"The CPN is a much-needed way to support the courageous and mostly unheralded efforts of the Church to build peace in war-torn countries from Central Africa to Southern Asia."

Bishop John Ricard
Chairman, U.S. Bishops' International Policy Committee

"The CPN is a space of exchange, encounter and discovery where we help each other understand our peace-work, generated in faith and actualized in history."

Andrea Bartoli
Community of Sant' Egidio,
USA

"CPN is another concrete way of building solidarity among peacebuilders around the world. The energy that it will bring will help us in facing the many difficult challenges of peacebuilding work in our different contexts. My hope is that we are able to bring the same energy eventually to the communities directly affected by war, violence and conflict - creating not only a network of peacebuilders but more imoprtantly a network of communities all over the world."

Myla Leguro
Peace & Reconciliation
Program Manager
CRS-Phillippines

Overview of Colombian Conflict -- The Catholic Church's Role in Peacebuilding --                Internal Displacement -- Human Rights -- Social and Economic Development --     

Peace Processes -- Education for Peace -- Reconciliation -- International Solidarity

Education for Peace

The Schools for Peace and Co-Existence (Escuelas de Paz y Convivencia) formed by the Catholic Church through the National Social Ministry Secretariat (SNPS) Life, Justice and Peace Department in cooperation with the Jesuits' Program for Peace are recognized as a truly innovative grassroots peace effort.  Emerging from the Way of the Cross campaign, these schools have provided 13,000 community leaders with an analysis of the conflict and then have encouraged them to discover personal and communal possibilities for defending human dignity and building peace.  The methods are those of participatory education and the emphasis is conflict transformation, reconciliation and citizen participation. 

English:  Jesuit Mobile School for Peace and Coexistence Program

The Jesuit Program for Peace has worked in partnership with formal education institutions and with youth and adult populations in rural and urban areas to create proposals for peace education that derive from the vital experience of the community, promote the fundamental value of human life and develop capacities in accordance with a culture of peace.

The forgiveness and reconciliation schools (Escuela de Perdón y Reconciliación, ESPERE) provide training and support for the participants so they can overcome violence they have lived and focus on processes of forgiveness and reconciliation.  ESPERE also works with organizations within the local community and in this way seeks to prevent the escalation of conflicts.  ESPERE is part of the programs of the Foundation for Reconciliation (La Fundación de la Reconciliación) an NGO originating from the carisma of the Missionary Fathers of Consolation.

REDEPAZ is a network of movements, organizations, churches and individuals working together for peace in Colombia.  REDEPAZ has a strategy for a project of Schools for Peacebuilders (Escuela Nacional de Constructores y Constructoras).  These schools would help cultivate knowledge, attitudes and values to develop and cultivate a  culture of peace.  REDEPAZ also supports various campaigns in order to educate and mobilize the public.

FICONPAZ, (Fundación Instituto para la Construcción de la Paz), has a variety of educational programs including a democratic schools project (Instituciones Democraticas Escolares), human rights education (Bosa Goza el camino de los derechos humanos),

various peace education initatives and provides the formation for the Movement "Children, Sowers of Peace" (el Movimiento de Niños Sembradores de Paz).