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.
QUICK NOTE: I’m in the process of updating our local group database. Can you look at our list of active Pax Christi chapters and make sure you see your group listed? (You can ignore this note if you’ve already checked!) Click here for more info and to see the list. Thanks!
PAX CHRISTI MASSACHUSETTS GROUP PARTNERS TO FORM GROUP WITH PRISONERS: (by Brian Ashmankus, PC Central MA) Two years ago, Pax Christi Central Massachusetts was contacted by a group of parishioners from Our Lady of Guadalupe Community in Shirley, MA who wanted to know more about Pax Christi and its vision. After an initial introduction about Pax Christi and our small group efforts, they eagerly encouraged us to come back so they might learn more and become a part of our group. This past August we began meeting regularly with them and have officially integrated them as Pax Christi Central MA/Our Lady of Guadalupe. What took so long? Our Lady of Guadalupe is located inside of the medium security prison at MCI Shirley and its members are all inmates… Read more at http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/02/01/news-pax-christi-central-ma-partners-with-prisoners-for-unique-group/
BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY – OURS TO REMEMBER AND SHARE: (by Leslye Colvin, PC Atlanta) Cultures designate specific times to honor events and peoples significant to their history. Scripture proclaims that even within the first week of creation it was important to honor God on the seventh day. Humanity moves within the parameters of time from weeks to months to seasons, each bearing its own significance. Similarly, the liturgical calendar carries the faithful from Advent to Christmas to Ordinary Time to Lent to Easter to Pentecost to Ordinary Time and the cycle perpetually repeats throughout the universal Church. Each time gives voice to the challenges that mark a historical and transformative journey of faith. In the process, two significant occurrences develop. The history becomes ours, and we become the guardians of the legacy… Read the entire article at http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/02/06/reflection-black-history-ours-to-remember-and-share/
REMEMBERING JOAN WITTREICH, PAX CHRISTI LONG ISLAND LEADER: (by Bob Keeler, PC-Long Island) The history of Pax Christi Long Island—before it even had that name—is so deeply entwined with the life and witness of Joan Wittreich that her death is an especially significant, poignant, and sad moment for our movement. So we are giving this whole issue of Peaceworks to her story. In my own mind, and in the minds of so many, Joan will always be linked with another towering peace-and-justice figure on Long Island, her friend Joop van der Grinten. As Joop grew older and driving became more of a challenge for him, Joan —or Joan and Chuck, her husband— would often drive him to meetings of the Pax Christi Long Island council and to a wide variety of peacemaking events. Joop died in 2007, at the age of 88. Joan died in August, at 81. Both deaths affected me as deeply as the passing of a close relative. Joop was a father figure to me and to many in the movement, a great white-maned lion of peace. And Joan was like a wise and treasured older sister, a great red-maned lioness of peace… Read more at http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/01/27/reflection-remembering-joan-wittreich-brave-and-constant-early-leader-of-pax-christi-long-island/
LIFE OF PAX CHRISTI FLORIDA LEADER MIRRORS THE LIVES OF MANY IN OUR MOVEMENT: (by Johnny Zokovitch, PCUSA) In September of this past year, Pax Christi USA lost one of our most spirited long-time leaders. Carol Ann Breyer passed away in her sleep at a motel, on the way to a retreat with long-time friends associated with the Sisters of Mercy, with whom she had spent a significant part of her life. Carol Ann has been with Pax Christi USA a very long time, from her time living in and around Washington, D.C. to later life when she was the state coordinator for Pax Christi Florida, one of the regions of PCUSA. I had first gotten to know Carol Ann and her husband Lee while a young man in my early twenties. I was new to Pax Christi, and in attending the retreats and conferences with the section in Florida, I found myself surrounded with opportunities to be mentored and taught by people who had marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., been arrested at actions protesting our nation’s nuclear weapons with Fr. Daniel Berrigan, worked alongside Dorothy Day in Catholic Worker soup kitchens, and practiced lifestyles rooted in gospel nonviolence for decades. Carol Ann was one of these people who broadened my own understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus and how to live one’s life as a witness to the peace and justice for which he had lived, died and rose… Read the article at http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/02/10/reflection-one-life-mirrors-the-lives-of-many-trying-to-bring-peace-with-justice-to-our-world/
PAX CHRISTI ATLANTA LEADER REFLECTS ON NONVIOLENCE: (by Joe Goode, PC St. Jude) Nonviolence is a subject that has been very important to me over the last 30 years or so. I think the seeds leading to my conviction that nonviolence is the path I want to follow were planted in preparing lesson plans for fifth-grade CCD at St. Jude Church. I began reading the New Testament in earnest for the first time. Years later, following a parish retreat and a Cursillo weekend, I came to an epiphany moment that there is no justification for violence based on the life and teachings of Jesus. In 1985 I made an entry in a logbook I kept at my office that I no longer believed that violence of any kind could be justified. I have never retreated from that position… Read more at http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/01/25/reflection-atlanta-pc-member-reflects-on-nonviolence-for-social-change/
INVITATION TO ATTEND PAX CHRISTI WORLD ASSEMBLY IN BETHLEHEM IN MAY: (from PCI and Bob Cooke, PC Metro DC-Baltimore) All Pax Christi members are invited to a unique experience of attending the Pax Christi International (PCI) World Assembly in Bethlehem from the evening of May 13th to the morning of May 17th. Go to http://paxchristi2015.net/ for more information and how to register. You may also be interested in participating in a Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) Living Stones pilgrimage taking place several days before and after the World Assembly. The pilgrimage is being organized by Bob Cooke of Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore. The trip will take you to many of the places where Jesus and his disciples walked as well as providing the opportunity to meet Living Stone Christian (as well as Muslim and Jewish) peacemakers in the Holy Land and find out more about how we can help them in their march to peace and justice in our time. The deadline to register for the pilgrimage has passed but there may still be spots available. For more information, visit http://paxchristiusa.org/2014/12/11/invitation-join-pax-christi-in-the-holy-land-in-may-2015/
Upcoming or Ongoing Events:
Feb. 14 – PC New Jersey and Sacred Heart’s Annual Gathering for Peace and Justice, Camden, NJ. The theme is “The Silent Coup: The Overreach of Government and the Cause of Peace.” For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1539404322996107/?source=1
Feb. 15 – World Still Says “No” To War Actions (endorsed by Pax Christi USA), http://www.unitedforpeace.org/2015/01/21/time-for-the-global-super-power-for-peace-and-justice-to-rise-again-take-action-on-february-15-and-beyond/
Feb. 16 – PCUSA workshop with Notre Dame/Americorps Volunteers in Washington, D.C.
Feb. 18 – Ash Wednesday, Lent begins
Feb. 18 – Ash Wednesday Prayer Service of Repentance at the White House, 12-1pm
Feb. 18 – Join Pax Christi Metro New York for their annual leafleting outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 12-1pm; http://www.nypaxchristi.org/events.html
Feb. 18 – Pax Christi NJ’s annual pilgrimage from Ellis Island; https://www.facebook.com/events/1547032038901409/
Feb. 27 – PCUSA workshop for Gonzaga High School students in Washington, D.C.
Mar. 7 – Sr. Patty Chappell, SNDdeN, Executive Director of PCUSA, speaks at the Social Justice Convocation in Baltimore, MD
Mar. 13-15 – Pax Christi Metro New York’s retreat with Fr. Joachim Lally, CSP, on the theme of “Silent Prayer and Nonviolence” at St. Joseph’s Renewal Center in Brentwood, Long Island; http://www.nypaxchristi.org/events.html
Mar. 14 – Sr. Patty Chappell, SNDdeN, Executive Director of PCUSA, speaks at the Western Illinois Faith Peace Coalition
Mar. 14 – Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore will sponsor a production of “Peace, Pies and Prophets – How to Buy an Enemy”, to support the Christian Peacemaker Teams; https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4240887/PPP/DC%20PPP%20Poster.pdf
Mar. 18-21, Spring Rising: An Anti-War Intervention in DC, https://www.facebook.com/events/430232700485435/
Mar. 19 – Solemnity of St. Joseph
Mar. 20-26 – Delegation to El Salvador honoring Oscar Romero, http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/01/14/event-delegation-to-el-salvador-to-honor-the-life-and-legacy-of-romero/
Mar. 22-24 – Notre Dame’s Catholic Social Tradition Conference, https://notredame-web.ungerboeck.com/coe/coe_p2_details.aspx?eventid=11955&sessionid=fb5fg6ffofgkfekfd7
Mar. 24 – Anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero
Mar. 25 – Annunciation of the Lord Feast Day
Mar. 29 – Palm/Passion Sunday
Mar. 31 – Cesar Chavez birthday
Apr. 3 – Good Friday Stations of the Cross prayer and witness actions across the U.S., http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/lent-2015/good-friday-way-of-the-cross/
Apr. 5 – Easter
Apr. 15 – Global Day of Action on Military Spending, http://demilitarize.org/global-day-action-military-spending/
Apr. 24-26 – Peace and Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Just and Sustainable World (Pax Christi USA endorsed), http://www.peaceandplanet.org/
Quicklinks:
Former National Council member Donna Tolliver Grimes is the featured author for African American History month on the Education for Justice website (subscription required) … Pax Christi Southeastern South Dakota held a “Take Back the Site” vigil for the recent gun-related death of 18 year-old Anthony Gabriel … Pax Christi Southern California signed onto a letter opposing fast track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership … Check out the new book on nonviolence from former Pax Christi USA National Coordinator Nancy Small … Our Lady of Grace PC in Castro Valley (CA) participate in the annual Bread for the World Offering of Letters and have an annual Fair Trade sale. Members also hang a black drape on the church door every time there is an execution and list executions in the church bulletin … Read former National Council chair Pearlette Springer’s article on MLK Day … Lakeshore Pax Christi in Manitowoc County (WI) sponsors the Great Decisions Series in February and March each year with 8 weekly presentations on topics selected by the Foreign Policy Institute at the public library where over 100 adults regularly attend … Pax Christi Springfield (IL) participated in a walk for nonviolence to honor victims of violence … Pax Christi Memphis member and PCUSA Ambassador of Peace Janice Vanderhaar was featured on the Sisters of Providence blog for her work for peace … Support PCUSA Teacher of Peace Kathy Kelly with a letter while she is in prison … Pax Christi International’s February 2015 newsletter is online … See more local and regional updates in the Winter 2014-15 edition of The Peace Current …
- Send your news items, announcements, photos and links to stories about Pax Christi groups or members to jzokovitch@paxchristiusa.org.