Each year, Pax Christi USA honors an outstanding peacemaker with the Teacher of Peace Award, in the tradition of Sr. Thea Bowman, Cesar Chávez, Dorothy Day, Pope Paul VI, and other contemporary Catholic figures who have shone a light for us on our journey toward solidarity and justice, to be each other’s keepers and stewards of creation.
Click here for a series of video interviews with Teachers of Peace.
This award began in 1978 as a recognition of women and men whose lives and work exemplify the theme of Pope Paul VI’s World Day of Peace message, “To reach peace, teach peace.” Today we continue to honor those people who, as Pope Francis stated in his 2021 World Day of Peace message, “educate for a culture of care,” providing the compass which points the way on the path of peace to renewed encounter and healing.
1978 – Dorothy Day
1980 – Msgr. Paul Hanly Furfey
1982 – Mary Evelyn Jegen, SND
1983 – Eileen Egan and Gordon Zahn
1984 – Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan
1986 – Hildegard and Jean Goss-Mayr
1987 – Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen
1988 – Lawrence Martin Jenco
1989 – Daniel Berrigan, SJ
1990 – Joan Chittister, OSB (video interview)
1991 – Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (video interview)
1992 – Dom Helder Camara
1993 – Colman McCarthy
1994 – Jim and Shelley Douglass (video interview)
1995 – Jim and Kathy McGinnis
1996 – Helen Prejean, CSJ (video interview)
1997 – Roy Bourgeois, MM
1998 – Kathy Kelly (video interview)
1999 – Martin Sheen (video interview)
2000 – Dianna Ortiz, OSU
2001 – Fr. Louis Vitale, Liz McAlister and Phil Berrigan (interview with Frida Berrigan, Liz and Phil’s daughter)
2002 – Fr. Peter Dougherty (video interview)
2003 – William Quigley (video interview)
2005 – Msgr. Ray East
2006 – Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
2007 – Fr. John Rausch, Glmy
2008 – MJ and Jerry Park
2009 – Bishop Leroy Matthiesen
2010 – Jim Albertini (video interview)
2011 – Colleen Kelly (video interview)
2012 – Ruben Garcia
2013 – Mary Meg McCarthy
2016 – Art Laffin (video interview)
2021 – Rev. Bryan N. Massingale, STD (video interview)
2022 – Marie Dennis (video interview)
2023 – Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM