Compiled by Johnny Zokovitch
Each month, “On The Line” features news items and announcements from around the nation featuring Pax Christi members, local groups, regions and partners. These are gleaned from articles in local newspapers, websites, magazines, and elsewhere.
PAX CHRISTI MEMBER ARRESTED IN DRONE PROTEST: Ten members of New York’s Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars protesting the U.S. use of drone aircraft were arrested recently at the gate of the Air National Guard’s Hancock Field in DeWitt, New York. Pax Christi member and playwright Jack Gilroy was one of those arrested. The Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard reports: “Ten members of a group protesting the U.S. use of drone aircraft were arrested this morning at the gate of the Hancock Field in DeWitt. It was peaceful and over quickly. After a trooper delivered a last warning about 9:40 a.m., state and DeWitt police and Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies walked down the shoulder of East Molloy Road, told the protesters they were under arrest, put them in handcuffs and walked them to waiting patrol cars.” Read the whole story here: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/05-11
PAX CHRISTI INDIANPOLIS MEMBER ON PEACE DELEGATION IN PAKISTAN: Pax Christi Indianapolis member JoAnne Lingle is part of a delegation of U.S. peace activists protesting drone warfare in Pakistan. She writes, “On the Peace March, we will be traveling to the tribal areas of Waziristan, a 200 mile trip, the areas hit by drone strikes. We want to reach out to the people there to show that we care about their lives; we want to show the American public how civilians are being targeted by drones; we want to come back to the U.S. and tell the stories of drone victims. Our larger goal is to stop the drone strikes. We will be working with the political party of Imran Khan, other anti-war groups in Waziristan, the Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the Pakistani chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. No political party would be against us; on the contrary they all welcome us.” The delegation was in the news yesterday when the Pakistani military blocked their access to a tribal region on the border of Afghanistan. Read more about the delegation here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/09-5
Pax Christi Dallas members participate in the “Shut the Door on War” march and rally marking the anniversary of the war in Afghanistan.
PAX CHRISTI METRO D.C.-BALTIMORE CHOOSES PEACEMAKER OF THE YEAR: Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore will hold a prayerful and celebratory evening of peace on Saturday, November 10. The Service of Peace led by Fr. Bob Albright, an interactive liturgy of the word and prayer service, will be followed by the annual Peacemaker of the Year Award Dinner. Our special guest and 2012 award recipient is Sr. Katherine Corr, SNDdeN, of Baltimore. In the 1980s, she founded Jobs With Peace, a Baltimore non-profit that spearheaded a campaign to establish the Baltimore Development Commission, which was organized to make public the amount of local dollars that support the military budget. Read more on Sr. Katherine at: http://www.paxchristimetrodc.org/2012/09/25/sr-katherine-corr-named-2012-peacemaker-of-the-year/
PAX CHRISTI ATLANTA’S REGIONAL DIALOGUE FEATURED IN DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER: From The Georgia Bulletin – “From fighting racism and building bridges between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land to visiting prisons, Catholic activists with Pax Christi USA talked about a vision for the international peace movement. Some 40 members of the organization spent Saturday, Sept. 15, at St. Jude Church, Sandy Springs, talking with each other and the organization’s executive director, Sister Patricia Chappell, to plan for the future. A priority is to increase the number of young people involved with Pax Christi and have the organization look more like the Church, including having leaders who are people of color. Sister Chappell, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, said the membership of the organization needs to better reflect the diversity of the Church. Read more here: http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/2012/09/27/paxchristievent/
QUESTION AND ANSWER WITH SR. PATTY CHAPPELL IN THE GEORGIA BULLETIN: “Sister Patricia Chappell is helping to build a road map for the future of Pax Christi USA, the Catholic peace movement. Its executive director for the last nine months, Sister Chappell is going around the country to gauge the opinions of and pick up insights from members of the organization. She spent some time in Atlanta where a regional meeting was held at St. Jude Church, Sandy Springs, Sept. 15. Sister Chappell has been a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur for 35 years. One of seven children, she grew up in New Haven, Conn., with a civil servant father and a nurse mother. She sat down to talk about her organization and vocation. Her responses are excerpted below. Read the interview here: http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/2012/09/27/qa_chappell_paxchristi/
PAX CHRISTI-ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL MEMBERS WORK TO SAVE A LIFE: From The Prep News – “The Students for Life Club and Pax Christi (St. Louis University High School) recently joined forces to work to save the life of one man. Pax Christi and Students for Life together sent six people to a rally at Kiener Plaza last Saturday in support of Reggie Clemons, an inmate on death row. Clemons was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 1991 rape and murder of two young women on the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis. Jurors convicted Clemons despite what some viewed as a lack of physical evidence and charges of prosecutorial misconduct and police coercion. Clemons, who was sentenced to die in 2009, has appealed his conviction. This week he is appearing before a special judge appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to review the evidence and hear testimony about prosecutor misconduct, racial bias (Clemons is black), and police brutality. Clemons has consistently maintained his innocence. Around 100 people attended the rally to show their support for Clemons. The rally included a number of speakers and a lot of music. Read more at: http://student.sluh.org/prepnews/index.php/news/student-life/1481-pax-life
BISHOP GUMBLETON PC (MI) MARCHES FOR PEACE: St. Leo’s Bishop Gumbleton Pax Christi partnered with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and the Jeanie Wylie Community for a Peace Walk through downtown Detroit on September 21, International Day of Peace. Walkers gathered around the peace pole outside of St. Peter’s for prayer, invoking the spirit of St. Francis in calling for peace and healing, locally and globally. Prayers were also offered in commemoration of the anniversary of the execution of Troy Davis and in memory of all victims of violence, including a neighborhood man who was murdered this past summer at the very site where the prayer service was held. The Gospel mandate to challenge economic violence was highlighted when Colombian hunger striker Jorge Parra, President of the Association of Current and Former Injured Employees of General Motors in Colombia (ASOTRECOL), joined the gathering. Jorge is in Detroit to call attention to workers’ rights violations in the hope of persuading GM to mediate a just settlement on behalf of injured Colombian workers who have lost their jobs. Despite being in the third week of the hunger strike and suffering a serous back injury that requires the use of a cane, Jorge joined the long walk up Michigan Avenue to downtown. Led by a banner reading “End War,” marchers carried signs reading “Drones Kill,” “Instead of War, Feed the Poor,” and “Another World is Possible” to Grand Circus Park in the shadow of Comerica Park where large crowds were gathering for a Detroit Tigers’ home game. During a short vigil outside the ball park, Jorge shared his story and offered a prayer on behalf of workers and their families. It was an honor to walk and pray with Jorge on behalf of all the workers who are engaged in this righteous struggle for justice. Upon returning to St. Peter’s, walkers were treated to vegetarian chili prepared by Pax Christi members followed by a peace and justice sing-along featuring the music of Motown’s own Stevie Wonder. (Submitted by Kim Redigan)
Members of St. Leo’s Bishop Gumbleton Pax Christi march on the International Day for Peace.
PAX CHRISTI METRO WEST HOLDS RETREAT DAY: On Sunday September 16th Pax Christi Metro West (meaning the towns and cities around Framingham Massachusetts) gathered for a midday retreat to start their 2012-13 activities. Eleven members were present. We reflected on the upcoming (April 2013) 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII letter Pacem in Terris, using materials from Pax Christi as well as Center of Concern. This time of reflection helped us understand the context of the world and Church at the time of that letter, our present day context as well and the impact of those intuitions of Pope John that helped us then and now be committed to peace. We ended our time together with practical next steps in the Faithful Budget campaigns, both national as well as in Massachusetts, the assisted suicide proposition on our November ballot and local International Peace Day participation in Framingham.
Upcoming or Ongoing Events:
Oct. 14 – Pax Christi Indianapolis presents “Moral Implications of Public Budgets” with Sr. Mary Wendeln of Nuns on the Bus: http://www.paxchristiindy.org/
Oct. 19-21 – Pax Christi Michigan annual retreat: http://www.paxchristimi.org/2012_retreat.htm
Oct. 20-21 – Pax Christi Florida’s Fall Assembly and Regional Dialogue: http://paxchristiflorida.org/events/
Oct. 26-28 – Pax Christi Richmond’s retreat, “Reflecting on Peace from a Vatican II Perspective,” contact Mike Jackman at mike.jackman@capitalone.com for more information
Oct. 27 – Pax Christi Massachusetts Regional Dialogue: http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/regional-dialogues-2012-13/
Nov. 3 – Regional Dialogue for Pax Christi Metro New York/Long Island: http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/regional-dialogues-2012-13/
Nov. 9-10 – Pax Christi Western New York annual retreat: http://paxchristiusa.org/2012/10/08/regional-event-pax-christi-western-new-york-holds-15th-annual-retreat/
Nov. 10 – Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore’s Peacemaker of the Year Award Dinner: http://www.paxchristimetrodc.org/2012/09/25/sr-katherine-corr-named-2012-peacemaker-of-the-year/
Nov. 18 – Regional Dialogue for Pax Christi Southern California: http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/regional-dialogues-2012-13/
Quicklinks:
Former National Council chair Judy Coode has co-edited a book on the liturgical readings, published by Orbis Books … Pax Christi International Co-President Marie Dennis has a series running on the PCUSA website on civil discourse during this election year; click the link to read the latest post with links to previous ones … Read the latest edition of Pax Christi Michigan’s newsletter Peace Connections … Pax Christi Florida is calling for letters to stop an October 16th execution … Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Shelley Douglass writes in the blog on lessons she learned from her mother … Pax Christi was included in an article on Religions Working for Peace in the Huffington Post … Former Pax Christi-Catholic University coordinator Bob Shine writes on reaching out to students, young adults … Pax Christi Northern California recently hosted a day of reflection on “Lives Well Lived” … See more local and regional updates in the summer edition of The Peace Current …
by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
