May 10, 2023

GUEST COMMENTARY: My experience as a member of Pax Christi

REGIONAL
By Michael Moran, Special to iObserve

 

It was a chance 1979 meeting with then Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (who would soon help negotiate the release of U.S. hostages in Iran) that first made me aware of, and then drew me into, Pax Christi (the “Peace of Christ” in Latin). Bishop Gumbleton was a co-founder of Pax Christi USA (PCUSA) in 1972.

Formed just after World War II by French and German Catholics who wanted to reconcile after being separated by war, and blessed by Pope Pius XII as an international Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi has since grown to include national chapters in over 60 countries. 

In 1979, I had been asked to drive Bishop Gumbleton from Bradley International Airport in Connecticut to a meeting in Worcester, Mass., of the New England Catholic Peace Fellowship (NECPF), which later became Pax Christi Massachusetts/Rhode Island. Contacts he shared during our road trip led me to a six-month internship with Pax Christi UK in 1980 as part of a graduate program in peace studies I was pursuing through Antioch University.

Traveling with my British colleagues to Pax Christi gatherings in Brussels (where Pax Christi has its international headquarters), Paris, and Rome gave me a sense of the movement’s active presence in multiple European countries. I was even privileged to do speaking presentations for Pax Christi UK in several English cities, where my American accent was a big hit.

On returning home, I became more active with the NECPF until 1992, when Springfield’s own Sister of St. Joseph Jane Morrissey (who was honored in 2022 by Pax Christi USA as an Ambassador of Peace) co-founded Pax Christi MA/RI to succeed the Fellowship, and a number of Pax Christi local groups developed around the two states, including a western Massachusetts group based in Springfield. 

I began attending their monthly meetings for prayer, study, and action around PCUSA’s mission of living the “Peace of Christ,” as revealed in the nonviolent Gospel of Jesus and Catholic social teaching, by making the world safe from all forms of violence and injustice at the personal, community, and national levels.

From our fundamental grounding in prayer, we “study” by reading, reflecting on, and discussing writings by ordained and lay Catholic leaders (Pope Francis, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Marie Dennis, etc.), and engage in “actions” that include public witness, legislative advocacy, and writing letters to the editor. 

(Michael Moran is pictured at left speaking at Bay Path University on a non-Pax Christi-related topic. IObserve photo courtesy of Michael Moran )

Pax Christi Western MA annually co-sponsors (with JustFaith Ministries) a “Chalice of Salvation” televised Mass honoring Blessed Franz Jagerstatter (an Austrian conscientious objector executed in 1945 for refusing to serve Nazi Germany) and his widow, Franziska; and also holds a memorial Mass every June at Jericho in Holyoke for peacemakers, family, and friends who have died in the past year.

We also collaborate with partner organizations like Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence by co-sponsoring their regular walks through neighborhoods that have been traumatized by violence, their annual August commemoration of Hiroshima Day, and their annual September Peace Fair.

Pax Christi MA/RI sponsors two regionwide annual events held at rotating sites around our two states (since the COVID-19 pandemic both in person and virtually); a spring retreat, with a spiritual focus; and a fall assembly, more oriented toward public life. 

Our latest assembly, in October 2022 at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Mass., featured Pax Christi USA Executive Director Johnny Zokovitch and National Field Director Lauren Bailey, who addressed issues of concern to PCUSA in our first 50 years. 

At each assembly, we present one or more awards to “an outstanding peacemaker who embodies the ideals of Pax Christi.” The latest recipient was Dr. Ira Helfand of Northampton (a leader of two Nobel Peace Prize-winning organizations) for his longtime work toward universal nuclear disarmament. Previous recipients include Sister Morrissey, Anita Villafane, and Deacon Bill Toller, all of Springfield.

Our latest retreat, in April 2023 at my home parish of St. Thomas the Apostle in Palmer, was led by Southampton educator Philip Harak and focused on his recent book (with his late brother, Jesuit Father Simon Harak), Living in the Company of Jesus.

On display at the retreat (and as a public witness after the 4 p.m. Mass that followed) was a banner, created by Pat Ferrone and other members of the St. Susanna Pax Christi group, showing the number of mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2023 (174 at the end of April, according to the Gun Violence Archive) and their victims.

Over the past 20-plus years, I’ve been privileged to serve on the Pax Christi MA board of directors and as the editor of our twice-yearly newsletter, with a mailing of almost 800 members. For more information about our work, contact me (moran3@comcast.net), or visit https://paxchristima.org and www.paxchristiusa.org.