Starting Tuesday, November 4 at 8 PM ET      Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions: Is the journey worth it?  Is this what God wants me to do? Am I up to it? And, afterwards: How did it affect my life? Jim Thomas, co-chair of the Pax Christi USA Nuclear Disarmament Working Group, posed similar questions to himself more than 40 years ago when contemplating a walk across the United States, Europe, and then to Bethlehem to draw attention to the need for nuclear disarmament.

Today marks two years since Hamas militants attacked communities in southern Israel, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths, with 251 people taken hostage. We continue to pray for all who were affected by that terrible day of violence and for the remaining hostages to be returned safely. We are horrified and heartbroken by the overwhelming brutality against the people of Gaza which has taken place since that date.

A welcome addition to the Pax Christi USA National Council is Fr. Warren Harvey.  Fr. Harvey is the Bishop's Liaison to the Little Rock Diocesan Council for Black Catholics.  For the past 8 years he has served as Pax Christi Little Rock's chaplain. He is the 1st African American priest for the Diocese of Little Rock and has been the pastor of many parishes, as well as the Chaplain for the Central States District of the Knights of St.

The Sumud Flotilla was intercepted this morning, October 2, 12:51am Palestine Time, sparking protests across Europe. Today, October 2, is the International Day of Nonviolence. As people of faith, we are called to challenge violence in all forms, engage in nonviolent resistance wherever possible, and resist complicity with injustice; we see this same calling echoed in the mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

By Michelle ShermanPax Christi USA national staff, Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus (PCYAC) The following review appeared in the autumn 2025 issue of Peace Current, the Pax Christi USA quarterly newsletter. This new memoir from Pax Christi USA member Jim Thomas leads readers through his experience of the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage of 1982-1983, but it does not stop there. The book is also an indictment of the United States’ addiction to violence and unwillingness to acknowledge the harm not only inflicted on the country of Japan, but also on the people of this country.

Pax Christi USA is happy to announce the results of our 2025 national council elections: Vic Doucette and James Watts have been re-elected, and Lauren Bailey, Arthur Dawes, and Frank Panopoulos (via appointment) will join for the first time. We are deeply grateful for all of the ways James, Vic, Lauren, Arthur, and Frank have already demonstrated and exercised leadership within our community.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9 In these days that are wrought with attacks on human dignity, it is difficult to know how to respond or whether to respond at all. We look to our church leaders to model putting faith into action by speaking truth in love as Jesus taught us to do.

Written by Camila Perez and Sha'Kia SmithPax Christi USA National Staff and PCYAC members On the Thursday and Friday before the start of the 2025 Pax Christi USA National Conference, members of the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus (PCYAC) came together in Detroit for a sacred time of connection, learning, and spiritual grounding. Over two days, this pre-conference gathering created space for meaningful conversations, deep reflection, and the strengthening of a vibrant, justice-seeking community.

The following reflection is written by Anna Nowalk, a member of the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus. She completed a Fulbright grant in El Salvador, studying music written about martyrs, and is now an MTS student at Notre Dame on the moral theology track. When I think of water in El Salvador, I remember staying in a rural area in Morazán, a department in the eastern side of the country.

By Josephine GarnemPax Christi USA National Council Global consciousness is shifting, and with it comes an urgent call to reclaim politics as a force for the common good. What should be the norm — ethical leadership, service to those who are vulnerable, and stewardship of justice and peace — has too often been replaced by corrosive trends that threaten the very fabric of our societies.

Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Kathy O'Leary, coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey, has been deeply involved with an ongoing presence outside Delaney Hall, the massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark, NJ. For months now, Pax Christi New Jersey and other organizations have provided physical, emotional, and spiritual support to family members who wait outside the center for an opportunity to visit with loved ones being held inside.

On Thursday September 18, the Global Day of Action for Palestine, Pax Christi USA and more than 20 other faith-based groups launched the Complicit Corporations: Expose and Divest campaign. This coalition has joined a broader network of organizations committed to exposing and divesting from the destructive role of Chevron and Palantir in the Israeli government’s mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.

Next Friday, the September 26 Working Group, an open-entry group for any organization planning to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, will present its joint appeal to the United Nations and send it to leaders, legislators and government officials around the world. The appeal has been drafted to be inclusive and able to be endorsed by everyone (individuals and organizations) working for a nuclear-weapon-free world regardless of constituency, country or approach to nuclear weapons abolition.

On July 26, Dr. Nada Fadul (University of Nebraska College of Medicine) led “The humanitarian crisis in Sudan” workshop during the Pax Christi USA national conference in Detroit. The following report on that workshop, which was attended by about 30 people, was written by Rosemarie Pace, Ed.D., coordinator of Pax Christi New York State. Sudanese-born Dr. Nada Fadul began the session using a PowerPoint slideshow to provide a brief introduction into the geography and history of Sudan.

YouTube video by PaxChristiUSA

Today, September 17, is the feast of Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine sister, composer, healer, and mystic who lived in the early 1100s in what is now Germany. Sr. Annie Killian, OP, a member of the Pax Christi USA national council, was invited by the theology department at University of Notre Dame to preach today at their vespers service; her sermon, which connects Hildegard's feast to the season of creation and our work of peacemaking, is posted below.

Fr. John Dear and the Beatitudes Center has several upcoming events that will be of interest to Pax Christi members. Use this link to see the list of upcoming episodes of the Nonviolent Jesus podcast. Zoom programs Each program listed below will last 90 minutes, starting at 11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern. Cost is $30 each (scholarships are available!). Participants will be sent a zoom link on the Wednesday before the event.

The secretaries general of three major Catholic organizations -- Pax Christi International, Caritas Internationalis, and CIDSE – have published a statement in preparation for the UN's climate change conference, COP30, to be held in Brazil Nov. 10-21. “We unite our voices,” the organizations said, “to affirm a simple yet urgent truth: there can be no true peace without climate justice, and no climate justice without peace.

Pax Christi USA mourns and prays for the families and loved ones of those who are targeted with violence. We deplore any use of violence, any attempts to intimidate, silence or harm others. In light of the rise in both attempted and fatal targeted physical violence on political figures (most recently Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and Pennsylvania Gov.

Pax Christi USA is once again partnering with Casa Esther Catholic Worker House (Omro WI); the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International; and EcoProtection Alliance to provide a six-week series on nonviolence for university students, staff, faculty, and the general public. This year’s theme, “Nonviolence and the transformative power of the arts,” will explore the ways that music, film, poetry, the visual arts, theater, and dance can help us express and deepen our commitment to nonviolence.

by Kathy KellyPax Christi USA 1998 Teacher of Peace The following essay was originally published here on World BEYOND War. In his last minutes of freedom before Israeli Defense Forces arrested him, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, clad in a medic’s white coat, walked alone toward two Israeli tanks. His captors awaited him amid the rubble of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital.

The Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action (CNDA) are celebrated each year between September 21, the International Peace Day and October 2, the International Day of Nonviolence and Gandhi’s birthday. This is a busy time for all of us, with the Season of Creation, Campaign Nonviolence, and the Week of Prayer for Peace in Palestine & Israel all taking place during the same period.

We are thrilled to announce that our celebrant for our upcoming PAX Mass on Thursday, September 18 is Archbishop John C. Wester. Photo: Hiroshima's Bishop Alexis Shirahama, Nagasaki's Archbishop Peter Nakamura, Seattle's Archbishop Paul Etienne, Archbishop Wester, and Nagasaki's Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Takami concelebrate Mass in Nagasaki in 2023. Archbishop Wester, whose Archdiocese of Santa Fe is home to Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, has been a leading US voice against nuclear weapons.

Pax Christi USA and Pax Christi International are both cosponsors of Let children live, a newly launched campaign organized by Amnesty International and Save the Children to remind the world that 2.38 million Palestinian children are struggling to survive in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OTP). Campaign participants will raise their voices for all Palestinian children living under Israel’s occupation, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared unlawful.

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful and costliest tropical storms to hit the US, formed in the Atlantic on August 23, 2005, and had moved across Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, up to New Orleans, by August 29. The city suffered massive flooding and extensive damage primarily due to the failure of the surrounding levees. More than 1,000 people died in Louisiana, and more than one million people from around the region were displaced, the largest diaspora in US history.