A special appeal from outgoing Executive Director Johnny Zokovitch

>> Click here to respond today to Johnny’s final appeal letter! And thank you!

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“Break down all those barriers that separate one group from another. Go out to the highways and byways, bring in the poor, the neglected, the crippled, the blind, the lame, the rejected – bring them all in. Common sense, human wisdom, would not do that. Jesus is saying to break away from that, go beyond, leap into the reign of God, where there aren’t rules like that, for God is all-inclusive, all-welcoming, all-loving. … Are we ready to move beyond human wisdom, to try really to live according to the reign of God, the way of Jesus? Let go of what would be common sense and be like Jesus, have a divine wisdom, a wisdom that most people think is foolish. Accept suffering rather than inflict it. Be killed rather than kill. Love to the point of laying down your life for others without condition, without limit. Are we ready to do that?”

~ Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, d. April 4, 2024

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June 2024

Dear friends,

Writing this letter is a bittersweet moment for me. By now, most of you have heard that I’ll be leaving Pax Christi after 25+ years of being on staff, including 3.5 years with Pax Christi International in Brussels and these past five years as your executive director. So the good news for you is that this will be the last appeal letter you receive from me asking for your support ! But humor aside, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by gratitude for this movement and for you as I reflect on how kind, generous, and committed you have been in assuring that we always have the financial resources we need to witness to the peace of Christ in the world today.

I wrote my first appeal to you back in Advent of 2019, starting it off with the quote from Isaiah which opens the Advent season and has been the rallying cry of our movement from our very beginning:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.

I wrote to you at that time, that, like me, “I know that you too must feel a stirring in your soul, a holy longing for the day when that vision proves true.” I hope that you have felt, especially these past five years, that we have done everything we possibly could to be faithful to that vision. And I hope that in this season of transitions, you’ll make a donation to support this work going forward, especially as we witness the dawning of new leadership for our movement.

>> Click here to respond to Johnny’s appeal letter today.

As I consider the end of my time as executive director, I’m aware of how these past five years have indeed been a season of change, how they’ve been a bridge we’ve been building together—deeply rooted in the witness of those who gave birth to and nurtured our movement but extending out into this present moment in which we’ve planted new seeds that are just starting to bear fruit.

Nowhere was this more poignant for me than at Bishop Gumbleton’s funeral in April. As you can see in the quote from Tom that opens this letter, his life and witness have been on my mind A LOT these past few weeks. We’ve recently lost a number of people who served as our guidestars for many years—people we all know of, like Tom, like Mary Lou Kownacki—but so many others too, known only to a few for their witness in their local group, their parish, on their Pax Christi state council, in their families. But I am also confident that the ones who will follow in their footsteps are with us now—in the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus, in our campus and high school chapters, in formation with religious communities, applicants to the next incarnation of our Anti-Racism Team—and it is my hope that you’ll invest in these future Tom Gumbletons and these future Mary Lou Kownackis, that you’ll help assure that they have our trust and support to carry on that light for many years to come.

>> Click here to give today.

I hope that these past five years have given you a glimpse of where we’re headed as a movement. (See links to all of our past years-in-review here.) I hope you feel the momentum we’ve engineered through hard work, an energetic commitment, and a relentless effort to honor the witness of each of you, especially all of those who walked the way before us.

Like I wrote earlier on, I promise that this will be the last time I’ll be the one asking you for a financial donation (no promises that others won’t pick up that baton though!). It was one of my stated goals when I started in 2019 to see that this movement would have what it needs in terms of leadership and resources to be vital and thriving when we make it to our 100^th anniversary in 2072. I strongly believe that we’re on the way.

If you could, in whatever way is within your means, help us with a gift today that is an expression of gratitude for all we have been and done these past few years and also your pledge of trust and confidence in those who will be leading us to where we need to be in the decades ahead, I’d be personally grateful. You can give quickly, simply, and securely at paxchristiusa.org/donate.

This isn’t the last you’ll be hearing from me as I’ve still got about two months until my time as executive director is over, but I’m grateful to have had this last opportunity to ask you one more time for your support. I was nervous when I started about this part of the job in particular, but I have come to cherish it because I believe so profoundly in what we are together as Pax Christi USA, and it makes all the sense in the world that those who can will want to invest to resource the work we do. You have offered your love and support with such dedication, so openheartedly, with such overwhelming grace. Let me thank you one last time, with all the humility and amazement that I feel, at how giving you and this entire community are. Thank you.