In these deeply distressing times, where do YOU find Hope?

In these deeply distressing times, where do YOU find Hope?

For me, the answer is Pax Christi USA.

• In the midst of chilling acts and expressions of racist hatred, I find Hope, strength, and solidarity in the Pax Christi USA Anti-Racism Team and staff, which travels around the country offering education, skills, and tools to help bring attention to and counter the pernicious racial bigotry festering in our country.

• In the midst of our nation’s cruel and heartbreaking attacks on families fleeing horrific conditions elsewhere – conditions in many cases created by our own country’s acts of violence and overreaching – I find Hope and strength in the presence of Pax Christi USA’s physical presence at gatherings and vigils at the Capitol, and in its public statements and commitment to standing in solidarity with our targeted sisters and brothers.

• In the midst of escalating, reckless rhetoric threatening global annihilation by nuclear weapons as a solution to political differences, I find Hope and strength in Pax Christi USA’s public support and invocation of the ground-breaking Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and in its commitment to speaking and working for nonviolent resolution to conflict.

• In the midst of the unremitting savaging of our deepest values, I find Hope and strength in the written reflections published by Pax Christi USA, which remind us of the wisdom to be found in the deep wellsprings of our faith tradition into which we need to tap, to sustain us on this challenging journey.

It is the daily, unflagging commitment, public witness, and wisdom of Pax Christi USA that helps get me  – day after day – through these troubled times. This is why I am making a generous contribution to Pax Christi USA today and invite you to do the same. You can also send a check with the memo “Summer Appeal” to 415 Michigan Ave. NE Ste. 240, Washington, DC 20017.

Pax Christi USA itself is facing its own difficult challenges. The members of its small staff, too, are reeling from this torrent of assaults on our core values. Yet daily they stand up, roll up their sleeves, and work around the clock, speaking, writing, and sharing wisdom and ideas, to help the rest of us regain Hope.

And the members of the staff face personal sacrifices in doing so – because they are not being supported financially to the degree they should be, by those of us who are members of Pax Christi USA.

We owe our Pax Christi USA staff more than they are receiving. They have their own bills to pay, families to feed, and needs to meet.

As someone who is daily helped and inspired by, and finds Hope, in, the remarkable work of the Pax Christi USA staff, I am writing this appeal to ask that you PLEASE join me in making a generous contribution TODAY to Pax Christi USA. 

Anyone who has worked in the field of justice and peace knows that the Summer season is a particularly difficult time for fundraising. That season is upon us.

You and I must keep Hope alive.

In Hope and Gratitude,

Mary T. Yelenick
(Long-time Member and Supporter of Pax Christi USA,
and current Member of the Pax Christi USA Anti-Racism Team)