Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi Pacific Northwest, Pax Christi New Jersey and Pax Christi New York State are among the more than 200 organizations that have endorsed the following statement of solidarity circulated by MPower, the largest Muslim digital advocacy organization in the U.S., for the thousands of university students, faculty, and staff at campuses across the country who have been nonviolently demanding a ceasefire and divestment. Read the letter with the list of endorsers at this link.
Use this link to find ways that communities and individuals of faith can support the campus movements.
Consider signing this open letter from U.S. Catholics on the crisis in Israel-Palestine.
Statement in solidarity with student protests for Gaza
We, the undersigned organizations, stand in solidarity with the students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encampments and otherwise to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza–actions which human rights organizations, a federal U.S. court, and the International Court of Justice have said “plausibly” constitute genocide.
We commend the students who are exercising their right to protest peacefully despite an overwhelming atmosphere of pressure, intimidation and retaliation, to raise awareness about Israel’s assault on Gaza – with U.S. weapons and funding. These students have come forth with clear demands that their universities divest from corporations profiting from Israeli occupation, and demanding safe environments for Palestinians across their campuses. The students’ courage and determination in the face of adversity inspire us all to take action and speak out against injustice wherever it occurs. As they risk everything right now, it is critical that all of us do everything we can to support them.
We join them in calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and an end to the U.S. government’s and institutions’ role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
As we stand in solidarity with the students protesting in encampments across the country, we reaffirm our commitment to amplifying their voices, condemn the university administration officials’ violent response to their activism, and demand that universities remove the presence of police and other militarized forces from their campuses.
The above statement is a truly refreshing and hope-inspiring surprise. What’s vital to know is that colleges and universities, both public and private, religiously affiliated and secular, now embrace the corporate model. This means they prioritize the bottom-line over academic freedom and, consequently, must grovel before donors, whether private or corporate, who disapprove of calling attention to our collaboration in the mass murder of Palestinians whose lives they regard as less worthy than Israeli lives. That’s the despicable and diabolical truth of the matter.
David-Ross Gerling, PhD
CAN YOU publish Bp Stowe’s remarks from the May 3 prayer gathering for Gaza?
He said this from a script but everything else was spontaneous, sorry! “Forty one years ago today, May 3, 1983, the U.S. Catholic bishops published ‘The Challenge of Peace: God’s promise and our response,’ a pastoral letter which focused on the responsibility of the Church to promote peace and nonviolence.
“As the letter states, ‘In the words of [Pope John Paul II], we need a “moral about face.” The whole world must summon the moral courage and technical means to say “no” to nuclear conflict; “no” to weapons of mass destruction; “no” to an arms race which robs the poor and the vulnerable; and “no” to the moral danger … which places before humankind indefensible choices of constant terror or surrender. Peacemaking is not an optional commitment. It is a requirement of our faith. We are called to be peacemakers, not by some movement of the moment, but by our Lord Jesus. The content and context of our peacemaking is set, not by some political agenda or ideological program, but by the teaching of his Church.’”