We will celebrate Joe Nangle as the 2023 Teacher of Peace on Friday, September 29, starting with a prayer service at 6 PM, followed by an award ceremony and celebration, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Arlington, VA. Join us in person or via livestream! (Click the link to watch Masses)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2023
Washington, D.C. — Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement, has recognized Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM, as the 2023 recipient of the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace award, its highest honor. Fr. Nangle is well-known for his decades of dedication to the people of God and his commitment to justice, peace, simple living, and service.
“‘Teacher of peace’ is an apt description of Fr. Joe. His life has been lived in mission and service and he has taught first by example and then by words about what justice with peace means,” said Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., Bishop-President of Pax Christi USA. “Inspired by another teacher of peace, Francis of Assisi, Joe has been a vital part of the Assisi community since the beginning in DC; he has drawn together and trained young women and men to be in mission and to be converted by the poor. And in recent years, his reflections for Pax Christi have provided strong, distilled Gospel reflections that are challenging and encouraging to anyone who wants to live God’s peace.”
“The decision of Pax Christi USA to honor Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM as a Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace is both wise and wonderful,” said Marie Dennis, program chair of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and Pax Christi USA’s 2022 Teacher of Peace. “For more than 50 years, Joe has brought to his writing and to the pastoral work he loves both a deep liberationist spirituality and a careful social analysis informed by his years in Latin America. As a faithful follower of St. Francis, Joe is truly a Teacher of Peace!”
A native of Massachusetts, Fr. Nangle spent 15 years as a missioner in Bolivia and Peru. There, his experience of ministry with Indigenous communities, the Latin American church transformed by Medellin, the influence of Gustavo Gutierrez and liberation theology profoundly affected his spirituality and vocation.
He returned to the U.S. to address the root causes of the oppression and poverty he saw in Latin America. On October 4, 1986, he co-founded the Assisi community in the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, DC, an intentional, faith-based group of lay persons and vowed religious with a focus on simple lifestyle, social justice and witness, which continues to this day. Fr. Nangle served for 12 years as co-director of the Franciscan Mission Service and, from 2011-2017, he was a member of the Provincial Council of the Holy Name province of the Order of Friars Minor. He currently serves in ministry with the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace parish in Arlington, VA.
Fr. Nangle was nominated for this year’s award by several people, including parishioners from Our Lady Queen of Peace. “As a parishioner from Our Lady Queen of Peace since 1992, my family and I have learned what it means to ‘walk the talk’ as we have observed Fr. Joe’s interactions with people of all ages and especially vulnerable populations, listened to his homilies that bring the Gospel alive through contemporary real-life stories, and observed the many times he has been jailed for peaceful resistance,” wrote Karen Gladbach. “At 91 years old, he continues to amaze us with his commitment to working for peace and justice.”
“To receive this honor from Pax Christi USA is at once a great honor and truly humbling,” said Fr. Nangle. “The list of those who have received this award over the 51 years since Pax Christi USA was formed includes historic peacemakers. At a moment like this, one has the feeling of standing on the shoulders of that cloud of witnesses who lived the prayer ascribed to St. Francis of Assisi: ‘Lord, make us instruments of your peace.’”
Fr. Nangle is the author of Birth of a Church, a memoir of his years of mission in Bolivia and Peru, and Engaged Spirituality, and is co-author of Say to This Mountain, a reflection on the Gospel of Mark, and St. Francis and the Foolishness of God, which gives a Franciscan perspective on current issues of poverty, peace, ecology, and interreligious dialogue.
This year’s Teacher of Peace award will be presented to Fr. Nangle at an event later this fall. For a full list of this year’s nominees, click here.
Watch this 2017 video from the Franciscans’ to learn more about Fr. Nangle: A Friar Life: Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM.
Messages of congratulations to Fr. Joe can be posted in the comments section below.
For more information or requests for interviews, please contact:
- Judy Coode, Pax Christi USA’s Communications Director at jcoode@paxchristiusa.org.