The 126th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, Oct. 31, has placed the joint roles of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) and Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019), although separated by 500 years, at the center of the current battle to both stop the descent of civilization into suicidal global war, and to also unleash a new Renaissance based on a new architecture for security and development for all nations. This likening of the importance of Cusa and LaRouche was made in the course of discussion of today’s extreme dangers by Father Harry J. Bury, for 70 years a priest and a life-long peace advocate. He is active today with the Twin Cities Nonviolent and the U.S. Catholic Priest Association.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the International Peace Coalition, termed Father Bury’s remarks to the IPC as one of the most significant of our time. The transcript of Bury’s full statement is below.
It was one week earlier, on Oct. 25, that Pope Leo XIV had stunned the Catholic world—and many knowledgeable circles beyond—by delivering a five-minute allocution before 10,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee Audience. The Pope identified Cusa’s approach as critical to our current time in history, because his breakthrough concept of the “Coincidence of Opposites” calls for seeking and acting upon the common benefit, over and above any conflicting parties and perceived interests. Though “unseen,” this is the grounds for peace and hope. The transcript of the Pope’s message is in this issue of EIR. Zepp-LaRouche, in reporting about the Pope to the IPC, called his Oct. 25 speech, “a real, real breakthrough.”
Father Bury, an advocate of Lyndon LaRouche’s “peace through development” concepts, in particular the need for the LaRouche “Oasis Plan” approach to Palestine-Gaza, explained, “Nicholas of Cusa and Lyndon LaRouche were saying: we can all learn; we can all grow; we can all change. There is hope for the human race.”
Today’s Dangers
The dangers today—of nuclear war, Western militarism madness, economic breakdown—were touched upon in the opening remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and further elaborated in the five following reports from specialist speakers. Discussion followed, with questions from the hundreds in the audience, representing more than 30 nations.
Despite “rays of hope on the horizon,” including the Oct. 30 Trump-Xi summit, there are situations of extreme tension today, which Zepp-LaRouche reviewed. Some European governments are “psychotic.” She cited Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken’s recent cavalier remarks about winning a war against Russia by “wiping Moscow off the map.” Turning to the economic crisis in the NATO states, she said, “The entire bottom of the German industry is falling out … the social consequences of this collapse will be enormous.”
Surveying the current hotspots, she insisted that no one is fooled by the fairy tale that Venezuela is governed by a drug cartel, and the planned attempt at a regime change war there “could lead to an explosion in all of Latin America.”
Regarding the Palestine-Israel crisis, Zepp-LaRouche noted the importance of the Gaza People’s Tribunal which took place last weekend in Istanbul, Türkiye. The Tribunal President is former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories Richard Falk, who has briefed the IPC. Falk stresses that when states fail to address a great injustice, it is necessary to appeal to the consciences of the people. The Elders, a high-level group of former statespersons founded by Nelson Mandela, has called for Israel to release Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti, echoing the call which appeared in the January 5, 2024 issue of EIR.
Nuclear War Threat
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), addressed the nuclear war danger head on. He recalled that it was neocon lunatic John Bolton who encouraged President George W. Bush to withdraw from the ABM Treaty in 2002. In the years which followed, the U.S. rebuffed all efforts by Russia to negotiate, while the West claimed that they were stationing missile systems in Eastern Europe because of an Iranian threat, which was actually non-existent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with his famous speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, describing Russia’s development of new strategic weapons due to the U.S. scrapping of the arms control agreements. McGovern shared a video segment of a subsequent speech Putin gave in 2016 to Western journalists, in which he announced Russia’s intention to respond by developing new offensive weapons which cannot be intercepted; this was the genesis of the Oreshnik, Burevestnik, and Poseidon systems, which represent technological breakthroughs unmatched by anything that NATO possesses, and cannot be hindered by existing ABM systems.
Putin told the journalists that he could not realistically expect them to respond honestly and professionally to his revelations, and that he was simply appealing to them as fellow humans: “How can you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?”
Today, McGovern said, there is an offer on the table: The Russians are willing to keep the quantitative limits of the New START treaty, if the U.S. will do the same. This offer was made on Sept. 22, but there has been no official answer from the United States. (See the article in this issue by Carl Osgood.)
John Steinbach of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, recalled the “Anti-Imperialist League” at the end of the 19th century, which welcomed people from diverse ideological backgrounds. He reminded the participants that Oct. 28 is Vasili Arkhipov Day, named for the Soviet naval officer who prevented a potential nuclear war during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis by countermanding an order to launch a nuclear torpedo. Steinbach gives Trump credit for “at least a semblance of negotiation” between the U.S. and Russia, which did not exist under Biden. He closed with a quote from Baruch Spinoza: “Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”
Zepp-LaRouche asked McGovern to comment on the present European frenzy to prepare for war in Europe. In response, McGovern said that it seems that we no longer have the intelligence professionals we had in the 80s—people with courage, like the CIA officer who warned his superiors that the Soviets believed that the Able Archer exercise was a cover for a nuclear attack.
Jack Gilroy, a leading member of Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi, warned that the insanity of militarism has crept back, motivated by the military-industrial complex. He cited the head of Raytheon (RTX Corp. today), who, prior to the war in Ukraine, said that the tensions in Eastern Europe represented a “profit opportunity” for his business. Gilroy proposed that public schools should teach that “the idea that the military keeps us safe and secure” is as big a lie, as the ones the Nazis told, and that students should take an oath not to interview for a job with any firm that is part of the military-industrial complex.
McGovern and Gilroy, both Catholics, discussed their hopes and disappointments for the American church. Zepp-LaRouche intervened to reemphasize the significance of Pope Leo’s endorsement of Nicholas of Cusa, who was so controversial during his own lifetime that she described him as “the Lyndon LaRouche of his day.”
Cusa was put in the Index of banned books in the Catholic Church. Lyndon LaRouche was wrongfully charged with a crime and put in jail. This was pointed out by LaRouche associate Dennis Small, who was likewise jailed. Small called for the exoneration of LaRouche.
Now, today, the Pope’s action has created a possible window into the Church and to all religions around the world, to put aside their prejudices and take actions to create peace for all of humanity, Zepp-LaRouche said.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American humanitarian surgeon who has worked extensively in Palestine, presented firsthand experience from Gaza, where he has volunteered at European Hospital in Khan Younis, with the World Health Organization, and later with the American NGO MedGlobal. He said, “Not a whole lot has changed in Gaza since the ceasefire … the situation remains very, very dire.” Israel is permitting reconstruction only in the enclaves controlled by the four gangs it sponsors, and is using this for propaganda, which Sidhwa described as “one of the more cynical things I’ve seen in my life.” He noted the failure of various medical associations in the United States to make any comment on the genocide in Gaza, or even to the widespread killing of medical professionals by Israel.
Conclusions
In their brief concluding remarks, Gilroy expressed the hope that Pope Leo would join Pope Francis in condemning the concept of a “just war.” Father Bury emphasized that Jesus told us to love our enemies, and that it should guide us in our political activity.
Steinbach said that Israel uses its nuclear arsenal as blackmail, as it did by threatening to use nuclear weapons in 1973, when Nixon tried to withhold military aid. McGovern added to Steinbach’s story: Israel refused an offer in 1973 of a mutual defense treaty with the U.S., because mutual defense treaties require internationally recognized borders.
Zepp-LaRouche reflected on the role of religions, which had come up repeatedly in this week’s discussion. She said the problem with all religions is fundamentalism, asserting that their belief is that they know the truth and that it is superior to all others. But every religion also has a current for whom science and faith are not a contradiction. It is this latter faction which Nicholas of Cusa exemplifies, as the figure in the 15th century who made the most important discoveries about man and the universe. Pope Leo’s decision to highlight his role is a breakthrough which should not be underestimated. [eir]
