrity, and to means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and finally the necessary social services. Unquote. He proceeds to explain other natural rights in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. This first section of the encyclical was in perfect harmony with the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Pope John then turns to the relations between individuals in the state. He acknowledges that human society cannot thrive without the presence of those who invested with legal authority, preserve its institutions, and do all that is necessary to sponsor actively the interest of all its members. But Pope John also proceeds to say that governmental authority must also recognize natural law and the natural order of the universe. For him that means the primary purpose of government is to ensure that the aforementioned natural rights must be recognized and protected. Finally Pope John explains relations between states. These relationships he writes must also be in sync with natural law. Specifically states must treat each other in accordance with the dictates of truth, justice, willing cooperation, and freedom. Further he states states should act with mutual trust, sincerity, and negotiation, and the faithful fulfillment of obligations assumed. In essence, although Pope John did not use these terms, his historic encyclical presented a vision of peace based on human rights, democratic institutions, and collective security. Pope John's successor, Paul VI, inspired by Potcherman Terrace, established the church's tradition of the World Peace Day on January 1st, 1968. Pope Francis used the occasion of the 50th World Day of Peace in 2017 to add an important coda to Potcherman Terrace. Pope Francis entitled his message, non-violence, a style of politics for peace. He observed that while the last century experienced two world wars, today sadly we find ourselves engaged in a horrifying world war fought piecemeal. By piecemeal, Pope Francis meant, quote, wars in many countries and continents, terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking, the abuses suffered by migrants, and the devastation of the environment. He said, violence is not the cure for our broken world. We must instead be true followers of Jesus by embracing his teaching of non-violence. The Pope cited the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, and of Lima Bowie in Liberia. Pope Francis said, peace building through active non-violence is the natural and necessary complement to the church's continuing effort to limit the use of force by the application of moral norms. And he noted that the best manual, as he put it, for the strategy of non-violent peace building was the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, he wrote, I pledge the assistance of the church in every effort to build peace through active and creative non-violence. So in my view, Pope John's 1963 Pachamen Terrace plus Pope Francis' New Year message and Coda together provide a holistic strategy of contemporary Catholic peace building. USIP has long been interested in the leadership of the Catholic Church on peace. Our oldest thematic program focuses on the role of religious actors who are working for peace. It seeks to bring attention and support to religious peace builders who advocate with great courage for peace, non-violence, human rights, and good governance. Our newest thematic programs at USIP focus on support to peace processes and non-violent action respectively. In this work we are broadening participation in peace processes to expand the voices who are critical to shaping the contours of governance in society. Through our non-violent action program, we're providing support that recognizes how ordinary people can engage in collective action that builds power from the ground up to challenge injustice and to address the root causes of conflict. In particular, our research on the role of religious actors in formal peace processes is exploring the intersection of these three fields and aims to better understand how the inclusion or exclusion of religious leaders and communities in these complex peace processes can impact their outcome both negatively and positively. In this research we're unpacking some of the most common roles the Church has played such as mediating disputes and channeling communication between conflicting parties, as well as serving as fierce advocates to bring peace and end suffering for those most affected by violence and conflict. And we at USIP want to build on the essential role that religious actors have played throughout history, roles in engaging with non-violent movements in support of peace with justice, from hosting non-violent action trainings in church basements, to offering safe harbor to activists fleeing repression. We applaud in particular the work of Pax Christie International, a project of the Catholic Non-Violence Initiative. Since its founding in 2016, Pax Christie has worked to promote and develop non-violent practices and strategies within the framework of a Catholic just peace. USIP is honored to be joined by distinguished panel today led by Reverend Robert McElroy Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. Bishop McElroy was born in San Francisco, indeed a fifth generation San Franciscan. He was educated at Harvard, Stanford, and St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park California. He served as the parish priest throughout Northern California. He was later appointed to be auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in 2010. Pope Francis appointed him to be bishop of San Diego in 2015. He also serves as the vice president of the California Catholic Conference as a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. He's written two important books, The Search for an American Public Theology, and The Second Morality and American Foreign Policy. He's widely recognized for his moral and ethical advocacy and a variety of issues, including the church's support for peace and justice through non-violence. Bishop McElroy will offer introductory remarks and then moderate our panel. I'd like to welcome on behalf of all of my USIP colleagues. I'd like to welcome and thanks all of our panelists. Bishop McElroy, I thank you for your continuing leadership. Welcome and as fellow San Franciscans of the same generation, I hope if you've become a San Diego Padres fan as I've become a Washington Nationals fan that we still have Willie Mays in the number 24 in our hearts. Welcome. Yes, I am a Padres fan. When I came down here for the first dinner they had for me, the team gave me a Padres uniform with my name on it so I wear it once a year to the games. But San Francisco is still in my heart so thank you very much. And I thank the Institute in particular for having the initiative to reflect upon these themes of peace-building and non-violence in the life of the Catholic community in as many dimensions. And I thank them for the Institute for bringing together all of us to understand better and to think how we can move forward in terms of the life of the Catholic community to make it a more productive actor in the international arena at all levels to build peace in our world. I would say that just as a basic structure, I think there are really four dimensions within the Catholic community that contribute to peace-building and non-violence. The first is at the international level in terms of the institutionalized role of the Catholic Church, the Pope and the various participants in the central decision-making and action of the Church in the world. That the Catholic community is, you know, a billion people throughout the world. It's also the oldest continuing functioning bureaucracy in the world, and it has relations with the great majority, official diplomatic relations, with the great majority of nations in the world. And it's an oddity in that. It has a unique identity in that set of diplomatic relations because it is a nation-state, a small nation-state, the Vatican. But the diplomatic relations which the Vatican has with every nation are not governmental, not between an individual government, the Vatican. It's between an individual government and what's called the Holy See. In other words, it's the moral and spiritual dimension of the Catholic Church that has these diplomatic relations. It's not a country acting as a country. And I think that that speaks to what the Catholic Church is understanding that that universal dimension and the the role of the Pope and the group of individuals and leadership seek. They look on their identity in the international system in the formal sense as to build peace and to bring spiritual and moral reflection and opportunities to advance the principles of Pachamen-Terras. So as an actor in the international system, the Catholic community is like an NGO in many ways, and yet it's a nation-state. But it looks on its role in all of those elements as moral and spiritual. Now, at times, that role focuses on particular areas of interest to the Catholic communities around the world. For example, religious liberty issues in various countries. But I just want to emphasize that overall the Church's own self-understanding of what its international role is in its institutional form is to help uplift and form a dialogue with the spiritual and moral dimensions of the human community to build solidarity and look for ways to advance human rights and to advance the cause of peace in crucial sectors. So much of what the diplomatic corps does in the Vatican, much of that is focused on specific ways when conflicts are developed or when there are opportunities for dialogue to advance peace-building to focus on that. The second dimension beyond the Church's kind of universal institutional intervention in the world and dialogue with the world in these questions is within the particular national churches. Within each country there are Catholic communities, again, that have an institutional form. And the churches in those nations often have critical roles in the society to try to build up solidarity, to try to and in times of conflict to be interveners, to try to mediate, to try to advance the cause of peace, to try to point out both injustices on the human rights level but also injustice in terms of internal peace in countries. And thus the Catholic community in each country often takes on a role within the nation itself, similar to that in the universal one that takes place at the Vatican, but within each country there are often opportunities and very dramatic opportunities which the national churches have to advance the cause of peace. So that would be the second dimension. The third would be that there exists now, have always been, and a series of communities within the life of the Catholic Church around the world that have taken up this role of peace building in very profound and specific ways. So they are like laying seeds of peace building within the life of the church community and in the society as a whole. Marie Dennis is going to speak about Pax Christi. Pax Christi is one of those organizations. The San Egidio community which exists in Rome is one of those organizations which its whole culture and ethos is oriented toward peace building throughout the world. And thus it's able been able to have effective mediating roles in various countries that have been very important San Egidio. And yet San Egidio is just a group of people of faith who come together with a common aim and seek to realize it. But it gives them a status as independent actors to come in and be helpful in moments of great conflict or potential conflict. So and then the final the fourth dimension of the work of the church beyond that of the universal church the national Catholic communities and then communities who have formed to advance the cause of peace as a moral and spiritual ground. The fourth is how does the Catholic church as a community of faith speak to the issue of war and peace and violence within our world now? How does it help to form an ethos within the world as a whole in which peace building and conflict resolution are right at the center of public thinking at every level? And so that's where Pope Francis' recent statement is so important because it signals the desire within the Catholic community to move from an ethic of war and peace where the churches you know the church helped develop the ethic of war and peace but it was meant at its beginning to be a way of limiting war and peace in so many ways as it all through its development in the medieval period. But now has become just a permission for countries to go to war. So how do we move from that to an ethic of issues of war and peace and conflict and peace in which non-violence is at the center and the heart of the discussion? So those four missions I say fall to the Catholic church at this time and have been historically shaped but at this moment and I know our panelists are going to speak to how they have been worked out on the ground. So I would turn first to the question of asking the panel you know how has the in your area of experience expertise observation and participation how has the role of the church functioned and changed and been vibrant and made a difference? Professor Appleby maybe you could go first. Thank you Bishop. I'll talk about six moments of evolution if we will over the last since Potrimon Terrace. I'll do it in seven minutes. I think six highlights. We take many of these for granted now but they are relatively new things since Potrimon Terrace. The first I would mention is development is the new name for peace. Pope Paul VI mentioned this in 1967 this that was his banner headline if you will in Papallorum progressio but it's so important and we've understood over the last 50 years or so that peace builders cannot work in settings effectively where poverty and hunger greed conflict and development workers and development professionals also recognize the connection between stability security peace cessation of shooting and there are many dimensions to this but we recognize that we can't isolate peacemaking peace building from the work of development and that those sets of professionals activists and church advocates need to work together so development is the new name for peace we'll say more about all these later I imagine. Secondly in my experience when I first started oh maybe 25 years ago working in Catholic peace building I came to it with the assumption that bishops and priests being disciples apostles of the Prince of Peace were natural peace builders and then which was a dumb naive assumption peace building is is certainly rooted in our theological and religious and spiritual commitments to peace but it's also a set of practices and we had to recognize in the community that not all bishops were trained when they were in seminary when they were prepared and priests as well clergy and religious more generally that it wasn't just like falling off a log let's become peace builders and so what we've seen evolve in a wonderful way over the last several decades is the clergy women religious and late people all moving beyond an affirmation of an importance of peace kind of a spiritual orientation to peace and adding expertise if I can ways to think about mediation and conflict resolution that ties to the third development over the last several decades and that is when we think about peace and when we ask our bishops and clergy and lay leaders to advocate peace we are talking about something quite specific capacious but specific an arc sometimes we call it strategic peace building different forms of peace building elicit of peace building but that means that we're we're active around the world the church is on an arc of peace building that begins with efforts of conflict prevention at education early warning of conflict and the church of course is everywhere and and grassroots and so that early warning that prevention that continuing attention to peacemaking is part of a larger comprehensive process that also leads to mediation and resolution the bishops have been very involved in some parts of the world in actual mediation resolution and then there's a whole phase of post-acord transitional justice and institution building now there's a lot of literature on this and most people certainly everyone on this call and many in our audience recognize it i'm simply pointing the fact that this is blossomed over the last four or five decades and certainly last 20 years unawareness that this is an interrelated process and that we have to be present at all levels from prevention to education to witness early warning mediation resolution and then the very hard work of implementing an agreement if it's signed then in a way you don't start all over but you've got a whole new set of problems and challenges and the church is present now around the world here and there at every phase of this comprehensive peace building a notion a process that's the third fourth women women are recognized and that i'd like to say more lavishly that women are at the center of our awareness and of our activism in fact they are but they've been hidden as they have been in society in the church and over the last several decades we've come to recognize how important women are to peace building to this over not not one accord not one moment but a gradual process over many years we can begin in a range here so to speak again of women's involvement it begins with the fact that in many of our conflicts that involve Catholics on both sides of the firing line or former Catholics it's a Catholic country a country like Colombia for example or the Philippines the women are the mothers the sisters the daughters of the combatants they can often be incredibly effective just in their role as the glue to the family then you move across the spectrum to women who have been in leadership positions in advocating for non-violence in advocating for social justice i won't go through the the list of aims but but they are they are profound and there's more and more awareness of how central and how much attention we need to give to the special ministry and calling of women there's been some uh again literature on this i i'll name check Susan Hayward and and Catherine Marshall there are others who have written about women and peace building it's a it's a growing literature and we need more attention to it but it's relatively new like many of the things i'm mentioning relatively new over the last number of years the important role of women fifth um and that is the the growing trajectory we'll talk more about of non-violence and we're we're gonna say a lot about that but uh there are internal differences within church that we know about non-violence about the importance of non-violent witness and that peace building has to be non-violent full stop we have an internal dialogue within the Catholic Church on so many issues one of which is just war versus uh non-violence and as approaches but this consistent witness of the Pope's has been on the side of non-violence not only Pope Francis has been a terrific champion but Pope John Paul II was an early advocate right after right when he began his papacy he went to Ireland and gave an impassioned speech saying non-violence is the only way to build peace we'll say more about that later it's led to tensions within the church because Catholics are actors within conflicts on all sides and I can say more later about how difficult it is for these actors who are in shooting wars to actually practice non-violence or to even acknowledge it as a church teaching oddly when it's been a consistent witness not only of the Pope's but of the church from top to bottom for the last decades finally one of the things we're more aware of now over the last number of years is the challenges there are to actual peace building from the church itself among the church itself I'll say one my little anecdote and then my time is up uh I was having a beer with a newly ordained priest in Burundi several years ago and he's just been ordained and this was after a period of intense violence in the region and we were talking about his ethnic ties or ethnicity in that context what what goes deeper in a person is that ethnicity is it tribe is it region is it people or is it the broader teaching of the gospel this is a newly ordained priest and he was struggling with this I said if your family was threatened and you needed to you thought do violence to support your people uh but your priesthood and your apostolic calling said no non-violence is the way what would you do very sensitively he said I would defend my family and by whatever means and I think that's a microcosm of the struggles of ethnicity clan loyalty family in conflict settings but a calling to this uh work of real uh apostolic virtue of actual non-violence it's difficult it's a challenge we'll say more about that so six lessons or six evap moments of evolution over since potcherman terrorist sorry that went quick and too long but there it is thank you scott Sergio could you just focus for us uh in in the concrete experience particularly in Nicaragua what are the on-the-ground roles that the church has in advancing or being unable to advance uh priest building and non-violence before answering the question I think that it is important to mention that in Nicaragua the Catholic Church and in other countries in Latin America has a very strong tradition of involvement in politics and not any politics it's a very turbulent politics since Nicaragua is by itself uh has an inclination for uh contentious politics we have had revolutions civil wars and different kind of expressions that are about the institutional level of the politics by itself but in all these episodes or events of violent conflicts or uh very conflictual situations the Catholic Church has displayed two important roles the first one as professor Appleby was saying is like uh it was working as an early system an early word in system trying to identify some indicators that possible conflicts will emerge this kind of diagnosis of problems is very important and we we have seen this in the in all the decades before but uh mainly in the most recent uh conflict in Nicaragua the 2018 wave of protest i'm going to explain this later but the church has been able to identify signs of deterioration in the institutionality in the country in the politics uh some expression of the treatment of values in the country that tend to create conflicts at the local level and also at the national level so that kind of diagnosis of problems is a first role that we can identify in all these conflicts of and turbulent history in Nicaragua and the second dimension or the second role is that prognostic role the church is always using this kind of prognostic frames for the specific conflicts that the country is facing and they have been very clear that they for instance as bishops uh i am talking at the bishops level with the Nicaraguan bishops conference they have been very clear that they do not offer technical solutions for the conflicts and Nicaragua is always in the record they are offering uh like moral guidance and also they are putting all the church infrastructure human resources to help to solve the conflicts the church they are very clear in this they do not have technical solutions for the many problems that are always uh uh related to the political conflicts in this but this has this happening of course at the bishops level as i was saying but we can identify this role of prognosis this role of putting the church infrastructure in order for the in order for the peace building and the mediation of conflicts also at the local and regional level so those two roles are we can see that happening in all the conflicts in Nicaragua this happened with the Sandinista revolution in 1979 the church early alerted sign of deterioration for human rising under the Somoza dictatorship and also supported the Sandinistas that year with uh with the uprising in the PMAX of the revolution in 1979 and then of course the church alerted about the signs of the new authoritarianism in the in the with the Sandinistas in 1980s and of course denounced the alignment of the Marxist ideology with the new government in that year and that and that kind of human rights violations also and then for the democratic restoration in 1990 the church also was trying to influence the politics internal politics in the in the country also in this role of prognosis proposing some ways to influence and to have this kind of influence in the in the national politics and with the personal president Nortega in 27 the church at the very beginning of course was pointing so many strengths in the government with policies related to education related to the economy and the institutions for instance but also it was pointing since the very beginning signs of deterioration in the institutionality and was allerting to the country and even for the opposition that possible conflicts were going to emerge since the very beginning of the return of president Nortega and with its consolidation of authoritarianism in all these years in 2018 a wave of protests erupted in the country left more than 300 casualties and a lot of repressions so the church was early alerting that this country was going to emerge and when it happened the church got involved participated with the protesters and also was ready when even the government asked the church to mediate that particular country and this had a lot of challenge that I am sure that we will have the opportunity to talk a little bit later but these two frames these two roles diagnosis and prognosis of the conflicts and possible solutions are always there in the politics in the country and I'm sure that it is also the case for other countries in Latin America great thank you so much Sergio and from diagnosis and prognosis to the to the question of moving minds and hearts I would ask Marie Dennis from Pax Christi to speak to the role of peace building within Catholic communities and with and launched by Catholic communities in the larger society to address that you need to take your mute off Marie thank you Bishop McElroy yes the the conversation is a very large one the Catholic Church plays so many different roles that are very important in the task of building peace I think what what I'd like to emphasize particularly is that in addition to more formal roles the the church can play a very very important role in preparing the ground for peace preparing Catholic people to both begin to build or continue to build cultures of peace and also to understand the the role of non-violence as a very deep belief in the Catholic tradition that Catholic non-violence initiative that I am part of is a part of Pax Christi International it exists to encourage the Catholic Church to move active non-violence to the center of Catholic life and teaching we're talking about non-violence as a very deep and wide practice it's a spirituality it's a way of life it's a global ethic it's an effective and powerful tool for interrupting or preventing violence for protecting vulnerable people and so on but we think of non-violence as different from pacifism and in many ways as that middle road between the use of violence and passivity or doing nothing so what we have seen in the last short while is the very important role that the that the institutional church is able to play in building a groundswell if you will and deepening the tools that Catholic people around the world have to apply non-violence in sometimes very difficult situations but also to live non-violently it's a it's a it's a very broad concept and we think that what the church has been doing and can do is almost the work of tilling the soil to build a more peaceful world what we ask what if 1.3 billion Catholics around the world had a full understanding of the power and effectiveness of active non-violence and the connection of non-violence to the heart of the gospel we think that could make a tremendous difference and where the church has assumed that role as a formator a teacher it has been very effective that the classic example of course is the Philippines during the revolution or as the revolution was approaching to oust the dictator Marcos the Catholic church played a very important role in encouraging the education about how to use non-violence in in the form of civil resistance it's it's one example but I think a very a very effective one after a significant period of of training members of the church at every level the Catholic community in the Philippines was able to make a significant contribution to sustaining a non-violent presence even in a very difficult situation we know that the Catholic church has a very well developed a network of universities seminaries religious communities local parishes publications and media outlets as you said our Bishop McElroy the church has a diplomatic presence in almost every country and at all of the major international organizations as well as a rich theological and spiritual resource that could make a really tremendous contribution to the development and acceptance of nonviolent approaches to a peaceful world I think in the last what 50 years or so as the church has seen practical examples of non-violence in action and seeing the possibility of non-violence actually being an effective tool even in challenging governance situations where good governance is very needed that the church has more and more sort of moved in the direction of how do we how do we not only prevent war stop violence but how do we also build a more peaceful world and we believe that the contribution that the church has already made as as was described not only in the in recent times but since Pachamen Terrace to building an understanding of a nonviolent way of life it is very significant and we hope that that will continue thank you Marie in so many ways what you've all been talking about is a process of conversion at various levels how do we convert local communities to understand the capacity they have to be builders of peace how do we help convert national communities which are in conflict to understand the pathways that are available to them even in periods of tremendous conflict and historic conflict and then within the international arena and Pope Francis's statement on the World Day of Peace really is a new stage of what has been an ongoing trajectory in the life of the Catholic community at the international level and that is wrestling with the questions of nonviolence of peace and the the institute itself of peace and Maria Steffen's research has been particularly helpful in showing the ability of nonviolent means to be powerful of propellance toward peaceful resolution of even seringly difficult conflicts but given all of that what what opportunities do you see for the Catholic Church at various levels to be builders of this conversion or promoters of this conversion you conversions at the heart of what Catholicism is how can we be converting people communities nations to peace building in this robust sense because one of the difficulties our history comes with us and and our history has been rooted in recent times in the in the just war tradition which is not centered on on nonviolence it is an effort to avoid war but it's been defanged in so many ways in terms of its limitations in recent years i think back to pox christie which Marie was speaking about the work of pox christie pox christie means the peace of christ pox christie was in the medieval period wasn't it and it was it was a way of building peace even within conflicts in the traditional way this but how can we so for any of you with scott or sir to america any of you have a thought on how the church can move forward in being an agent of conversion toward nonviolence institutionalized nonviolence nonviolence of the heart not strategic nonviolence within the situations in the world well i'd like to pick up on that with a with a few suggestions i think that the the the moment in which we are now that we're living through right now with the pandemic with the tremendous challenges that that are presented by that reality what we are seeing is that that that many different expressions of violence have been made visible uh both uh direct violence but also structural violence the violence of uh poverty the violence of of uh environmental destruction and so on right now that the church thanks to uh the leadership of pope frances um has focused enormous energy on um uh articulating describing what kind of a future we can move toward uh after this pandemic and um with a lot of focus on the uh 2015 encyclical la dow to see we believe that of an essential component of the building of a new normal if you will in uh in the in the uh with the vision of la dow to see of a of a world where of a reality where humans and uh the rest of creation live in right relationship what we believe is that nonviolence has to be a part of that uh move into a new normal first because it it describes the kind of conversion uh pope frances talks about an ecological conversion an ecological conversion has to be a conversion to nonviolence because nonviolence has to describe our relationship with the natural world as well as with each other besides that i think that the kinds of changes that are that are going to be needed in a post pandemic period of time are tremendous deep systemic transformations that will probably only be possible if there is a well-prepared um well-supported uh clear nonviolent um social movement to make that happen we as people have to be ready to accept significant changes and i think that they are precisely the kinds of changes that uh that um nonviolent movements are best equipped uh to accomplish so deep education preparation formation investment in um sorting out what are the most effective nonviolent strategies to use in what situations and um which the kind of research that maria and her colleague Erica Chenoweth did um how do we know what to do when and then i think that the other piece that i think the church can do um uh that is extremely important right now is to listen to the experience of local people living in contexts of violence uh of war yes but of all kinds of violence that the um synod on the amazon was a very interesting important example of that but i think it's also important because the the it is local communities living in specific contexts that understand best what nonviolent action will look like in their context and when uh uh nonviolence can be particularly effective so um i think uh that those are the directions in which uh the catholic church right now at a global level um is very well positioned uh to to leave the world thank you Marie i was a delegate to the amazon synod and it was interesting to me that the beginning every day uh there was at the front of the room the pictures uh and photos of the the from the amazon region the martyrs to nonviolence a hundred more than a hundred of them but there is a constant reminder to us of both the cost of promoting nonviolence and conversion and the opportunities there and the necessity for it so uh Sergio or Scott do you want to say anything i would like to add something about um what we were discussing right now is that there is also an working that we have to consider uh in how the church can contribute to the these processes and i think that this is related to what you were saying bishop this is which level of the catholic church we have to activate in some conflicts because we cannot see all the levels activated in some particular conflicts or violent situations and the nicaraon case is very illustrative in this regard for instance we saw the catholic left the community level the grassroots level of the church being very involved with the protester defending the human rights and the people on the streets on the context of a lot of oppression and that's a matter of coherence right with the gospel with the social doctrine of the catholic church but on the other side we had the bishops level we have the bishops organizing a dialogue a process of negotiation and that happened and then they were also supporting the protesters in a different manner and on the other side we had on the upper level you said the diplomatic level the pojo noon school and all the structure of the transnational church behind and that they these kind of three dimensions that were all of them in the conflict like trying to to to have the different roles in the company in power in 2018 and I think that when we see or at least that represents itself as a unique body and a unique dimension in this regard I think that that might be a kind of problematic in some conflicts and the truth has to the church and also have to to present itself with three different dimensions and being very clear which one is a being participate of some process of negotiations and when we don't see this line and or the limits are very blurry that can be very problematic in some cases I would add just to build on what both Marie and Sergio said on Marie's point I think what we're recognizing is that non-violence is a is a way toward conversion more generally Catholics are always in need of metanoia of turning around of rethinking their relationship to the world and non-violence is such a radical idea at first blush but so also is the gospel turn the other cheek love your enemy this is a way more broadly certainly for peacebuilding but form broadly to revitalize and renew the Catholic community locally nationally worldwide to have the Catholic community struggle with in the best sense of that term what it means to live a life that is radically one of service and issues all forms of a violence that in itself is a conversion moment for the church so I just want to amplify all the great things Marie was saying on Sergio's point take it in a direction too there there are folks many good in fact many peacebuilders at least at a time who weren't familiar with the Catholic Church and from outside you look at the Catholic Church and you might think boy it has its act together it's hierarchical it's got a pope it's got the bishops it's got all these people working around the world and we when we draw those folks into peacebuilding conversations we don't tell them hey the little secret is we don't agree on every level and we're always fighting with one another so that's that's that's part of any any human community including the church from the time of the apostles but the point I want to make is that as Sergio was saying you need all levels and Marie talked about the social movement which is a really a revolution in the church non-violence and peacebuilding at the center so my hope would be that because more and more bishops and priests here I'm going to talk about that thin slice of the church so to speak numerically but the how important it is that the people on the ground the social movements the people who are implementing the people who work for the church recognize that they their activities are being blessed by the church in its institutional sense and of course we have wonderful bishops who do that and over these last number of years we have more and more bishops and priests in particular who have had direct experience in peace in peacebuilding around the world so it's not as if this is not a not a movement within the church that is unknown there are more and more advocates and but not everyone's converted in the hierarchy not everyone's converted in the clergy and so my hope would be that the the bishops Pope Francis's leadership but not only the pope not only the bishops not only the clergy but there's nonetheless an institutional momentum that links the importance of peacebuilding and non-violence to overall conversion which bishops are always calling us to to renewal and conversion if that link can be made and so you take it a little bit displaced a little bit from this or that that just war debate and talk about it as a way of life the way of the gospel boy it would be great to have more and more of of the hierarchy in particular singing from the same hymn book and more and more are but they're parts of the world where there are people who are in the church who are not helpful frankly and and we need to we need to do better there we're now come to the time in which we're moving to questions uh from the uh those who are participating from afar and so I would just remind you you could submit questions to the event page on the U.S. Institute of Peace website and we've been perceived some so uh one goes to where you left off Scott uh what keeps Pope Francis from issuing an encyclical on non-violence now I have to say if I hadn't been watching Marie on the screen this whole time and no she couldn't type anything without my seeing it I would have thought she submitted that because that has been a very significant issue a significant initiative from pox christy to try to get an encyclical from Pope Francis on the question of non-violence and so there are complications in an encyclical and uh wish you had discussed many times they're different uh whether encyclical is the right instrument for i'm not sure but I think where we are both agreed is that uh it is important to shift in the teaching of the Catholic Church and in the articulated doctrinal tradition of the church as it has emerged in the present day that peacemaking non-violence is the primary way for the church avenue for uh the in Catholic teaching to approach issues of conflict resolution not a secondary I think the the way it is now is that just war theory is the primary way and and I I think uh I would I would certainly agree that and I think this is where Pope Francis is moving is that the primary avenue in Catholic thinking for conflict resolution it even complex international conflict resolution is that of of the pathway of non-violence and as I say uh the the just war theory has a a fine tradition it was originally meant to limit war but that is just the guts of it have been torn out frankly and so it's used by countries to justify going to war and groups to justify conflict rather than acting as a constraint on conflict which was its original intention so does anybody else have any uh question on this encyclical question any comment well maybe just a a word or two since we have been asking for an encyclical for a number of years but recognizing that have come to recognize that although we hope someday there will be an encyclical on on non-violence and just peace uh that there are other ways that the church uh can teach and signal a move in that direction uh even other uh other ways of expressing a magisterial document um the world they've peace message was very important we're hoping that perhaps there could be a year of non-violence or a commitment to non-violence within the dicastry in terms of staff um partly because one of the challenges I think is that yes we want the church to to make a statement about non-violence but maybe even more important is encouraging a deep a deeper uh dive into an understanding of non-violence of of seeing non-violence as a spectrum of possibilities from diplomacy to trauma healing to restorative justice and civil resistance and so on and I think that the world they've peace message really began to do that um I think there have been other ways in which Pope Francis has been doing it we hope someday it will be gathered together in in one major document but um in the meantime a lot is happening. Sergio. In this regard I just want to highlight the the power of these words that not necessarily are in the encyclicals but also in the speeches of different the the folks or the bishops in the 2018 way of protesting in caragua it was common to see the priests and religious nuns always framing their participation in protests and they're supposed to protestor by the words of Pope Francis or different encyclicals or different phrases that he always used in his speeches for example in Spanish the youth participate in in politics and that kind of stuff and that constant frame of the social teaching of the person the more recent influence of Pope Francis in this involvement in in social life and also the peace building perspective involvement in this kind of conflicts it is very important and the power of words is really relevant in the concrete and very Michael level. Thank you Sergio. The next question is Professor Appleby spoke about the importance of women's involvement in Catholic peace building could the panelists share more concretely what an inclusive approach to Catholic peace building looks like including engagement of youth and women. Scott do you want to? Yes I will I'll simply refer to some of my own experience watching and admiring women in Mindanao the Philippines friends of mine colleagues who have worked with the church and with Catholic Relief Services bringing the the church and Catholic Relief Services and to even closer alliance and my my experience talking about Mila Leguro many people know Mila but her colleagues they're doing others who work in Mindanao in very difficult situations in this long-standing conflict and their agency has been I put it this way without them nothing happens because not only are they the people who bring the bishops and the priests and the and the laity together in terms of mapping the area knowing the church knowing the social network so they're the they're the people who are the coordinators but also they themselves are exemplars of patience endurance courage in the face of violence fortitude they're actually embodiments of this ethic of non-violence and an ethic of peace and so what I've observed is that the the dilemma I think in a way is that they are servants and yet I've also seen them subordinated and and you know I wanted at one point to say let's every let's all these guys shut up and would you please now that would embarrass them but that their insight into the community into the dynamics into the grassroots is so concrete that they're the ones who really in a way should be leading the discussion but they're not always welcomed in in that role and partly is because their their spirit is one of service but also because they're marginalized that people don't recognize that often that the the depth of wisdom that comes from their embeddedness in the local community again in various roles as mediators as members of families as those with real connections to the suffering they are the pulse of the community so anyway there are the more that we can empower these women who are in that embedded situation local communities to have a real voice in how we think about peace and how we come to understand and recognize the real challenges that the community has in living non-violence even as one strategy the more we see it from their eyes I think will be just wiser and more effective and more of a church thank you the next question is as many countries are entering the election season is there a role for the Catholic Church in preparing Catholics to assist in the peaceful transitions during or following elections we will have an electoral and yeah the position of the church in this electoral process will be crucial especially in how the church prepare the citizenry for their participation at least since 2011 the church hasn't called the people to participate in an electoral process because of many indicators of proud rule and manners political manners in the electoral process and if the church for instance has the voice and said it is time to vote it is time to participate and to have this electoral weight out of the current crisis in Nicaragua it will be very determined again this is part of the early system and early warning system that the church always has the church will kind of claim that if the electoral process is acceptable the electoral process will be something that the people can actually put their voices on on the process and I think that that will be crucial at least for the case of Nicaragua in particular the church is always an institution that is determinant in the elections let me just add one quick comment on that also Bishop in Colombia this is not about elections directly but in Colombia as you know the country is going through a process of implementing this these comprehensive peace accord that were signed four or five years ago it's a complicated it's a very complicated process that's fraught with tension FARC the government various roble groups it's very hard to keep it afloat the one institution I think or or one of the central institutions in Colombia is the Catholic Church and the social pastoral led by Monsignor Hector Fabio Hanau he's also in a position to convene all the parties through the national peace reconciliation and coexistence council it's absolutely invaluable what what role and absolutely essential the role that the Caritas and Monsignor and his team are playing because they have the trust and the confidence of all the players and that is so rare and there are situations around the world in which the Catholic Church is at its best able to convene to mediate to lead a process as complicated is implementing these dozens hundreds of provisions at a peace accord and to do so in a way that somehow keeps these warring parties talking and there is a commonality in Catholicism in Colombia there is a common platform it's complicated but the church is so central to these kind of processes and we have been telling these stories but there are many stories around the world of this kind of mediation and convening power of the church for peace I would say as an American bishop the ethic within our bishops conference is to support the local churches in any given country their approach to these issues and to support them but in quest their questions like in Venezuela for example we find it difficult to tangibly support in the ways that are important to them because of the restrictions so but but there just as a way of understanding more how the Catholic community functions bishops conferences in other countries defer to the situation on the ground and try to be of assistance in that the other thing I just know which maybe I shouldn't say but I never thought we'd be in our country in a moment when this question would be of relevance to us what would what will we do is Catholic bishops in the United States if there is a problem in our current election in terms of the outcome if it is heavily disputed but that will be a responsibility we may be facing here too the next question as we mentioned COVID is exacerbating the root causes of conflict around the world what can the church do to help mitigate the impact of COVID in this relation to conflict well I'll I can say just a few words about that I'm sure others can as well I think that what what the church at a global level has been doing has been a very interesting effort to listen to local communities and to begin with and to understand how the pandemic is affecting for example indigenous communities in the Alti Plano of Peru or refugees living in camps in Syria or Greece and on and on and then to both put the resources of the church through Caritas through church communications channels through the diplomatic corps and so on at the service of of doing everything possible to avert both the extreme suffering of the poorest communities in the world which is what's happening now and then the to make sure that the whatever assistance whatever ways that the church is present and can help is always done in in a in such a way that it is conflict conscious so that it it's aware of the potential for exacerbating tensions in a particular community but I think I think listening to local communities engaging local communities which the the church at a global level and at a local level is doing and then I think that this task of of not Pope Francis said don't prepare for the future prepare the future which I think is exactly what the Vatican's COVID-19 commission is about trying to do it's complicated it's huge but we need to have articulated a vision for the future beyond this crisis and I think the church can be very helpful in getting that conversation going and and supporting it which says one final question that's come what can the church in the United States do at various levels to assist peace building and non-violence on all the levels we've been talking about international one of the biggest challenges in the mediation role of the church is that most of these processes doesn't have the abiding effect like the church is there is mediating but there is no implication of what are the results besides just the will and the work of the participants I think that when the church activates its transnational dimensions and work with other let me say these are powerful churches in terms of politics like the bishops conference in the United States it can activate a kind of binding effect of political implications to all these processes so this creating to by creating these connections at the political level with centers of power of political power in the world I think that that's important to validate some of the these kind of processes that happen at the local or micro level or even at the national level but in small countries I think that that connection between small countries conferences and big countries conferences is very important and the United States bishops conference could have a very important role in this kind of situation I would have a related comment on that Bishop if I could and you very courageously opened the door for it and that's this you know the the world watches the United States and it also watches the church in the United States and I would hope that the church in the United States is more outspoken and and direct and powerful about the trends in our society and I'll say under this administration or in this presidential administration in which hatred and division and and the suggestions of violence are absolutely antithetical to both the country's values and the church's values and I'd like to see more more and I think the world would benefit from our bishops speaking out and speaking out boldly and not worrying about the political consequences because maybe I shouldn't put it that way not worrying about I don't want to be glib but around the world that's what bishops have to do and are called to do they're they're in much worse situations in many cases of course in the United States let's make that clear but they have to speak out at at great risk to themselves they're as you know real martyrs around the church not only among the laity and the clergy but among the hierarchy so anyway that's what I would hope that the the Catholic Church is in this country is more and more an outspoken prophet when we see when the church sees as I think we all do trends in our society that are absolutely unacceptable and against the values of both the nation and the church thanks Scott Murray I would just add to that that in addition I would hope that the church in the United States the whole church would see implemented in Catholic universities in seminaries in local churches parishes a deep wide creative educational process around non-violence and and the the skill building the skills of how to live the gospel in our times in this country thank you Murray and I'm going to toss it over to someone who's been doing that for so many years Maria to close us well thank you Bishop McElroy and this has been just such an incredibly rich conversation I just first want to thank our panelists Scott Murray Sergio thank you so much Bishop McElroy for being such a great moderator thanks to David for his very meaningful opening remarks and special thanks to our religion and inclusive society's team for really taking the lead and organizing today's event I guess a couple of key messages we only have about a minute left so a couple of key messages that really stick with me from this conversation is really how the church can be an agent of conversion really because of its unique role at the international level its diplomatic means at the national level and and especially at the community levels and Scott mentioned that non-violence is the means of conversion and I think you know Pope Francis's 2017 World Day of Peace message on non-violence as a style of politics for peace was so profoundly important and kind of laying out the importance of centering non-violence in just peace at the core of the church's activities and I think there's such great potential as Marie and others and Sergio you talked about the role of the church at all different levels as a mediator as someone who helped to facilitate a national dialogue in Nicaragua as the protests broke out while at the same time serving as a witness and supporting the grass roots and serving as a witness to human rights violations so I think there's such great opportunity for centering the message of active non-violence and really deepening the investment and commitment at all levels from the diplomatic level in training and in education and non-violence conflict resolution civil resistance unarmed civilian protection the range of tools available to serve as alternatives to violence are vast and they have proven to be very effective including in places where you would think they would not be effective so I think if you know we can continue the conversation about what that might mean practically to center active non-violence at the heart of the church you know and and what that might mean here in the United States and also globally I think that would be a just a wonderful continuation of the amazing work that you all are doing so again I want to thank you all for participating and I want to thank our audience around the world from tuning in and with that I would just really wish everyone a wonderful rest of their day thank you very much


Hello and welcome to our segment, Beating All Orts. The COVID-19 induced lockdown has literally brought about a 360 degree change in the way advertisers and marketers are looking at things. Now, we're trying to get you a lowdown from one such brand because we have with us Mr. Anil Dua, Executive Director and Group CEO of Dish TV India. Hello, Mr. Dua. Hello, how are you? Great, great, great. Tell me, when the lockdown was first announced, you know, it seemed like a challenge which our industry might never be able to cope with, you know, a month and a half down the line. How do you see, how do you think we're fed? I think very well. I will say that industry, the companies, the management have really risen to the occasion. And in my mind, that has been a striking feature of this lockdown. Maybe it is the instant to survive. Or rather, I'll say the desire to thrive, you know, which in the competitive context that these companies have grown in, which has marked this phenomenon because I see most of these companies trying to outdo each other in terms of continuing business as usual. And it's a fun to be part of that and to be observing that.  We planned, you know, we realized that there's a lot to be done, you know, and various alternative scenarios can unfold. So what we did was that we took measures to first of all, see that all our people were safe and they were ready for the coming times. We also did drills and saw to it that, you know, whatever happens in any eventuality, our service goes on. Business continues because we have a 24 hour service for the customers. Our transmission, our head and IT systems have to work nonstop. And of course, we built alternative scenarios to look at various new alternative things which may have to be done, the responses which may have to be enabled in different situations to see that things keep working and customers stay engaged, stay entertained. We are some way through the lockdown. I mean, it might get lifted anytime we hope. You know, but tell me what are the big challenges that you are still facing as, as an individual as also as a, you know, as a group CDO? I will say at both these levels, the challenges have been interesting because they have got converted into opportunities at an individual level. I think it is living to a new routine, you know, which have never lived seemingly very fixed, but actually far more dynamic and demanding than it has ever been, especially for a business and industry, which requires, as I said, 24 by seven kind of nonstop trouble free service.  We had to ensure that life goes on as if nothing has changed from a subscriber point of view. And while we had to do very different things, I think by and large we managed to ensure that and those challenges, of course, still continue. We have surmounted a fair bit of that, but, you know, we keep on finding and discovering new ways of improving further upon that. Also come up with a campaign called the recharge. Now, what was the insight behind that? And how are you also helping your consumers get through this crisis? Well, I will say it's a very positive tape on the current situation. You know, of course, in the situation of lockdown, you are trying to contain the pandemic. But also the lockdown marks a break from the usual humdrum, the usual noise of our modern life. It's like a detox. It's a rejuvenation.  It says that, you know, while the neighborhoods are quieter, the roads are safer, the water and air are cleaner, you know, we are ensuring that you can stay at home productively. You can stay at home happily. And we are trying to see in every way that your entertainment is always switched on through various things that we are doing. And as our other brand says, while this TV says recharge, our D2H brand says stay home, stay safe, stay entertained. And together with these two campaigns, we are actually given that very positive message, a message of possibilities, a message of possibility in the current situation. But tell me, was your first reaction one of, you know, wanting to slash the advertising spends like most people, most marketers do. Did you think, you know, the first thing I can do is maybe cut down on all different expensive mediums? Is that how you went about it? So we have to recognize that some of the mediums like auto form and cinema have all of course been rendered redundant. But, you know, we've maintained a minimum presence on TV. We've upped our presence on digital. The advantage we have is that we have our own home channels talking to our own subscribers. And that's an important thing because our repeat business, our upgrades, extra content comes mostly from the current subscribers and our home channels are the major medium of advertising. So they have been with us and they've been a very important medium to communicate all the things that we've done. For example, we extended credit almost three times to what we used to do earlier in terms of paying later. We've started several free services, whether it is kids service or it's fitness service or it is senior people service. You know, all these things we've been able to communicate very effectively through our channels. So that has built in the gap to a large extent from conventional advertising. We've also created radio spots, you know, so we've done things, but of course, you know, the traditional spend on traditional media definitely is not at the same level. But given our unique advantage of using direct marketing like SMS, email, registered mobile numbers, you know, and digital marketing and home channels, we've been able to stay connected with our customers. As an advertiser and you know, as a platform, not just as an advertiser as a platform. Now they say that it's literally boom time for OTT platforms. Do you think it's the perfect occasion for a watcher to rise up to the occasion? Watcher is very close to our hearts and you know, it's been labor of love. But I'll say first and foremost, it is an opportunity for our DTH platform because people are at home, they are watching TV, we've been seeing all the data, the TV viewership has gone up, TV viewing time has gone up. So that is the big opportunity for the DTH platforms for both our brands, Dish and D2H to up the ante and to really, you know, stay connected and grow the business. Yes, for watcher, it's also been a very important phase. The interesting thing about our OTT service watcher is that it supplements the DTH platform. While DTH is about long format consumption in family time, family space, watcher is all about short form, snackable consumption in individual time, individual space. And therefore the two together kind of go hand in hand snuggly. So we've been able to actually grow both the businesses during this period. And both of them have added subscribers and volumes and revenues. You're saying there's an increase in revenue in this period for watcher? See, watcher is by and large, you know, a service for our Dish and D2H subscribers. It's also available to non Dish and D2H, but because we've not been marketing it very aggressively right now, it's a fledgling brand. It's a youngest OTT brand, but very promising. So therefore, right now, we haven't gone into either SVOD, the paired SVOD or ABOD in a big way. But still the volumes have grown, talking specifically about watcher. You know, we had grown to a million downloads after a few months of relaunch, and that's the number with which we entered this year in January. Then in January, February, we doubled it. We added one more million. Then, you know, since then we've been adding almost a million every month. So as we talk, we are at about 4 million right now. Because digital is a medium which is being consumed the most. A lot of advertisers have literally moved to digital, you know, e-commerce platforms, social media, et cetera, et cetera. Now, do you think after a couple of months, the trend is going to continue or is it going to be back to the same, you know, television will be the main medium and you know, OOH, everything will fall in place just the way it was. So you see, this has been a long-term trend. The growth of digital has been a long-term trend, so it's here to stay. It's got some Philip under this lockdown. But certainly, you know, the traditional media, I think the Indian ingenuity will ensure that the traditional players also strike back, you know, they make a healthy comeback and we'll see everything else also coming back. But yes, this may, you know, move to the next level. But I think the traditional mediums are here to stay and we'll see them come back in new, innovative ways.  Now, they are a lot less demanding. Would you agree? Well, I think it is always mutual. I think the agencies have also been very forthcoming. They're truly playing the role of creative partners. I think the creativity and innovation has really blossomed during this time. You know, almost everyone has been shooting videos and TVC's from home and we've done the same. We've created radio spots. We've created TV commercials and of course, you know, advertising agencies have been very innovative in doing that. So I think our engagement during this period has gone up. We've been ideating together, brainstorming together and several new ideas have come up. So I think it's been a good period from the relationship point of view. And one last question. What is your biggest learning from the lockdown? I think opportunities like this are the time that you can reconnect with the customer as a brand. No time is a wrong time to build trust, build credibility. And that's what we have been able to do. We have, I spoke about positivity. So we put our money where our mouth is. You know, we've started a dish positive channel on the dish platform. We started a D2H positive channel on D2H platform. On this, you get all the authentic information about the pandemic like testing facilities, like precautions you should take. So all positive, informative, authoritative information that any D2H subscriber can get on these channels. So we have been as a brand trying to forge that relationship with our customers that even in time like this, actually we can convert the situation into a huge opportunity to build that trust and credibility with our subscribers. That that's actually a very good thing to say. You know, let's try and turn this adversity into an opportunity. Indeed. Thank you so much Mr. Dua for speaking to us. Thank you.


The European Commission is creating a digital twin of the Earth. Destination Earth or Destin-E will enhance climate monitoring using Earth observation data. The Virtual Replica aims to represent virtually all processes of the Earth's surface, including human influences on food, water and energy flows, as well as geophysical and meteorological systems. Set to start in mid-2021, the project will run for 10 years. Scientists hope these digital models will help understand climate impact now and in the future. The digital twin is designed to test different scenarios, like showing whether a dike can prevent flooding in the Netherlands. Destin-E's outputs could inform policy decisions on climate-related risks. Artificial intelligence, AI technology, such as neural networks, will speed up simulations, helping researchers pinpoint key insights faster. Launching in November 2021, Destin-E is co-developed by the European Space Agency and the European Agency for the Exploitation of Meteorological Data. The agencies aim to help Europe become climate neutral by 2050. Learn more about AI and climate change at ITU.int.


Hello my name is Karen Shepardson and welcome to the leaders room by the Eclipse Leadership and Governance Center. Today we are delighted to have with us Chet Meng Tan, or just Meng as he prefers to be called, a Google pioneer, an award-winning engineer, a New York Times best-selling author, a thought leader and a philanthropist. Meng now serves with Google's people development team. His current job description is, enlighten minds, open hearts and create world peace. At Google, Meng led the creation of a groundbreaking mindfulness-based emotional intelligence course called Search Inside Yourself, which was featured on the front page of the business section of the New York Times. Search Inside Yourself is also the title of Meng's New York Times best-selling book, which he hopes will eventually contribute to world peace in a meaningful way. Outside of Google, Meng is co-chair of the 1 billion acts of peace campaign, which has been nominated by seven Nobel Peace Laureates for the Nobel Peace Prize. Meng hopes to see every workplace in the world becoming a drinking fountain for happiness and enlightenment. When Meng grows up, he wants to save the world and have lots of fun and laughter doing it. Welcome to Malaysia. Thank you. And to the leaders room. Thanks for having me. Thank you. We have this opportunity to speak with you. So may I begin by just asking you one question first.  It was very simple. I only have a very simple aspiration. All I wanted to do was to create the conditions for world peace in my lifetime. And so I asked myself, how do I do that? And I figured one way to do that is scale inner peace, inner joy, and compassion worldwide. Inner peace? Inner joy, compassion worldwide. How do I do that? The way to do that is to align these three qualities, peace, joy, compassion, with success and profits. Because if people, it teaches people to be peaceful and with peace, joy, compassion being the necessary and unavoidable side effect, then it will spread because then people want to do that to the training. More than that, appealing to self-interest, because if we go to go now to talking about goodness, people will like yay and then they go home nothing changed. Success, profits, and the goodness is unavoidable as a side effect and it contributes to world peace. People say yeah, yeah, sign me up, right? Because they don't mind contributing to world peace. So that was, that's my skillful means. Yes, yes. The skillfulness is to make it in such a way where the goodness is unavoidable as a side effect. And then so the way to do that, mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Mindfulness is very easy. It is described as moment-to-moment, non-judging attention. That is all. So basically paying attention to this current moment and whatever arises arises, whatever seizes, seizes. So that frame of mind. Anybody can do that. It's fairly simple. The hard part is maintaining it over a stretch of time. Yes and yes. So the way to do this is practice. Yes. So the way to look at it is every time when you bring attention to the breath and it wanders away when you bring it back, it's like doing one bicep curve for the brain. If I brief on the cortex.   Then eventually that's how you can hold your attention on the breath effortlessly. And then so then the question is how do I get that? Is that easy? I think so. Shall we do it one exercise right now? Okay. For one breath, bring full attention but gentle. Total but gentle to one in-breath and one out-breath. Let's do it now. Thank you. You notice I come now already? A little bit more? Yes. The reason you come, there are two reasons. The first is physiological because by paying attention to the breath, you tend to have slow deep breaths. You notice that it slows down. When you have slow deep breath, you are stimulating a vagus nerve. And that slows down the heartbeat, lowers the blood pressure and so on already. So that's one. And then there's a psychological reason, which is that when you're fully, remember I said total attention to the breath, when you're fully in the to be worrying, you need to be in the future. To be regretful, you need to be in the past. So when you're fully in the moment, free from regret and worry for one moment. And that's how you get one moment of rest. So in other words, it is working already. There's another data point to show that it actually works really well in a small amount of time, which is if you look at tennis players, the best tennis players in the win the, the best versus the very best. Those who go to the in-burden and those who win. What's the difference? According to one study, the difference is that the very best in the world, they are able to relax their body, rest their body and mind between sets to 10, 15 seconds. They can rest it so that when they begin the next set, they are more rested than their opponent. And if they do it over many sets, that's how they sustain the hyper. Yes, yes. So I read about it. I haven't met that at that time, I haven't met a world-class tennis player. So I didn't know whether that was true. And then I ended up meeting this guy called Novak. So I asked Novak and Novak said it's true and not just true. Novak says he says at his level, tennis is no longer a physical game. It's a mental game. It's all about how you can maintain the presence of mind the entire game. Would you say that the tension is equivalent to focus? So attention is what you are directing your awareness to at the moment. So focus is the ability to hold it, the tension. So to finish up, so therefore if you just do one breath once a day, that already puts you on a path. And if you do one breath a day and you become aware of the benefits at the moment, then you familiarize the mind with the benefits, then the mind wants to do some more. And that's how you get to have a what do you call that, a solid practice. So let me ask you this question. About breath, holding attention for this amount of time. How does that play out in terms of the business context when you go to and have a surplus business people say what is this about breath? How do you deal with that? It's extremely important for leadership.  Because Karen has the ability to calm the mind. I've been training in this. And everybody's panicking, you alone calm the mind and think clearly. And if you do that, everybody is going to look at you and they'll feel in their heart leader. And the reason is because that is leadership. Part of leadership is the ability to think under fire. Grace under fire. Grace under fire. Also clear thinking under fire. You're able to say, okay, this is what happened. This is what you should respond to. You inspire leadership. And you inspire followers. So, and that turns out to be highly trainable. If you bring attention to breath a lot, then that's when your breath under cortex becomes very strong. That's when you can do this. So, this alone has direct implications on leadership. And then the other skills that we do in search inside yourself, every one of them has implications on leadership as well. So, for example, self-awareness. Being aware of the process of emulsion. If you can do that, I mean the best people we ever work for are the type of people who have that awareness. So, and that's again trainable. It just seems like there's this calmness in some people. But you're saying that it's not something that's inborn and actually anybody can train to be that. It is something inborn and it can be trained. So, it's kids that are running. There are some people who are born to run faster than the rest. And everybody can train themselves to run faster. Wow, that's really interesting. Are there any obstacles when you begin to approach an audience and speak about this whole idea of mindfulness and emotional intelligence? What kind of pushback do you get, if any? I actually haven't gotten any pushback, which is surprising. I think the reason I think is because I do a few things. So, one is the science. I'm very rigorous about the science. And the reason is because it's a professional hazard. If I'm not rigorous about science, I get very embarrassed. So, the professional hazard turns out to be a feature. Another professional hazard is precision. The way I use language is very precise. So, for example, a meditation teacher will say, let's go deep into emotional things. And the engineer will like, what is deep or shallow? How you measure? How do you quantify that? So, the language I use is, let's create high resolution perception into the process of emotion. And people get that. It's no longer laughing. So, the precision. The third thing I do is application. So, for example, the calmness of mind thing. Not just it's good for your mind, good for soul. This is how you apply in the work setting. This is how you are in leadership. So, because of that, I think it becomes unfluffy. It becomes useful. And that's why that's so important. I think the biggest, not pushback, but the biggest difficulty is sustaining the practice. So, I introduce this to people and they take it on. It makes perfect sense. They take us on. For some large percentage, it changed our lives. And then, after a few weeks, I'll practice the table off. And I observe the same thing in physical exercise. These people exercise. They do it for eight weeks.  I'm going to do this every day for a life. And after a few weeks, eh, eh, eh. It just goes down. So, the same challenge presents itself in meditation. So, that's the biggest thing I face. And what do you recommend for people who go through this, you know, high excitement and then slowly going down? So, if you look at the physical analogy, what is the solution? The solution to get people to continue exercise? The couple, the two or three. One is community, the gym body. The other one is gamification. We gamify the exercise. Speak more time. It's called sports. I know that's what engineers speak. Geeks speak. So, you turn it in. You turn physical fitness into a game. Use joy as a vehicle. So, similar mechanisms can apply in meditation. So, community, just get the sitting body. So, it's accountable to each other. The gamification is hard in meditation because sports is necessarily stimulus-driven. Meditation is necessary, stimulus-free. So, how do you do that? So, the answer is, it turns out that when you are sitting in meditation and the mind comes down, there is a joy that arises spontaneously because of that peace of mind. And there's actually, in the Pali language or in the Sanskrit language, Suka. So, for a seasoned meditator, after some amount of practice, you reach the point where you can access Suka on the mind. Then you can, every sitting is joyful. Then it sustains a practice. So, the question is, how do we do this? Make it easier for the beginner. And I think I figured it out, which is to front-load the process with joy. So, right from the beginning, right from the first breath, remember when we did the exercise? Did I ask you to think, see whether there's a joyful component? I think I forgot to ask. So, to see there's a peace component. So, the next time you do this, see if there's also a joy component, a very subtle amount of, like, wow. And the more the mind looks at it, the more the mind becomes familiar with it, and then the more the mind can bring it up. So, that's how you front-load the joy in the beginning. And then, after a while, that sustains a practice. As you speak about these things at Eclipse, we subscribe to the definition of leadership. For us, it's about harnessing energy, so that you can create a better future. Harnessing energy, okay. Harnessing energy. And this energy, you need this energy because whenever you implement any kind of change, there's always resistance. And you need to be able to overcome this resistance. And you need to call upon an intrinsic sort of energy that resides in you. So, does mindfulness actually help? I mean, in that sense, in terms of the energy bit? For the leader, or for the... For the leader, and maybe even for the followers as well. Yes, definitely. So, the couple of pieces, and I'm trying to think out which one is most important. It's not yet clear right now, but the piece that stands out in my mind is the motivation piece. So, it turns out that one of the big pieces of emotional intelligence is actually motivation. Which is finding, searching within yourself, and finding my core inner values. What do I care about? What makes me happy? What are my purposes? What gives me meaning? And so on. So, once you find that, then you're more able to figure out what can I do in my work that align with those priorities in my life. Then, if you have that conviction as a leader, people can see it. So, for example, Steve Jobs, he wasn't an easy person to work with, but he has a few things going for him that are very strong. And one of them is... It's his conviction. Doing this, and it shows that people want to follow him. The other thing that Steve Jobs does very well, which is surprising at first glance. But it makes sense once you take a closer look, which is that he is not about Steve. He's about creating greater good for the world. He's about creating beautiful products that people can use. So, he goes beyond glorifying Steve, and aligning Steve's pocket. And because of that, people buy into the vision. So, they work with him even though he's difficult. So, there are a couple of components. One, the vision and also the going beyond self. Since we're on the topic of leadership, can I just ask very quickly? Is there any particular, when I say a leader that stands out for you, who would that be? Is there anybody? A leader who stands out. There are a couple. Let's see. Let's see. So, the names that come to my mind. George Washington. Ghandi. I think these two are the strongest. And I'm in mind. George Wong Sheetan, to me, could be the most important president in the history of the United States. Most he gave up power. He gave up power. He was as successful as the president as a leader. And he was so successful, somebody suggested that he became King George. And he scolded the guy. And then, after two terms, he voluntarily give up the president. And because of that, he's created the presidents. So, to me, you took other revolutions. Most revolutions tend to fail, because the revolutionary, the rebel became the new dictator. And because of George Washington, we didn't have that in the U.S. So, that's one. And his character, as well, is always serving the better good and glorifying himself. The other one, Ghandi. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, amazing every way. Yeah. So, I watched the Ghandi movie when I was 13, I think. Yeah. That changed my life. When I grew up, I wanted to be just like that guy. Yeah. So, when I met Arun, Ghandi, Ghandi's grandson, I thanked him personally. Thanks to your grandfather.  Fantastic. Meng, I mean, it's been wonderful talking to you. You know, I really enjoyed this short conversation. So, thank you for taking time. And I just want to say I'm Karen Shepardson, signing off from the leaders room, brought to you by the Ekliffe Leadership and Governance Center. Thank you.


When I got my fifth wheel one of the choices I made was to put on a lot of solar instead of spending the money on a generator. So I have no generator. I don't have a portable generator. I don't have any other power source besides my batteries. I did that to save the cost on the other things so that I could afford the solar. I think in the long run it's really going to pay off because I boondock like I am right now. But you know if I'm in a stormy cloudy area for a week at a time which I'm going to be right now, I was a little bit concerned about how I was going to power even basic stuff without any solar power coming in. So fingers crossed this is a really good test so I can see how the solar works out. This week is going to be a good test for my new solar. I'm here in Wickenburg, Arizona and you guys can see it is super rainy outside but beautiful. I'm in a great spot and so far I have enjoyed some really great power on my solar. I've made a lot more than I have used but last night I went to bed and my solar was at 44 percent. Hey look at that on the bottom left it's still 44 percent. Again I'm still getting used to this panel you can see in the bottom left there. It says 12.9 which is how I'm used to reading solar but this is cool it's almost like a gas gauge. It tells me how full my six lithium batteries are so I've got 44 percent on six lithium batteries which is a lot. Right now I am using 83 watts and I'm making zero because the sun is not out yet it's dawn and it's been raining. I'm going to go ahead and use the regular power that I do. I'm going to cook today. I'm going to use my Instant Pot and see what happens with a rainy day on this type of solar. I'll let you guys know. It's 10.30 at night it's still raining outside. I'm at 39 percent but it's going to be like this all week so we'll see what happens after several days in a row of no sun. Okay this is day two of my seven-day rain experiment to see what happens with my solar. Again I don't have a backup. I just woke up and I want to show you guys it is really really raining we're actually in a flesh-fled warning here. I'm with some friends but we're in a nice higher area so we're not in a washer or anything we should be fine but these poor people came in last night and excuse my friend over here. I do know this person that's parked so close to me so no worries. So I don't know if you guys can see this little trailer right here. I have to tell you we feel so bad for them because on the door they have a conservation emblem so they're from some kind of a conservation group. They got here late last night and put up tents and it's muddy you guys. We saw a couple of people get kind of stuck yesterday but again don't bring a fiat in here in the mud but you know so they were here last night they tried to get out today they've been stuck for over an hour there's actually four of them you don't see them right now because I mean my gosh they're they're kind of giving up I see a lot of them walking away they've both they've all been digging for an hour trying to get out of this mud I wish I had a better shot for you but that's basically how it is here. I haven't had sun in two days. Oh okay so my six lithium batteries are 22% full again it's a different way for me of thinking about it than before but it's like a gas gauge so 22% full and I am using 28 watts 27 of power and I'm making oh 82 watts 80 do you guys see that so I'm making 70 80 watts and I'm using just under 30 so even in this rain I am making more solar than I'm using okay so here's the deal I gotta knock on my door it was two teenage girls it looks like that group out there is a conservation group called the conservation experience if I had to guess they're 17 I could be wrong but um their kids and I asked them how the experience was and they said great we love it but they asked if I could help push them out well I don't know what good I'm gonna do but I have a couple of ideas when people got stuck on Pismo Beach I saw that they would put boards of wood underneath the tires and I don't have any but I've called everybody I know around here so we're trying to figure it out I'm gonna run out right now if that doesn't work I'm gonna see if I can hook up my truck to their trailer or my truck to their truck and give them out but I've never done that oh my god it's muddy you guys this is jack jack has been working hard tell us about it jack we were right there and then tried to come over the hill to leave but my boss got high centered so gotcha now I have to dig him out oh my god turn around you are a mess and I just asked them if they were on their way to a shower and they said no they have to go to other BLM land you guys were in a flood zone yeah we got flash flood warnings uh yesterday because we were about two washes down uh the trail so we did cover up on social channels so we came back up to avoid that because it's kind of stuck going through the washes and then we camped right over here made dinner and then we came got up this morning ate breakfast and sure enough like consider going straight look let's go up this hill oh my gosh sure enough we just got stuck it was it's four-wheel drive or at least one-wheel drive it's four-wheel drive but we had it on four-wheel low yeah I saw I saw a fortune well these two tires spinning yeah the back tires are but but since we're on top of this hill the front two tires are a little bit elevated so we can't get that oh shoot so this is the conservation experience experience they're stuck it wasn't the wheels they're stuck under the middle here awesome yeah Peggy and I are here we're in the mud we're about to try and pull these kids out of here and it's muddy I am in the mud so hopefully we don't all get stuck well that didn't work and we almost got stuck but we're back in front of my rig now they're gonna call a wrecker and get towed out we almost got stuck in my dually it is no joke here so I'm back in my rig it is pouring rain again I don't know I felt bad I could not get them out they are bottomed out on this hill and hopefully they get out of here but I do know several people that have camped where it was raining you know down a BLM dirt road you're never supposed to do it in a wash when it's this kind of season because you can get flooded out I know people that didn't camp in a wash but then they couldn't get out the same thing you have to be really careful because the water will actually wash out the roads or get people stuck like this these poor kids they've been on their bellies for hours trying to dig out they've been literally laying on the ground digging the mud out of their undercarriage and they just got out I think they figured out that the wrecker wasn't coming I know that they tried to call one but they unhooked their trailer dug out their undercarriage and got out so hopefully now they can get up this hill one o'clock in the afternoon and they've been trying to get out of here since about seven in the morning yay they made it yay can you guys hear this we're getting a little bit of hail I just checked we're still in a flood watch and I was hoping it was going to get better I looked at the radar it is getting hairy in a couple of hours like real bad and this is what I'm looking at for the next two days there is no break in the rain at all let's see until I don't know when is this gonna stop um couple days maybe I'll get a break it is not good okay the sun just went down so I'm not making any solar now I don't really have a lot running I'm using 53 watts and my batteries are down to 24 the good thing about these batteries is that I can run them down unlike traditional like AGM batteries so this is good um see what it is in the morning okay it's about eight o'clock in the morning it poured all night we were getting flash flood warnings on our phones but the sun is just about to come up um and I have no idea what it's at it was really low last night so let's see oh okay after three days of rain my lithium batteries are at six percent and I'm using 27 watts but I'm making 47 so it should go back up whoa that was close I am glad those kids got out of here because it is coming down out there let's see how the solar's doing the sun's gonna go down in about an hour if you guys can even hear me over the rain all right 25 percent I'm using 67 and only making 25 right now so that's not good so I'm really going to have to um make sure I turn off all my lights turn off my water pump turn off everything I can to conserve that power for tonight so my friend here in the B I just called her and told her she should probably move up because that little creek has been flooding and I'm glad she did I couldn't see behind her there's a straight up lake back there now and it looked like it was going to start encroaching around her and if she tried to get outside she would have jumped into at least four inches of water okay this is me now but look what happens tonight I can't even imagine um it's gonna get worse geez well wish me luck what's the matter boy you're getting scared it's pretty loud I don't know if you guys can see this but two rivers have formed inside this road and um this is why they say don't go into a flesh flood area because look over here I don't know behind those trees if you can see it but that was a wash and now that wash is completely full of water but it's basically a rushing river and um it's deep and if someone had been camping down there like those kids or something that stayed down in a wash that would have been really bad it is um no joke we're way above it but um still it's not going to stop for three days okay after five full days of rain I finally have my first sunny day it is eight o'clock in the morning I'm at 18 percent so let's see how my six lithium batteries do how long they take to charge when it's fully sunny right now I am using 31 watts of power and I'm making 387 and the sun isn't even up yet yay hey guys it's seven o'clock here the sun just went down and this has been a really good test of my solar I love that I can run my batteries lower than the old traditional batteries although I didn't mean to but I didn't have to worry as much there was some spotty sun that was out for two or three hours one of my friends has one battle-born lithium hers was almost full in that time my other two friends have two I was able to get up to the 40s the low 40s but I'm charging six lithium batteries so as you can see it's still raining it just will not stop raining here I think we're gonna have a break sporadically for the next few days but I think I'm okay now let's check and see okay I'm at 37 percent which if you guys can see on the lower left hand corner I'm at 13.1 so that seems low but I tell you on my old system with my two old agm batteries I would have been thrilled with 13.1 I am making no power right now from the sun and I'm using 95 which is a lot usually when I'm just sitting here running nothing I'm in the low 20s but I am charging a few things in here and I did cook something dried my hair so I think I'll be good for the night