Pax Christi USA learned from friends earlier today of the passing of Sr. Megan Rice, prophetic voice for nuclear disarmament within our movement and a member of the Transform Now Plowshares. Many of our members will remember how on the morning of July 28, 2012, the Transform Now Plowshares — Michael R. Walli, Sr. Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed — entered the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a prophetic Christian witness to prioritize people over bombs. The three Catholic Plowshares activists performed a disarmament action in response to U.S. government plans to invest $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex.
Sr. Megan would go on to serve time in prison for the action, with many throughout Pax Christi USA signing petitions and taking action on her behalf. Her witness would reach countless millions of people through features like these in The New York Times and the New York Daily News.
“It is incredible to consider how the bravery of this small, smiling, unassuming woman in standing up to the entirety of the U.S. military-industrial complex could bring so much awareness to the devastation our nation’s idolatry of nuclear weapons inflicts on people here in the U.S. and around the world,” stated Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director of Pax Christi USA. “All of Pax Christi USA grieves at her passing, but we give thanks for her witness, for her life, and for the challenge that she issued by standing up nonviolently for a better world for all of us.”
Sr. Megan Rice – PRESENTE!
Read more about Megan’s life and her own words in these selections below.
- Click here to read Megan’s obituary in The Washington Post.
- Click here to read this summary of the statement Megan made at her pre-sentencing hearing.
- Click here to read Megan’s statement and bio and those of the other Transform Now Plowshares activists at the action.
- Click here to read a letter from Megan while in prison in 2014.
- Click here to read an article Megan wrote for the website in 2019 on Plowshares activism.
Sr.Megan is a modern day saint! Thanks for the inspiration.
Heartful gratitude for the 91 yrs of inspired service and activism that Sr. Megan lived. PRESENTE!
May she and Anne Montgomery together enjoy a new freedom which allows them to freely press the whole Body of Christ towards peace.
We met years ago at SOAWatch as she was a good friend of Franciscan Jerry Zawada. I am grateful for knowing her. We took part in many actions together and she supported the equality of women in the church, including the ordination of women priests. I have no doubt she will continue to bless and inspire us. She was a
woman of wisdom and deep love.
Sr. Megan was a joyous love. She was so humble and unassuming. PCMNY invited her to lead a retreat, which she did–sort of. It turns out she never fully understood that we wanted her to LEAD the retreat. She saw herself as simply being part of a group of people facilitating the retreat. Nevertheless, everyone fell in love with her. What an honor to have known her, even if only a little bit! May she now know the peace of a nuclear-free heaven, and may she now, from her new “seat of power,” help us make this a nuclear-free earth.
Sr. Megan sounds like a million percent human being
I believe the first time I met Sr. Megan we were blocking 42nd Street in NYC. We were protesting the brutal US war against the people of El Salvador. Undaunted, as there were only two of to challenge the vehicles at such a principle intersection, we stood firm holding signs opposing war until police arrived to cart us away. And so began our long friendship of solidarity and resistance. I was very blessed to know Sr. Megan.
Sr Megan was a beautiful presence, a blessing and her memory is a blessing.
An amazing woman! — presente!