If you have an event to add to this list, please send the pertinent details to Judy Coode with Pax Christi USA. This list will be updated.
Witnessing in solidarity: A panel on the ongoing human rights crisis in the Philippines
Wednesday, May 31, 8-9 PM Eastern / 5-6 PM Pacific (United States)
Thursday, June 1, 8-9 AM (Philippines)
Please join us on May 31 for a panel discussion co-hosted by BAYAN, Migrant Roots Media, and Pax Christi USA.
Speakers from BAYAN Philippines and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) will join us to discuss the current situation in the Philippines, while a speaker from BAYAN USA will discuss the experience of Filipinos abroad and discuss what can be done in the United States to support the Philippine movement.
Webinar: “Say their names!”
Friday, June 2, 8 PM Eastern
Join Pax Christi USA at 8 PM ET on Friday, June 2, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, for a virtual discussion designed to shed light on the increasingly urgent issue of gun violence and foster dialogue to develop nonviolent solutions to this national problem. This thought-provoking online event entitled “Say Their Names!” emphasizes the power of remembrance and collective action in addressing the devastating impact of gun violence on individuals, families, and communities.
Click here to register for the webinar.
June events with the Beatitudes Center
June 3, 17, 24 – each at 11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern
The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus will host three events on Saturdays in June. Each event is $30; registration at the Beatitudes Center website is required. Contact the Beatitudes Center to learn more about scholarships.
- Saturday, June 3: “Following the nonviolent Jesus in a ‘Pro-Rich, Pro-War, Pro-U.S. Empire’ Church,” with longtime peace activist Frank Cordaro. Use this link to register.
- Saturday, June 17: “Following the nonviolent Jesus and serving creation in a time of climate catastrophe,” with environmental theologian Larry Rasmussen. Use this link to register.
- Saturday, June 24: “No retiring from the struggle! Third Act and the effort to mobilize ‘experienced Americans’ to fight climate change,” with climate activist Bill McKibben. Use this link to register.
Past events
Golden Rule peace boat visits New York, New Jersey
May 17-26, 2023
Having just visited Baltimore, the Golden Rule peace boat, a project of Veterans for Peace, visited New York and New Jersey May 17-26. Pax Christi New Jersey co-sponsored events during this time.
The Golden Rule peace boat is a 39-foot wooden ketch which four peace activists sailed toward the Marshall Islands in 1958 to protest U.S. nuclear weapons testing there. However, the crew was arrested on May 1 off Hawaii by the U.S. Coast Guard and never got to the test zone, but global outcry over the arrests and jailings joined with rising public awareness of radiation dangers of nuclear weapons tests, eventually prompted President Kennedy’s signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty with USSR and UK in October 1963.
Unfortunately, the boat sank in a storm off California in 2010, and Veterans For Peace and others salvaged and restored her. Since 2015, her crew has appeared at hundreds of educational events up and down the West Coast.
Now the Golden Rule is sailing the “Great Loop”: down the Mississippi, around Florida, up the East Coast through the Great Lakes to Chicago, a voyage of over 15 months, 11,000 miles and 100 ports-of-call.
Report back from human rights delegation to Philippines
May 25, 2023
Pax Christi USA participated in the Philippines Interfaith Fellowship and Learning Tour in February and March. During an online event on Thursday, May 25, 8-9:30 PM Eastern, delegates from the Interfaith Learning Tour — sponsored by the International Campaign for Human Rights — shared findings from their report.
Webinar: 40 years of “The Challenge of Peace”
May 24, 2023
Pax Christi USA held a special webinar to discuss the U.S. Catholic bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter “The Challenge of Peace” and its relevance to our work today. Speakers included Pax Christi USA Bishop President John Stowe, OFM Conv.; Dr. Lisa Sowle Cahill from Boston College; Pax Christi USA National Council member Josephine Garnem; and Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and USCCB staff member Donna Toliver Grimes.
Hands of Peace summer program (San Diego, CA)
May 21, 2023
Pax Christi San Diego and the St. James-St. Leo Catholic Community Faith in Action Committee invite you to become a partner for peace with Hands of Peace, a non-profit organization that brings together and empowers American, Israeli, and Palestinian youth to become agents of change for peace.
For more information about the presentation at St. James, contact Christy Bohan at christybohan@cox.net. For more information about Hands of Peace, contact: Kevin Ouellette, kouellette@handsofpeace.org.
Online film discussion: Nakba 75: Remembering the voices
May 21, 2023
Voices from the Holy Land hosted a discussion on two documentaries, Voices across the Divide and Born in Deir Yassin, which both pull back the carefully constructed curtain of “a land without people for a people without a land.”
Webinar: Bystander intervention training
May 20, 2023
Meta Peace Team and Pax Christi USA offered an online skills workshop for nonviolent bystander intervention, Saturday, May 20.
Pax Christi Florida general membership meeting
May 17, 2023
Pax Christi Florida held an open discussion about the state’s current political climate, and what possible responses can be made as a Pax Christi community.
Webinar: Warheads to windmills
May 7, 2023
Pax Christi USA was a cosponsor of this webinar organized by NuclearBan.US. Longtime Pax Christi member Nick Mele was one of the speakers. This event aimed to bring together some of the leading organizations and activists working on climate catastrophe and nuclear disarmament to discuss how we can better collaborate and coordinate our efforts to save the planet from these existential threats before it is too late.
Pax Christi Stark County (Ohio) mini-retreat
May 6, 2023
A Beatitudes Center event: 100 years of Philip Berrigan: Remembering, honoring and motivating
May 6, 2023
On Saturday, May 6, the Beatitudes Center hosted writer and activist Frida Berrigan for a special conversation about her father, Phil Berrigan, who would have turned 100 in October 2023.
Learn more about the program at this link.
Immigrant Jericho Walk (Newark, NJ)
May 1, 2023
Co-sponsored by Pax Christi New Jersey.
Vigil and rally for human rights in the Philippines
May 1, 2023
Those in the Washington, D.C. area were encouraged to join a vigil and rally outside the White House, to demonstrate against the visit of Philippines President Ferdinand (“Bongbong”) Marcos, Jr.
Daniel Ellsberg Week
April 24-30, 2023
Daniel Ellsberg is a national hero, a courageous whistleblower who helped expose profound government corruption in the 1970s. He has spent the past 50 years as a writer, lecturer, and activist for peace, particularly for nuclear disarmament.Pax Christi USA was saddened to learn of Ellsberg’s recent diagnosis of terminal cancer, and we join with his great crowd of supporters in wishing him and his family comfort and peace in his remaining time.
The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy and the RootsAction Education Fund co-sponsored Daniel Ellsberg Week for education and action to honor peacemaking and whistleblowing. All were invited to take action between April 24-30 in support of whistleblowers and peacemakers, and to call on state and local governments around the country to honor the spirit of difficult truth-telling. Click on this link to learn more.
Daniel Ellsberg (next to Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Maguire and Jody Williams) participated in a large civil disobedience action organized by Pax Christi USA, held in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, March 2003.
Pax Christi Michigan state conference: “White Christian nationalism: A clear and present danger”
April 15, 2023
Pax Christi Michigan held its 41st annual state conference with guest speaker Alex Mikulich, a Catholic theologian, social ethicist, and activist, who spoke on the topic of White Christian nationalism. Pax Christi USA staff member Michelle Sherman was presented with the annual Young Adult Peacemaker award, and Mike and Carmen Kelly received the annual Purple Ribbon for Peace award. The event was held at Sts. Simon & Jude Church, 32500 Palmer Road, Westland, MI 48186. Click here to learn more at the Pax Christi Michigan website.
Voices from the Holy Land film discussion: Marketing the Israeli occupation
April 16, 2023
Voices from the Holy Land hosted a film salon on the theme Marketing the Israeli Occupation. Registrants were sent a link to watch “The Lobby USA,” a documentary about how pro-Israel lobby groups in Washington, D.C. influence partisan politics, campus life, major network news reporting, and social media in the United States. Use this link to learn more.
Webinar: Free the Water Defenders
April 18, 2023
Learn about the Santa Marta 5 — five anti-mining activists in El Salvador who have been detained since January — and how their story is connected to the broader struggle of the Salvadoran people for peace and water. Become an ally in defending the Salvadoran peace agreement and protecting the nation’s water. This webinar was organized by the International Allies against mining in El Salvador and took place in Spanish and English with simultaneous interpretation.
This event was co-sponsored by CISPES, Earthworks, Institute for Policy Studies, International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador, MiningWatch Canada, PSAC Social Justice Fund, SHARE Foundation, Sisters of Mercy, United Church of Canada, Washington Ethical Society, and Washington Office on Latin America.
More background information is available on this Facebook invite.
Pacem in Terris at 60: Is the Catholic Church heeding the call to Gospel nonviolence?
April 19, 2023
Use this link to watch the video of this webinar on YouTube.
April 11 marked 60 years since the publication of Pacem in Terris, St. John XXIII’s encyclical on peace which has shaped and influenced the work of Pax Christi for decades.
On April 19, Pax Christi International and its Catholic Nonviolence Initiative hosted a special event to celebrate the 60 years of Pacem in Terris.
The groundbreaking vision of Pacem in Terris, that “love not fear must dominate the
relationships between individuals and between nations,” set the Catholic Church on a path in pursuit of peace built on the principles of truth, justice, charity and freedom.
Speakers explored how that path is leading to Gospel nonviolence at the center of Church teaching on war and peace and discussed the important role that the Church can play in facilitating a global shift from a logic of violence to a logic of nonviolence.
Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus monthly gathering: Remembering the Rwandan genocide 29 years later
April 19
This April, in commemoration of Genocide Awareness Month, for its monthly online gathering, the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus (PCYAC) reflected on the violence perpetrated against Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 and the never again promise through a presentation by Honorine Uwimana (Pax Christi USA national council), and will light candles of hope to honor the victims.
“Swords into plowshares,” Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2023
April 25-27, 2023
Pax Christi USA was honored to be a co-sponsor of this year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD), an online three-day event organized by the ecumenical Christian community and its partners and allies.
Held in person since 2003 until 2020, EAD is a conference that provides education and advocacy tools on a variety of issues of social justice. Themes over the years have included migration, immigration and refugees; hunger and food justice; racism, class and power; mass incarceration; development and gender; and #goodtrouble.
This year, the theme was “Swords into plowshares: Achieving enough for all and pursuing peace.”
Speakers included Marie Dennis, Pax Christi USA’s 2022 Teacher of Peace and senior director of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. On Tuesday, April 25, as part of the EAD conference, Pax Christi USA’s National Field Organizer Lauren Bailey and Ambassador of Peace Tom Cordaro offered an organizing workshop centered on our Bread Not Stones campaign, and on Wednesday, April 26, Pax Christi USA’s program director for nonviolence and campus outreach Michelle Sherman was a panelist for a workshop on U.S. militarism in the Philippines.
Bishop Stowe at the Beatitudes Center on Fratelli Tutti
April 15, 2023
The Beatitudes Center welcomed Pax Christi USA Bishop President John Stowe, OFM Conv, who spoke on Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti. Learn more at the Beatitudes Center.