Pax Christi USA presents this statement of principles with urgency in the context of the 2020 U.S. elections as a resource to inform the decisions that our members, partners, and all people of conscience will make. The leaders we choose will impact people in the United States and many others around the world. Therefore it is incumbent that we elect leaders with the values, character and integrity required to serve our communities.
We envision this statement to be a living document, one open to the discernment and dialogue to which the future calls us. Its content has been shaped, first, by our deep trust in the gospel message of Jesus which reminds us that what is foundational to every decision we make is our responsibility to love God through loving our neighbor, both near and far, with a preferential option for those who are impoverished. Second, these priorities are shaped by the transformational principles of Catholic Social Teaching, designed to guide us in applying the gospel message to our common life together as one people, within and outside current borders. Pax Christi USA’s engagement in this election is thus guided by a spirituality of nonviolence, our history as peacemakers, and a commitment to work for that justice which affirms the dignity of all human beings, individually and collectively, and assures peace for all creation.
#Elections2020
1. Who approved the Statement of Principles?
2.The section on LGBTQ seems to go beyond the teaching of the Catholic Church by advocating a change in the Church’s teaching to include recognizing any personal thinking on sexual preference as being in the image of God. Why has Pax Christi USA made a doctrinal matter a part of a secular electoral statement of principles?
3.Does Pax Christi USA endorse the LGBTQ position that persons who choose not to participate in gay marriages by providing services should be compelled to do so? That public school teachers who choose not to use virtual pronouns to reflect a student’s stated sexual preference should be fired? That the teaching of the Church on homosexuality is hate speech which should be outlawed and not protected by the US Constitutional principles on freedom of thought, expression, and religion?
What would Jesus do?
Thank you so much for putting into one document what we Sisters of St. Agnes, Fond du Lac, WI., also believe and promote.
This is a wonderful statement! I especially appreciate how inclusive it is and how it takes a stand on so many issues that, in reality, have a common denominator: capitalism. It is a delight to see how Pax Christi has grown since the early days when we were pretty much an anti-war movement. Joe Fahey
Thank you so much for this bold and comprehensive summary of ALL the existential crises that we as a human community of conscience need to commit to confronting, in order to root out these entrenched sicknesses of our U.S. system, and of our world. And for the inclusion of our indigenous sisters and brothers, along with all the various forms of diversity we must together acknowledge, celebrate and be eternally grateful for. .
For me, Excellent.. But for me to helpfully share with some parishioners, and family, they will ask where or how or does abortion fit in? So, why didn’t we – pax christi – dare to even mention this formidable “wedge” issue in the “culture wars” our attempt to help others discern?
Thanks Jim. One thing you can point to in outreach to the folks you mention wanting to reach is Pax Christi USA’s statement on abortion here: https://paxchristiusa.org/2011/01/16/statement-pax-christi-usa-official-statement-on-abortion/. We chose in this statement to concentrate on some of the issues that Pope Francis has said are “equally sacred” as issues of seriousness and importance for people of faith and yet are not framed as issues central to our identity as Catholics in the way the hierarchy has raised up issues around the sanctity of life. We’ll be adding other items to our elections 2020 web page (to be posted later this week) that will be geared toward conversations with different audiences too. Thanks for the input!
Yes, Jim.Absolutely!! It is exactly this, the failure to oppose abortions, that bothers me tremendously about PAX CHRISTI. That is the ultimate of peace; to stand for the LIFE of unborn babies. And to think that now, even the last trimester is open for the killing.
Ramona Rung,Florida
Ms. Rung, I don’t think you’ve researched Pax Christi USA’s positions very thoroughly. If you want to see Pax Christi USA’s position on abortion, you can read it here: https://paxchristiusa.org/2011/01/16/statement-pax-christi-usa-official-statement-on-abortion/. Thanks.