Pax Christi USA extends our sympathy to the friends, family, and Maryknoll community of Sr. Jean Fallon, MM, who was named a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace in 2022. Sr. Jean died at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY on Saturday, March 8. She was 94 years old.
Sr. Jean, who entered the Maryknoll Sisters in 1947, spent most of her missionary service in Japan, where she was deeply affected by the witness of the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She embraced nuclear disarmament as her primary focus and spent decades advocating for and educating about the critical need to stop nuclear weapons.
Another of her passions was Palestine — from 2007-2013, she was a member of what is now known as Community Peacemaker Teams and served part-time in Hebron in the Occupied Territories.
Use this link to read this 2014 interview with Sr. Jean in the Global Sisters Report.
It is fitting that Sr. Jean, who was also one of the leaders of the local Pax Christi Maryknoll group, died on International Women’s Day as she was also a fierce promoter of the rights of women and girls. She often participated in the NGO community at the UN in New York on issues around disarmament and women.
We take comfort that she is now amongst the holy cloud of witnesses. Sr. Jean Fallon, ¡presente!
To God we belong and to Him we shall return
Sister Jean is a saint in deed. Peace be with her.
Sister Jean inspired and brought light to everyone she touched. The stories of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fueled her deep passion for peace and gentle determination to build a nonviolent world.