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Pax Christi USA
@paxchristiusa.bsky.social
"Peace of Christ!" We're the Catholic peace movement in the US. Grounded in the Gospel and Catholic social teaching, we reject war, preparations for war, every form of violence and domination, and personal and systemic racism. www.paxchristiusa.org
Pax Christi International has awarded its annual peace prize to Bishop Mark Seitz, the Diocese of El Paso, and other groups that advocate for immigrants at the US-Mexico border. This week, too, saw the US Catholic bishops release a "special message" in support of immigrant communities in crisis.
US Catholic Church now stands unequivocally with immigrants
By Johnny Zokovitch At the Pax Christi International 80th gathering in Florence, Italy last week, Bishop Mark Seitz and the Diocese of El Paso were recognized as the recipients of the 2025 Pax Christi International Peace Award, with Annunciation House, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Hope Border Institute receiving special recognition for their work on the US-Mexico border.
paxchristiusa.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Pax Christi USA Executive Director Charlene Howard and National Council member Jeff Sved participated in Pax Christi International's world assembly in celebration of its 80th anniversary, held in Italy last week. It was a deeply moving experience to connect with peacemakers from around the world.
Pax Christi International hosts 80th anniversary gathering in Italy
A homecoming – a reunion – a celebration – a meeting of hearts and minds: These are just a few words to describe the incredible experience of participating in the Pax Christi International 80th anniversary convening in Firenze (Florence), Italy, as Pax Christi leaders from around the world celebrated 80 years of being a consistent presence for reconciliation and nonviolence amidst the various and ongoing violent conflicts around the world.
paxchristiusa.org
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Pax Christi members joined a prayer witness outside the USCCB's annual meeting in Baltimore earlier this week to urge the US Catholic Church to speak out against the atrocities in Gaza. “We're not here to condemn the Church," said PCYAC's Jessica Sun, "we are here to call it back to its conscience.”
Pax Christi members hold witness for Palestine outside USCCB meeting
Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore member John Holden and Pax Christi USA national council member Frank Panopoulos Earlier this week, as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met in Baltimore, Pax Christi members joined other Catholics and allies outside the meeting space to demand that Church leaders break their silence on what leading human rights experts have identified as genocide in Gaza.
paxchristiusa.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Join us tomorrow, Nov. 13 outside ICE headquarters, 500 12th St SW, 8:30-9 AM #OneChurchOneFamily #StandwithMigrants
Reject the culture of fear and silence that dehumanizes. Join the One Church, One Family campaign to stand with migrants. Register your public witness at and learn more at 1family.us
#OneChurchOneFamily #StandWithMigrants
November 12, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Pax Christi USA 1998 Teacher of Peace Kathy Kelly writes about the ongoing misery in Gaza and the need for honest reporting about the scale of the damage inflicted on the people, the infrastructure, and the land. Despite the ceasefire, the onslaught continues and aid is held back in a chokehold.
Winter is coming to Gaza
By Kathy KellyPax Christi USA 1998 Teacher of Peace The most urgent task, to end genocide, requires truthful coverage about Israel’s war crimes. On Saturday, November 8, 2025, Dan Perry wrote in The Jerusalem Post about Israel's projected lifting of the media blockade on Gaza. Perry laments that Israeli censorship has left all reporting of the atrocity in the hands of Palestinians, who refuse to be silent.
paxchristiusa.org
November 11, 2025 at 3:29 PM
December 13: Join us for our online PCYAC Advent retreat

On Saturday, December 13, 5-7:00 PM Eastern, Pax Christi USA’s Young Adult Caucus (PCYAC) will hold its annual Advent retreat. Our theme for this year will be "Entering the Night of Peace," from the 2025 Advent Reflection Booklet. We are…
December 13: Join us for our online PCYAC Advent retreat
On Saturday, December 13, 5-7:00 PM Eastern, Pax Christi USA’s Young Adult Caucus (PCYAC) will hold its annual Advent retreat. Our theme for this year will be "Entering the Night of Peace," from the 2025 Advent Reflection Booklet. We are grateful to have the authors of this year's Advent reflection booklet with us as retreat speakers, Cameron Bellm and Flora x.
paxchristiusa.org
November 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Johnny Zokovitch writes in from the Pax Christi International world gathering taking place this week in Florence, Italy. He reflects on how one of the compelling revelations of the gathering is how the message of nonviolence has taken root and grown within the Catholic world in the past 10 years.
Moving nonviolence from the periphery to the heart of the Catholic Church
By Johnny Zokovitch This week I have been in Florence, Italy as part of Pax Christi International’s 80th anniversary world gathering, Building Bridges for Tomorrow. This is the third world gathering that I have taken part in, and at each, I come away with a deeper appreciation for how we who do our work in the United States have such dedicated and courageous friends and colleagues around the world witnessing – often at great personal cost – to the power of nonviolence.  
paxchristiusa.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Pax Christi USA's 2025 Advent reflection guide is on sale now! Make sure to order TODAY in time to receive your copies by the first Sunday of Advent, November 30. $5 each, with discounts for 10 or more. Thank you to co-writers Cameron Bellm and Flora x. Tang! #Advent
Order your 2025 Advent reflection booklet today!
The print version of this year's edition of Pax Christi USA's Advent reflection booklet is now available! The hard copy version is $5.00 (with further discounts of 10 percent on orders of 10-99 or 30 percent for 100+). Find it here in the Pax Christi USA Store. The electronic version will be available for sale the week of November 17.
paxchristiusa.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Take action TODAY: The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to drop its responsibility to report greenhouse gas emissions and other key obligations. Send a message to Congress urging them to deny this proposal -- the deadline for comment is 11:59 PM tonight, Monday, Nov. 3. #careforcreation
Take action TODAY: Protect the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
This is a request for urgent action -- please respond today, Monday, November 3. From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops: As world leaders head to COP30 to advance climate action, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to effectively end its ability to track US climate warming emissions, data needed to reduce climate impacts, meet our international climate commitments and protect children’s health and futures…
paxchristiusa.org
November 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Sudan is in crisis. Read Pax Christi International's statement to the international community, and contact your members of Congress to urge them to speak out against the genocide taking place. #Sudan
Pax Christi International calls for immediate action to protect civilians in Sudan
The situation in Sudan is horrific as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) takes control of Darfur -- widespread starvation, sexual assault, and mass executions are just a few of the atrocities being reported. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect writes about El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur: "Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, hospitals reduced to rubble and humanitarian access completely severed.
paxchristiusa.org
November 1, 2025 at 4:13 PM
In this week's reflection, Johnny Zokovitch writes: Some of us have been conditioned to expect that every moment presents the chance to thrive. But sometimes, all that we can manage is to endure, to survive. We survive together, with honesty, not leaving anyone to face their fears alone. #solidarity
Naming our fears and surviving together
By Johnny Zokovitch I spent last weekend with members of Pax Christi Michigan at their annual fall retreat. The theme of this retreat doesn’t change from year to year; it’s always focused on reflection and renewal for the long haul, how to find the sustenance one needs to keep going on, especially when hopes are dashed and momentum is stalled…
paxchristiusa.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Pax Christi USA responds to the president's recent unclear and irresponsible statements about possibly renewing nuclear weapons testing. We join others in urging restraint and calling for renewed arms control negotiations. @PreventNuclearWar
Pax Christi USA responds to threats of resumed nuclear tests
Last Wednesday evening, President Trump made an imprecise statement about resuming tests of nuclear weapons. (Use this link to read a BBC article on this topic.) It is unclear whether he meant testing of nuclear warheads or the delivery systems. Any testing would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty and would have negative environmental impacts. It would also overturn United States policy that has been in place since 1992 when Republican George HW Bush was president.
paxchristiusa.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM
On Monday Nov. 3 episode of the Nonviolent Jesus podcast, offered by the Beatitudes Center, Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Fr. John Dear will be in conversation with musician and peace activist Joan Baez. Check out upcoming Beatitudes Center Zoom events, too, like Nov. 15 with Jim Finley.
Upcoming events with the Beatitudes Center, including Nov. 3 podcast with Joan Baez
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, including this Monday's (Nov. 3) with Joan Baez. Fr. John writes that Joan Baez is "a lifelong activist for peace, justice, civil and human rights, and an equally passionate believer in nonviolence.
paxchristiusa.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Johnny Zokovitch writes about Bonhoeffer's words about the importance of the church doing what it's always done — bandaging the wounds of those crushed under the wheel of injustice — but also the need to drive a spike into the spokes of the wheel of injustice itself. Following Jesus comes at a cost.
Discipleship, in times like these, comes with a cost
By Johnny Zokovitch During my college years, one of my professors turned me on to the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. What I found so compelling in Kierkegaard was his insistence on the way that faith had been co-opted by culture. Kierkegaard reflected on how, for the early Christian community, their allegiance to their faith could cost them so much for being in conflict with the culture surrounding them — resulting in their loss of livelihood, social and economic isolation, the severing of family bonds, and perhaps even their lives.
paxchristiusa.org
October 24, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine (UCPiP) has been working side by side with communities in the West Bank. You're invited to prayerfully consider joining a cohort in 2026. Consider applying for UCPiP in order to respond to the urgent need to provide protection and to express solidarity.
Invitation to consider Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine
Unarmed civilian protection (UCP) is a powerful and effective nonviolent strategy. As described by Nonviolent Peaceforce, "UCP protects civilians from violence through use of a range of methods,including protective accompaniment and protective presence, community-led safety and security initiatives such as early-warning early response mechanisms, civilians protecting one another through Women and Youth Protection Teams, conflict de-escalation techniques, civilian ceasefire and peace agreement monitoring, the establishment of weapons-free zones – and much more."
paxchristiusa.org
October 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
“The Holy See affirms its...conviction that [eliminating] nuclear weapons [is] not an unrealistic prospect, but an urgent moral imperative. Peace cannot be built on the threat of total destruction as this is both morally indefensible+strategically unsustainable."

www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-c...
Holy See: Eliminating nuclear weapons is an urgent moral imperative - Vatican News
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, urges the international community to work towards preventing the ...
www.vaticannews.va
October 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The Center on Faith+Justice, Sojourners, Interfaith Alliance, and the Horizons Project is launching a new effort to build local and regional interfaith cohorts of clergy, lay, and community leaders committed to moral, faith-rooted, and strategic action. The first training is this Wednesday, Oct. 22.
Pax Christi USA joins new interfaith initiative for nonviolent civil resistance training
Pax Christi USA recently signed on to partner with a new interfaith initiative focused on equipping faith leaders to respond to rising authoritarianism and democratic backsliding through nonviolent civil resistance. The Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, together with Sojourners, the Interfaith Alliance, and the Horizons Project, is launching a national effort to build local and regional interfaith cohorts of clergy, lay, and community leaders committed to moral, faith-rooted, and strategic action.
paxchristiusa.org
October 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Pax Christi USA is excited to share that former executive director Johnny Zokovitch will be contributing regular columns for our website, taking up the mantle of his beloved mentor and friend Fr. Joe Nangle who died in December 2024. We're so grateful that Johnny will share his reflections with us!
Picking up Joe Nangle’s hope and challenge
By Johnny Zokovitch One of the most satisfying decisions I made during my time as executive director of Pax Christi USA was to ask Fr. Joe Nangle, ofm, to write a weekly column for our website. Joe’s columns were consistently the most-read posts on our site week-in and week-out. I heard regularly from people all across the United States (and even around the world) about how much Joe’s columns meant to them.
paxchristiusa.org
October 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Pax Christi International has announced that El Paso's Bishop Mark Seitz is the recipient of its 2025 peace prize, in recognition of Bishop Seitz's work for justice for immigrants. Special recognition is given to Annunciation House, Hope Border Institute, and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
Pax Christi International awards 2025 peace prize to Bishop Seitz, with special recognition to others
Pax Christi International, based in Brussels, has awarded its 2025 peace prize to Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, in recognition of his years of work protecting the rights of migrants along the US-Mexico border and beyond. Bishop Seitz has made it clear that the commitment of the Catholic Church in the United States is to defend and protect immigrants, and to highlight the values and contributions that immigrants bring to our country, beginning with their deep faith: “There is a prophetic dimension to this work… Our solidarity must be visible… The way of love cannot be hidden under a bushel basket.
paxchristiusa.org
October 13, 2025 at 6:05 PM
On October 3, Pax Christi USA, joined by many friends and colleagues, held a vigil outside the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to pray for and stand in solidarity with those who have been affected by the draconian tactics taken by the current administration.
Prayer vigil held in front of ICE headquarters
On Friday, October 3, some 50 peacemakers, including members of the Pax Christi USA National Council who were together for their semi-annual meeting that weekend, held a prayer service and vigil in support of immigrants outside of the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Washington, DC. The prayer service, with the theme "Love Thy Neighbor," was co-sponsored by Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Franciscan Action Network, Congregation Action Network, Sisters of Mercy, the Quixote Center and other groups. 
paxchristiusa.org
October 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
On Sept. 28, Pax Christi USA joined the Archdiocese of Washington's prayer procession in solidarity with migrants and refugees. We're honored to partner with others for the upcoming One Church One Family Catholic public witness days for immigrants, Oct. 22 and Nov. 13. Find more at http://1family.us
“Migrants, missionaries of hope,” and the One Church One Family campaign
On Sunday, September 28, the weather was warm and the atmosphere was both festive and filled with purpose as crowds of people gathered for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. This year’s procession possessed a more intense resolve as a prayerful and prophetic witness of Catholics in solidarity with immigrants, migrants and refugees who are being assaulted, disappeared and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
paxchristiusa.org
October 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Churches for Middle East Peace offered a statement in response to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. "This ceasefire deal cannot act as a political cover that shields or distracts from the continued ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank."
CMEP statement on ceasefire implementation
Pax Christi USA is a member of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of more than 30 national church communions and organizations, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical traditions that works to encourage US policies that actively promote a comprehensive resolution to conflicts in the Middle East with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. CMEP published the following statement on Thursday, October 9.
paxchristiusa.org
October 10, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Pax Christi USA is heartbroken at the Oct. 7 death of longtime Pax Christi SoCal leader and Ambassador of Peace Fr. Chris Ponnet. A dedicated chaplain and peace activist, Fr. Chris was beloved for his passionate commitment to justice, mercy and the Gospel of nonviolence. Fr. Chris, presente!
Fr. Chris Ponnet, Presente!
Pax Christi USA is heartbroken to share the news of the death of Ambassador of Peace and former national council member Fr. Chris Ponnet, leader of Pax Christi Southern California. Fr. Chris died during surgery on Tuesday, October 7; he was 68 years old. Fr. Chris during Pax Christi SoCal's September 21 International Day of Peace commemoration “Fr. Chris was the heart and soul of the St.
paxchristiusa.org
October 9, 2025 at 6:44 PM