Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a priest of the Eastern Rite (Byzantine-Melkite) of the Catholic Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. He has been a Catholic priest for over thirty years, ordained on August 9, 1981, in Damascus, Syria. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with majors in philosophy and English from the University of Notre Dame in 1962. He received Masters Degrees in English and in Theology from the same University. He earned his Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Boston College in 1967 and was soon after admitted to the Massachusetts Bar the practice of law as an attorney.

He has served as Spiritual Director and Rector of St. Gregory the Theologian Byzantine-Melkite Catholic Seminary and is presently a Retreat Director. He taught at the University of Notre Dame where he founded and was the original Director of The Program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution. He is also co-founder, along with Dorothy Day, Gordon Zahn and others of Pax Christi-USA. For twenty-five years he served as Spiritual Director and/or Rector of St. Gregory the Theologian Byzantine-Melkite Catholic Seminary.

He has directed retreats and spoken at conferences throughout the world on the issue of the relationship of faith and violence and the Nonviolent Jesus and His Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies. In 1983 he began The Annual Forty Day Fast for the Truth of Gospel Nonviolence, (July 1 to August 9), whose purpose is to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus to bestow on the Churches of Christianity whatever extraordinary graces are needed so that they, individually and collectively, will begin to teach about violence and enmity what Jesus taught about violence and enmity. This yearly time of prayer and fasting continues uninterrupted to this very year with people from across the planet having participated in it over the decades.

In 1990 he started the July 16 Twenty-Four Hours Day of Prayer for Forgiveness and Protection with Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Trinity Site in the New Mexico desert. July 16 is the feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, as well as, the day in 1945 when the first atomic bomb was detonated at Trinity Site. This yearly time of prayer also continues uninterrupted to this very year.

He was the keynote speaker at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, for the 25th anniversary memorial of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. there. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his life’s work of endeavoring to bringing the Nonviolent God to the Christian Churches through the Nonviolent Word of God Incarnate, the Nonviolent Jesus, and to bring the Nonviolent God to the world through the Churches.

He is author of several books, including ALL THINGS FLEE THEE FOR THOU FLEEST ME: A CRY TO THE CHURCHES AND THEIR LEADERS TO RETURN TO THE NONVIOLENT JESUS AND HIS NONVIOLENT WAY, CHRISTIAN JUST WAR THEORY: THE LOGIC OF DECEIT, AUGUST 9 and THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS OF NONVIOLENT LOVE. He has written innumerable popular articles and theological essays on the subject of violence, religion and the nonviolent love of friends and enemies that the Jesus of the Gospels teaches by His words and by His deeds. His CD/DVD series, BEHOLD THE LAMB, is almost universally considered to be the most spiritually profound presentation on the matter of the Nonviolent Jesus of the Gospels and His Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies available in those formats. He may be reached and his work may be accessed at www.centerforchristiannonviolence.org or at emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org.