Father Harry Bury, world-famous Catholic priest known for his courageous actions in 1971 when he chained himself to the U.S. Embassy gate in Saigon to protest the Vietnam War, and in 2005, when he was abducted in Gaza while serving as a human shield between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian citizens, has announced a new initiative to address the crisis in Gaza and all Southwest Asia. His initiative is coming at a vital time, given that world peace hangs by a very thin thread. This world crisis begs the need for all peoples to join hands together to not only end the suffering in Southwest Asia, but to create a world where conflict, war and genocide become obsolete.
We appeal to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to lend his support for such a plan for peace. It was Pope Paul VI in his Populorum Progressio who said “Development, the New Name for Peace”, and this idea is more important now than ever.
On Friday October 3rd, 2025 Father Harry Bury issued the following statement to the International Peace Coalition to address all congregations, synagogues, and mosques around the world:
FATHER HARRY BURY:
“As a Roman Catholic priest in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota, USA, I founded an association named Twin Cities Nonviolent. Our mission is to create an environment in which the Twin Cities and beyond can become free from violence. In so doing, we have partnered with the Schiller Institute in promoting the Oasis Peace Plan, which is peace through development, particularly financial development.
“This [idea of a] peace plan is already being implemented [in principle] by the BRICS nations—B for Brazil, R for Russia, I for India, C for China, and S for South Africa—with more than 14 other nations joining them, mostly from the Global South. That makes, with these nations joining them, perhaps representing about three-quarters of the population of the world. Amazing. The mission for this plan of development is for the developed nations of the planet to stop competing and to cooperate in contributing to the underdeveloped nations so that all the nations experience equity; that every nation be equal to every other nation.
As a consequence, the mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis have declared their respective cities actively nonviolent cities. Thus, the Schiller Institute and TwinCities Nonviolent are modeling cooperation at the international level by together promoting the Oasis Peace Plan, and locally by insisting ex-gang members in north Minneapolis develop to enable them to get jobs that pay a living wage, or if they wish, to start their own business. In the future, we intend to do the same training with the young warriors in Africa.
We invite you, participants in the International Peace Coalition to join this mission.
We are also considering writing to Pope Leo and asking him to encourage the Oasis Peace Plan through development throughout the world, to get as many people involved as we can. The Oasis Peace Plan through development is creating hope to the hopeless. Thank you very much.”
