Gerard Powers
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Director, Catholic Peacebuilding Studies; Coordinator, Catholic Peacebuilding Network
- Ethics of the use of force
- Religion, conflict and peacebuilding
- Ethics and U.S. foreign policy
Powers’s Latest News
Powers in the News
America
‘The world’s on fire’: How the Catholic Church is responding to global warfare
July 10, 2024
It can keep doing what it has always been doing, says Gerard Powers, coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and the director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
America
‘Budgets reflect priorities’: Former leaders alarmed by layoffs at U.S. bishops’ peace and justice department
July 09, 2024
“Whatever the reason for the cuts, the bishops have much less capacity to be in solidarity with a Church that is in the forefront of work for justice and peace from Congo and Colombia to Ukraine and the Holy Land,” [Gerard] Powers wrote. Conference leadership cited finances for the decision, but several former leaders have questioned that financial rationale.
National Catholic Reporter
‘Which parts of the world do we stop covering?’ Former leaders alarmed by USCCB layoffs ask
July 08, 2024
Because of that reduced capacity, [Gerard] Powers, who now serves as the coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and as the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote, “The wider Catholic community in the United States must find new ways to continue to respond to the world’s most pressing needs, as it has done so effectively for so long.”
Religion News Service
‘Which parts of the world do we stop covering?’ Former leaders alarmed by USCCB layoffs ask
July 05, 2024
Because of that reduced capacity, Powers, who now serves as the coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and as the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote, “The wider Catholic community in the United States must find new ways to continue to respond to the world’s most pressing needs, as it has done so effectively for so long.”
National Catholic Reporter
Cardinal McElroy says church must 'redesign' just-war theory, favor nonviolent action
March 03, 2023
Drawing on six decades of papal teaching on peace, the cardinal told an audience at the University of Notre Dame on March 1 that Catholics are facing a "new moment" in history, one that requires finding nonviolent alternatives to prevent war.
Catholic News Service
Exhibit recalls Catholic journalists’ courage in Lithuania under Soviets
July 20, 2022
“The church had very limited freedom to operate because the Soviet authorities tried to control it in almost every aspect,” said Jerry F. Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame and former policy adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace.
Catholic News Service
Munitions Russia is using, justifications for war come under scrutiny
March 18, 2022
"Justification for secession is a difficult topic," said Gerard F. Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
America
General Mark Milley had a predicament: Follow God’s orders or Trump’s?
September 16, 2021
Robert Latiff is a retired U.S. Air Force major general and an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame, researching emerging weapon and national security technologies, just war theory and law of armed conflict.... From a perspective of that tradition and the church’s position on the moral indefensibility of the use of nuclear weapons, any effort by Gen. Milley to thwart a possible nuclear strike was justified, said Gerard Powers, the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Sojourners
We're Perfecting Our Capacity For Human Destruction
February 01, 2021
As Gerard Powers, coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote in a statement to Sojourners, “the nuclear signs of the times are as dire as ever.”