Pax Christi celebrates 50 years of Catholic witness

Pax Christi celebrates 50 years of Catholic witness against the 'war machine'

Pax Christi USA, a branch of the international Catholic peace movement, will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a conference Aug. 5-7 just outside Washington, Aleja Hertzler-McCain reports.

Johnny Zokovitch, the group's executive director, told NCR the 50th anniversary is an opportunity both to celebrate the vision of the founders, who understood "how much the church needed an organized peace witness," and to focus on "looking forward and building on that legacy" by engaging young people in the movement.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, who released a pastoral letter calling for nuclear disarmament at the beginning of 2022. Two of three U.S. nuclear weapons research facilities, the Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, as well as the nation's largest nuclear weapon storage facility, are located in Wester's archdiocese.

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More background:

• Retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a member of Pax Christi USA since its founding in 1972, recently sat down with NCR for an interview about the future of the organization.

• Read about Archbishop Wester’s pastoral letter urging for nuclear disarmament.

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Pope Francis' apology to Indigenous Canadians opened door to reconciliation

Pope Francis has heard the call for reconciliation, writes Kevin P. Considine of Catholic Theological Union about the pope’s penitential trip to Canada. The pontiff has set an example for all Christians, Catholic and otherwise, in his journey of penance for the sins of many of our spiritual ancestors, who were taught that discipleship and colonizing were compatible.

Considine points out that it is exceedingly rare that the leader of any large institution, let alone the largest transnational institution in the world, attempts to answer a call to reconciliation initiated by the survivors of a horrible evil perpetrated by that very institution. Rarer still, he says, is a religious leader who then freely responds to those calls with an authentic journey of contrition.

Read the rest of this story here.

More background:

• Catch up on our coverage of last week’s papal trip to Canada in our feature series archived here.

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More headlines

• Global Sisters Report covered a recent gathering marking the 100th anniversary of the Federation of St. Scholastica, where women religious gathered to ensure that the Benedictine charism is carried into the future in a life-giving way.

• ICYMI: The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will travel to Kazakhstan in September, where he will likely meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

• ICYMI: The organization Voice of the Faithful recently prepared a report on the finance councils of the 176 Latin-rite dioceses in the U.S. Only 18 received a passing grade.