Dominican Month For Peace
The Dominican Month for Peace is an annual event of the Dominican Family initiated by the Master of the Order after the 2016 Jubilee celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Order of Preachers which called for a renewal of its preaching. In the spirit of St Dominic, it aims to show solidarity with Dominicans promoting peace in a world torn apart by many forms of violence and war. After focusing on Colombia in 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and India in 2019, the Dominican Month for Peace turns this year to Europe and calls for solidarity with the Dominicans in Ukraine.
International Peace Conference
In 2018 – 2019, an International conference took place in France and Ukraine consisting of 4 seminars focused on "What peace plan is possible between Russia and Ukraine?".
Scientists, religious and public figures from Ukraine, Russia and the European Union participated in it at various stages. The main purpose of the conference was to explore ways of overcoming tensions between Ukraine and Russia and to understand how interstate and intercultural ties between Ukraine and Russia could be further developed.
Representatives of the Dominicans participated in the conference as part of the Ukrainian delegation and the Dominican Institute of Religious Sciences of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kiev hosted one of the seminars of the conference.
To show solidarity, Dominicans worldwide are urged to take the following actions:
1. To organize at least one Prayer Vigil and Solemn Eucharist for peace in Ukraine and solidarity with victims of the war.
2. To incorporate this focus on peace in Ukraine into our ordinary Advent preaching and to diffuse this as far as possible through the media of your entity.
3. To inform the local Ukraine Embassy about the Dominican Family’s focus on solidarity with the struggle for peace and reconciliation in Ukraine, and invite them to participate.
4. To invite and encourage all artists within the Order (painters, photographers, poets, musicians, ...) to contribute towards the process of peace, safety, rehabilitation and empowerment at the local and global levels by producing a work of art.
5. To make a financial contribution to the St.Martin de Porres Center in Fastiv, to support and strengthen the promotion and defense of the rights of socially disadvantaged children by the Dominican Family in Ukraine.
