ABSTRACT
The Catholic Church in the Philippines has utilized effective peacebuilding practices for decades. Some of the factors that have made the Catholic Church’s engagement effective in reducing violent conflicts and creating conditions for a just and sustainable peace include: its strong social and symbolic capital; the wise use of its prophetic role that can influence a wide range of the population including state officials as well as those holding corporate power; and its grassroots network made up of base ecclesial communities. Although the church’s peacebuilding had not focused on the environment, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 marked a change and today the intersection of mining and conflict is one of the most important areas in which that peacebuilding capacity is being exercised. Such conflicts weave together environmental challenges, human rights issues, indigenous rights, and interreligious tensions, and the church’s experience with peacebuilding across levels of society offers important resources for these problems.
