We just learned a short time ago that Bishop Walter Sullivan, who had served as bishop-president of Pax Christi USA from 1991 to 2003, has passed away. Pax Christi USA will be issuing a press release shortly and will post reflections, stories, and photos of Bishop Sullivan on the website soon. In the meantime, I would like to direct you to this story from the National Catholic Reporter, which includes a short slideshow of Bishop Sullivan as well. Bishop Sullivan was a good an holy man, full of kindness and humor and a great prophet within our movement. We give thanks for his life and witness.
by John H. Allen, National Catholic Reporter
One of the celebrated “Jadot bishops,” meaning progressive American prelates appointed under Pope Paul VI during the 1970s, Walter Sullivan led the Richmond, Virginia, diocese for almost 30 years, and from that perch became one of the country’s premier “peace bishops,” denouncing armed conflict from Vietnam and the Cold War all the way up to Iraq.
“He just could not reconcile war and Christianity,” said Phyllis Theroux, a Virginia-based author whose biography of Sullivan, titled The Good Bishop, is slated to appear from Orbis Books in May.
“He once said that as far as I’m concerned, you can take the whole ‘just war’ tradition and stick it in a drawer and lock it up,” she said, adding that Sullivan believed the idea of a just war had been “abused” by both clergy and politicians.
Bishop Walter Sullivan died Dec. 10 as a result of an inoperable liver cancer, after having returned to his Richmond home from a local hospital. He was 84…
Read more of the obituary and see a slideshow on NCR’s site by clicking here.