by Rosemarie Pace, Director, Pax Christi Metro New York
In the April 14 issue of The Tablet, the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, there was a letter in the “Readers’ Forum” that was titled “The Pax Christi Agenda.” Having been a member of Pax Christi for nearly 25 years and having been Director of Pax Christi Metro New York for nearly 12 of those 25 years, I thought I was pretty familiar with Pax Christi’s agenda, but I could not recognize it in that letter. It made me realize that there’s an awful lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Pax Christi out there that begs to be informed. Consequently, I offer this description of the Pax Christi “agenda” for all who might be curious.
Pax Christi was founded by Bishop Pierre Marie Theas and Marie-Marthe Dortel Claudot in France at the end of WWII for reconciliation between France and Germany; hence, its first and foremost agenda item to this day is reconciliation. The primary means by which reconciliation was to be achieved was prayer with a focus on Germany. The future Pope John XXIII encouraged that this “agenda” be expanded to a “Prayer Crusade for the Nations.” Pope Pius XII gave Pax Christi his blessing in a letter drafted by the future Pope Paul VI. He further dubbed Pax Christi “the Catholic Peace Movement,” our ultimate agenda…