by Rev. John Dear, S.J.
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Sr. Anne Montgomery is a legend in some peace movement circles. A member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, she has spent more than three years in prison for many civil disobedience actions against war, including seven Plowshares anti-nuclear disarmament actions; many years teaching in Harlem; and many years living with the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, Palestine-Israel.
I first heard her speak to a packed church in Reading, Penn., in 1982 about her part in the Plowshares Eight and vividly recall my shock at her gentle proposal that some of us need to go to prison and offer our lives to stop the killings, abolish nuclear weapons and save the planet. I thought then that she was the first authentic Christian I had ever met. Recently diagnosed with advanced cancer, she spoke with me on the phone the other day from her community in the Bay Area…