Colman McCarthy, Pax Christi USA’s 1993 Teacher of Peace, died on February 27 at the age of 87. A decades-long resident of the Washington DC area for decades, he moved to the Dominican Republic* several years ago to live near one of his three sons. (His wife, Mavoureen Deegan, died in 2017.)
McCarthy wrote for the Washington Post from 1969 to 1996, many of those years as a columnist who advocated strongly for nonviolence, peace, against the death penalty and inequality, and scores of other justice issues. He founded the Center for Teaching Peace in 1985, as he felt passionately about the importance of instilling peace and nonviolence skills in children.
He was the author of “I’d rather teach peace,” published by Orbis Books in 2002.
“Colman McCarthy was a great friend to everyone in Pax Christi and everyone who cared about peace and nonviolence,” said Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Fr. John Dear. “He used his platform at the Washington Post to speak the truth of peace and justice like no one else in the mainstream media before or since. He also taught the way of peace and nonviolence to countless students—many, many thousands—over the decades. Like his many friends, I celebrate his great life, his prophetic voice, his kindness and friendship over nearly 45 years. May we all give thanks to the God of peace for Colman, and redouble our own efforts to teach and practice peace and nonviolence, and go forth and speak out boldly as he did so well.”
“He wrote about principles — peace and nonviolence — and he lived by those principles,” former Post publisher Donald E. Graham said in an email. “He made The Post better.”
“What should be the moral purpose of writing if not to embrace ideals that can help fulfill the one possibility we all yearn for, the peaceable society?” [McCarthy] wrote in his farewell column in 1996. “Peace is the result of love and if love were easy, we’d all be good at it.” — From the Washington Post’s obituary
*corrected from an earlier version