Catholics around the world can inspire us with the many ways — both personal and political — through which they build peace. 

Mary Mukanaho is a Tutsi in Rwanda. Her seven children and husband were killed in the 1994 genocide-by neighbors whom she had lived next to for 40 years. She survived because she happened to be out of the country at the time. She felt she was going mad and turned to alcohol to dull the pain. She was enraged to see her neighbors receive Communion with the very hands that had murdered her family.

It was not until 1998, when she took part in an intensive process of reconciliation established by the Catholic Church in Rwanda, that Mukanaho slowly began to deal with her trauma. She realized that she could never get her family back, but, she says, "at least you will live in peace if you forgive."

Eventually she was able to offer forgiveness to two of her neighbors, Athanase Niyombonye and Innocent Bucyana, when they finally came and asked for her pardon.

The Rwandan genocide was so shocking, in part, because such massive inhumanity is relatively rare. But Mukanaho's story, recounted by author Jeffry Korgen, is far from unique. Mukanaho's faith called her to build peace through a wrenching process of personal healing, but peacebuilding is also frequently an urgent political task.

Just as Mukanaho could not find peace without forgiveness, whole communities and nations torn apart by war cannot find peace without undergoing a very difficult process of forgiveness and reconciliation.

While the role of religion in today's conflicts and wars often makes headlines in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq, religiously inspired peacebuilding receives comparatively little attention.

But the same kind of unwavering, absolute commitment to one's faith that can make religion a source of division also makes it a powerful force for freedom, justice, and liberation.

In northern Uganda, for example, an extremist group called the Lord's Resistance Army has terrorized the population for years. In 1997 Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama joined with his Anglican, Muslim, and Orthodox counterparts to form the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative.

These religious leaders not only helped bring international attention to this widely ignored campaign of terror, they also had the courage to seek out Joseph Kony, the brutal LRA leader (and former altar boy), to urge him to enter peace negotiations with the Ugandan government.

When Kony's LRA finally agreed to formal peace talks, Odama and the other religious leaders were asked to be the official facilitators. In Colombia, the Philippines, Congo, and Northern Ireland, Catholic leaders have played similar roles.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, wars over the past 15 years have left an estimated 4 million dead. As in many poor countries, the church there is one of the only functioning institutions in society, providing a large part of the education, health care, and social services in the country.

Congolese church leaders have spoken out against oppressive regimes, foreign aggressors, and warlords. In the Archdiocese of Bukavu alone, Archbishop Christopher Munzihirwa was killed by rebel groups in 1996; his successor, Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko, died under mysterious circumstances after returning from being exiled by rebel groups.

In 2006 Congo held its first democratic elections since it gained independence in 1960, and the church played a leading role. A Catholic priest, Father Appolinaire Malu-Malu, chaired the Independent Electoral Commission, which was responsible for ensuring that the elections were free and fair.

The Philippines is one of the world's most Catholic countries, one of the United States' strongest allies, and one of the fronts in the "war on terror." The Philippines' southern islands, the largest of which is Mindanao, face terrorist attacks by Abu Sayyaf, a small extremist group with ties to Al Qaeda, as well as a long-running insurgency by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is fighting for self-determination after centuries of Christianization of their lands by Spanish and U.S. colonial governments.

The church's peacebuilding role in the Philippines is complex. It recognizes that the government must defend the country against terrorist attacks, while it criticizes the government's corruption and human rights abuses. The church has also been working to overcome the deep historical divide between Christians, Muslims, and the indigenous peoples through interreligious dialogue; to address the economic, social, and political marginalization of Muslims; and to cultivate a culture of peace in a region that has known little but war for generations.

With the assistance of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Catholic groups have developed training programs in conflict mediation and peacebuilding. The Minda­nao Peacebuilding Institute, for example, has provided intensive training for more than 1,000 leaders from 40 countries.

In recent years the training was expanded to include the Philippine military. Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer and other senior officers only reluctantly agreed to attend peacebuilding training in 2005. But their skepticism about such "soft," nonmilitary approaches to dealing with terrorists and insurgents has gradually evolved into wholehearted support.

Peacebuilding methods deepened their understanding of the complexity of the conflicts they faced, improved the military's relationships with local communities, and proved the value of mediation and dialogue, rather than force, in handling potentially explosive situations.

In cooperation with church-affiliated peace organizations, some military units in Mindanao now run their own peacebuilding training. In January, when Ferrer became chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, he singled out the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute and CRS trainers for helping him integrate peacebuilding into his military leadership.

Other notable Catholic peacebuilding activities around the world include mediating or facilitating peace processes in Colombia, Mozambique, and Northern Ireland; playing a prominent role in post-conflict truth and reconciliation processes in Guatemala, Chile, and Peru; peacebuilding training integrated into programs of Catholic relief agencies; interreligious peace education programs in Catholic schools in Bosnia; and trauma healing programs in Burundi.