by Marie Dennis, Pax Christi International Co-President
Successful mediation between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the government of Uganda to initiate peace talks in 2006 • a multi-year strategy to address deep-seated racism in U.S. communities • a closed door dialogue between civil society actors from the greater Middle East, including Israel and Palestine • “sports for peace” programs in South Sudan and Haiti • community-based reintegration of former combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo • dialogue between youth from Kosovo and youth from Northern Ireland • courses in preventive reconciliation using the principles of Aikido in the Philippines • work at a national and international level for the abolition of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons • high level solidarity delegation to post-coup Honduras • “peace week” initiatives, many of them annual, in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, UK, the African Great Lakes region, Kosovo, Russia, Croatia, the Philippines and Colombia • work to control small arms proliferation • excellent peace education programs in England and the Philippines • exchanges of experience between civil society from the Middle East and from Central Europe on their role in bringing about non-violent social change • more than 30 years of dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church • ongoing work with civil society groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine …
Pax Christi International incorporates a wide range of peacebuilding practices into its collective program, including all of the above and many more. Out of this deep and wide experience, we try to understand – and work for – the global common good, with a particular focus on building sustainable peace and inclusive human security. Like Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the work of Pax Christi is “inspired by Gospel values and the rich history of Catholic social teaching as they inform pressing moral issues of our time.”