In the spring of 2025, the PCYAC Literary Circle for Liberation met five times to discuss The Water Defenders: How ordinary people saved the country from corporate greed by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh. The last session was a conversation with the authors.
WHO WE ARE: A community within Pax Christi USA, the Young Adult Caucus provides space for peacemakers in their 20s and 30s to grow together, educate one another in dialogue, mobilize for action, and accompany the Catholic peace movement into its future as we pursue a just and sustainable world.
Within the Pax Christi USA movement, PCYAC is led by the National Council, in collaboration with the National Office, informed by the Anti-Racism Team, and supportive of Pax Christi International.
WHAT WE DO: The Pax Christi USA Young Adult Caucus meets monthly via Zoom to pray, study, and act. Some of our recent programs include:
- The 2025 summer retreat was held in June in Erie PA, on the theme Hearts on fire
- An annual Advent retreat, held on December 14, on the theme “Solitude to Solidarity: How contemplative work can make us better peace-builders.”
- The PCYAC inaugural zine, The Rose and the Barbed Wire!
- Come, behold the works of God, PCYAC’s annual retreat, held August 23-25, 2024 in Washington, DC.
- Challenging conversations: Intergenerational nonviolent peacemaking through difficult times, held May 1 and 15, 2024, facilitated by Peace Pair Tiffany Hunsinger (a member of PCYAC) and Ambassador of Peace Janice Vanderhaar.
- In 2024, the PCYAC Literary Circle for Liberation met five times (Feb. 21, March 6, March 20, April 3, and April 17) to discuss Kaitlin Curtice’s book, Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day.
- Online Advent mini-retreat, held December 16, 2023
- “Dawn shall break upon us,” a retreat held June 23-25 in Chicago
- Peace Pairs: An intergenerational co-learning program between PCYAC members and Ambassadors of Peace and Teachers of Peace
- Online Advent mini-retreat, held December 17, 2022.
- Building Paths of Peace Together, an in-person retreat in Washington, D.C. from June 2022
- Vigil for Black Lives
- Monthly evenings of dialogue with conversation topics selected and shared by PCYAC community members (most recently, an evening of dialogue on ecological justice)
- Advent Vespers based on the writings of St. Oscar Romero
- “Let Us Dream,” a Lenten retreat focused on Pope Francis’ book by the same title
- A breakout session for the 2021 National Conference, entitled “Dream of Tomorrow: Building capacity by looking at peacemaking through an intergenerational lens”
- “Militarized Policing: Abolition or Reform?”, a special pre-conference lead-in event on July 29 (watch the video at this link)
- “Reflecting on a Generation of War”
- An evening of Advent prayer, reflection and resistance
- Reflection on Lent, Ukraine, and the art of resistance
- Liturgy for peace outside the Russian embassy on Ash Wednesday
TO JOIN: PCYAC is always looking to expand our community and invite new people to share in reflection, prayer, and action. If you would like to be added to the PCYAC email list, please fill out this form and a member of the leadership team will be in touch.
Contact information:
To connect with PCYAC, write to Camila Perez, Pax Christi USA staff, cperez@paxchristiusa.org.
Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus representative to the National Council: Lasya Priya, jarug22l@mtholyoke.edu.
Peace Pairs
Peace Pairs, which launched in 2022, is organized to connect seasoned peacemakers, like Pax Christi USA’s Ambassadors of Peace, on a one-to-one basis with a younger peacemaker (in their 20s and 30s) for one year. The 2024 cohort brought together nine pairs (18 people) from Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington state, and Washington, DC.
Some of the hopes and goals for the program include:
- Mutual co-learning and accompaniment.
- An opportunity to meet others and foster intergenerational peacemaking.
- Intentional pairing around geographic location or issue.
- Completing a project from both perspectives, such as planning an outcome together that can be shared with the larger Pax Christi membership
Recent monthly gatherings:
- December 2024: PCYAC Advent retreat: Solitude to Solidarity: How contemplative work can make us better peace-builders
- November 2024: Post-election prayer and sharing space + PCYAC member Anna Nowalk presented on her Fulbright research in El Salvador on Catholics killed during and around the time of El Salvador’s civil war.
- October 2024: Guest speaker Dr. Ansel Augustine, USCCB Secretariat on African American Affairs
- September 2024: PCYAC annual business meeting and leadership elections + PCYAC co-sponsored workshop “What Catholics need to know about Palestine” at the Pax Christi USA virtual national conference + Guest speakers from Friends of the Congo, an advocacy non-profit raising consciousness on the challenge of the Congo and supporting Congolese institutions in bringing about a peaceful and lasting change.
- August 2024: Annual PCYAC retreat and prayer witness in Washington, DC
- July 2024: Young adult speakers on (im)migration and personal witness as undocumented college students
- June 2024: Guest speaker Joryán Hernández (University of Notre Dame student)
- December 16, 2023: PCYAC held its annual Advent mini-retreat.
- November 15, 2023: PCYAC members discussed the ongoing closure of Black Catholic schools and churches
- October 18, 2023: Bring a book/text you are reading or one that left remarkable prints on your life.
- April 19, 2023: PCYAC commemorated Genocide Awareness Month, with a presentation by Honorine Uwimana (Pax Christi USA national council) on the violence perpetrated against Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.
- March 15, 2023: PCYAC held a prayer service focused on the “Saintly Six,” the six African American Catholics who are candidates for canonization.
- February 15, 2023: Special guest Jessica Sun shared reflections on the struggle for Palestinian liberation.