by Johnny Zokovitch In the missal earlier this week, we read from Paul’s letter to the Galatians (5:18-25). There are some nearly laugh-out-loud moments in Paul’s instruction to the – let’s just say “boisterous” – Galatians. He warns them, apparently for the second time (“I warn you, as I warned you before”), about all sorts of nonsense many of them seem to be wrapped up in: sorcery, rivalries, outbursts of fury, drinking bouts, orgies and “the like.” (When “and the like” follows “orgies,” you’ve got to wonder just what this early Christian community was up to.)

by Johnny Zokovitch I remember sitting in the living room of the Assisi Community in Washington, DC one night and listening in on a conversation about nonviolence. Conversations around nonviolence weren't unfamiliar to me. I had been working for years within a context in which nonviolence was central. But this conversation landed differently. Most often when I had heard the value of nonviolence addressed within Catholic peace and justice circles, it was treated as an obvious, even unassailable truth.

From Nov. 27-Dec. 3, Pax Christi USA Ambassadors of Peace Scott Wright (with the Pax Christi USA immigration working group) and Jean Stokan (with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team) will lead an immersion experience to El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The proposed program includes: joining clergy and lay workers on Saturday, November 28, for their monthly trip to the desert to commemorate migrants who have died during their journey.

This year, Pax Christi USA launched our first-ever essay invitational for young peacemakers, “Blessed are the Peacemakers"; the contest generated almost 50 powerful submissions from high school and college students across the United States, including Puerto Rico. Thanks to a generous lead gift from Pax Christi Michigan's Fr. Fred Thelen, six students -- three from high school and three from college -- were selected to receive awards ranging from $200 to $1,000.

Pax Christi USA is excited to announce that we will celebrate Santa Fe's Archbishop John C. Wester as our 2026 Teacher of Peace and Lauren Agresti as our 2026 Sr. Dianna Ortiz OSU Peacemaker award recipient at a special event in Washington, DC on Saturday, November 21. All are welcome to join us for a light reception and the award program.

September 27 is designated as the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. In anticipation of this year's commemoration, Pope Leo released the following statement on August 11, the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, noting that this year, the theme is "Even just one of these children," referring to a passage from the Gospel of Matthew. The statement can also be found…

Pax Christi USA has joined with Churches for Middle East Peace, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Mennonite Central Committee, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and more than two dozen other faith and advocacy organizations in signing a strong message in support of Maryland's Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s West Bank 502B resolution. Since 2022, nine US Americans have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers or security forces, including journalist…

The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, a project of Pax Christi International, hosted a two-day conference in Rome earlier this month on the theme of Pope Leo’s call for “unarmed and disarming peace.” Dozens of peace practitioners and theologians from around the world attended, including several members of Pax Christi USA. On Tuesday, September 29, 7 PM Eastern/4 PM Pacific…

On September 16, Pax Christi USA 2016 Teacher of Peace Art Laffin, Ambassadors of Peace Bob Cooke and Scott Wright, National Council member Frank Panapoulos, and several others held a nonviolent witness outside the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD during the annual Air Force Association (AFA) "Air-Space-Cyber Conference and Technology Exposition," also known as the "Arms Bazaar." (One significant piece of news from this year's gathering is that Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed for the first time that the US has deployed weapons in space.)

by Johnny Zokovitch On September 9-10, more than 100 peace practitioners, pastoral leaders, bishops and priests, women religious, social scientists and theologians gathered in Rome for a two-day conference entitled “Unarmed and Disarming Peace: The Church's Emerging Paradigm Shift to Gospel Nonviolence.” The conference was sponsored by the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, a project of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative…

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.

From September 2-8, Pax Christi International’s Catholic Institute for Nonviolence held a nonviolence training attended by 40+ people followed by a two-day conference, "Unarmed and Disarming Peace: The Church’s Emerging Paradigm Shift to Gospel Nonviolence," with 75+ participants, including National Council, staff and other members of Pax Christi USA. On September 11, participants spent the day in Assisi, walking a pilgrimage led by…

Join the Pax Christi USA community on Zoom on Thursday, September 17, 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific for the third of four online PAX Masses for 2026. We started celebrating PAX Mass in 2020 as the pandemic began, as a way to stay connected. They have become an important part of our community -- thank you for being part of these quarterly gatherings to pray together.

On Wednesday, September 9, the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign, a national faith coalition committed to ending anti-Muslim hatred, discrimination, and violence in the US, publicly released a new open letter from faith leaders which addresses the dangerous escalation in anti-Muslim rhetoric especially from political leaders. Multiple Pax Christi groups in the US, Pax Christi Teachers of Peace, Ambassadors of Peace, and Executive Director Charlene Howard are among the endorsers.

We invited Pax Christi leaders, including Ambassadors of Peace, Teachers of Peace, national council members, and local-state-regional leaders, among others, to share their brief reflections on Catholic peacemaking 25 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US; responses are listed below in no particular order. Please share your own thoughts in the comment section, if you wish. Our bishop president, Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., and Executive Director Charlene Howard offered their reflections on this solemn anniversary in…

Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Fr. John Dear is offering two special episodes of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast” to commemorate 9/11. On Monday, September 7, he posted his conversation with Pax Christi USA 2011 Teacher of Peace Colleen Kelly, who co-founded September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. (Her brother died in the Twin Towers; she and other family members of victims spoke out against the US's military action against Afghanistan and Iraq.) On Tuesday, September 8, Fr. John shared his memories of his own experience as the Red Cross coordinator of chaplains after 9/11. Find both links at the Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.

Pax Christi USA is once again partnering with Casa Esther Catholic Worker House (Omro WI) and the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International, to provide a four-week series on nonviolence, starting September 21, for university students, staff, faculty, and the general public. Additional partners include Franciscan Action Network, Maryknoll Monarch Initiative, Dorothy Day Guild, Holy Cross College, Manhattan University, and the Catholic Mobilizing Network.

All are welcome to join the four-part Literary Circle for Liberation study circle hosted by the Pax Christi USA Indigenous Solidarity working group and Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team (PCART), to be held on September 15, September 30, October 13, and October 27. Use this link to register to receive the Zoom link and any updates. The group will hold a vital, transformative community book discussion on “

By Jessica SunPax Christi Young Adult Caucus “Artificial intelligence” is poorly defined. It does not refer to a coherent set of technologies. Discussions about “AI” generally become more lucid when narrowed to the automation of specific tasks by performing statistical analyses of large datasets. “AI” is essentially a marketing term buoyed by Silicon Valley-funded “AI hype.”  AGI, a subfield of AI known as “artificial general intelligence” or “AI singularity,” is another term that famously lacks a precise meaning.

by Johnny Zokovitch This past weekend, I facilitated my first all-church assembly with the small Catholic community for which I serve in pastoral leadership. The focus of the assembly was to revisit the question, “What does it mean to be church?” It really was a “revisiting” of that question because this is a community that has, over the course of many decades, periodically discussed and then defined for itself what it means to be church.

"After 25 years, our grief has not been eased or vindicated by years of war, or the unbounded, blasphemous increase in military spending," Bishop John Stowe and Charlene Howard write.

The Pax Christi USA Indigenous Solidarity Working Group has compiled the following Prayer-Study-Action resource in anticipation of the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation on September 1 and Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action (September 21-October 2). This year's theme for the World Day of Prayer for Creation is, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4).

Pax Christi USA is happy and grateful to announce the results of our 2026 national council elections: Sr. Susan Nchubiri has been re-elected, and Fr. Greg Walgenbach and Andrew Lyke (via appointment) will join for the first time. Thanks to everyone who participated in the nomination process and election! Returning council members include Josephine Garnem, Sr. Annie Killian OP, Jeff Sved, Rozella Apel-Hernández, Lauren Bailey, James Watts, Arthur Dawes, Lasya Priya, Vic Doucette, Frank Panopoulos, and Bishop President John Stowe, OFM Conv.

By Tom CordaroPax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace The mid-term election season starts to heat up after Labor Day, and the stakes could not be higher. The progressive media have been forecasting a “blue wave” that will flip the House and possibly the Senate. The reasons for this optimism are many, but the most talked-about are affordability and the overall economy.

As part of their year-long process with the Pax Christi USA Peace Pairs program, Pax Christi New York State leader Rosemarie Pace and Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus member Kirin Taylor offer a podcast that shares an intergenerational conversation on the concept of "home." Listen to the audio recording here: Together, Rosemarie and Kirin explore what home means, and how holding a justice-seeking identity amid the current political climate shapes their sense of belonging in the world.

Soon after the announcement of Santa Fe's Archbishop John Wester as our 2026 Teacher of Peace, Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus member Ryan Di Corpo interviewed the archbishop. This video is a part of a series of video interviews with recipients of the annual award, a series which was created for the 50th anniversary of Pax Christi USA…

by Johnny Zokovitch It has been more than 10 years since a ground-breaking conference brought participants from around the world – including cardinals and bishops, leaders of religious orders, theologians and peace practitioners – to Rome to explore the call of nonviolence and just peace in the framework of Catholic thought and practice. Co-sponsored by what was then the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (now the Dicastery for Integral Human Development) and Pax Christi International, participants in the conference ended their time together by issuing a statement, …

On Friday, August 28, during the regularly scheduled monthly call for Pax Christi local, regional, and state leaders, we will offer a special program of election protection scenarios. Friday, August 284-5:30 PM Eastern3-4:30 PM Central2-3:30 PM Mountain1-2:30 PM Pacific Led by organizer Drew Astolfi, participants will be provided structured simulations that allow them to rehearse how they will…

Thursday, September 37-8:15pm ETUse this link to register September is national Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Not sufficiently talked about in the debate on issues plaguing our society is the outsized role that firearm suicide plays in both our epidemic of gun deaths and suicides. Join Pax Christi USA and Kathleen Anderson, a social worker on staff at Protect Minnesota, to learn more about the unique and highly lethal role firearms play in suicide and how we can prevent access when someone is in crisis.

by Johnny Zokovitch Life is hard. These times are hard. For people committed to the reign of God–to that reign of mercy, forgiveness, justice, compassion, peace and love–every day seems to deliver another gut punch. The blows come from all sides. The detention and deportation of our immigrant friends and neighbors. A genocide in Gaza. Protesters being killed in the streets.

To commemorate the 1945 atomic bombing of the US of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many Pax Christi groups participated in this year's Lanterns of Peace project, a collaboration between Pax Christi International and the Hiroshima Coventry Club and the students of Hiroshima. On August 6, Pax Christi USA co-sponsored a prayer service at the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill in Washington DC (across from the US Capitol and the Supreme Court) to remember and repent for the bombings.

Tomorrow's American Catholic (TAP) has posted an audio interview with Pax Christi USA National Council Vice Chair Sr. Annie Killian, OP. Below is TAP's introduction to the interview. Use this link to find the original post. Sr. Annie Killian is a vowed member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, a congregation of Catholic women religious, as well as an assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses in medieval poetry and drama.

by Johnny Zokovitch I’ve been attending a lot of funerals lately. Some, in my pastoral minister role at a small church, have been for people I didn’t know at all. For others, my main connection has been to the spouse, mourning a loved one who I never met because they were struggling with dementia of various types; or to the adult child saying good-bye to a parent I only knew through their stories.

As global nuclear tensions mount, the firsthand testimonies of atomic bombing and testing survivors—from Japanese hibakusha to Marshallese communities—offer a crucial, still overlooked warning about t...

By Art LaffinPax Christi USA 2016 Teacher of Peace "The development of nuclear weapons signifies not a country’s elevation to greatness, but its descent to the darkest depths of depravity. These weapons are not a necessary evil; they are the ultimate evil." -- A-bomb survivor Setsuko Thurlow, Nobel peace prize ceremony for ICAN, December 2017 This August 6-9 marks the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

by Johnny Zokovitch Lost perhaps in the torrent of news that rushes past us each day is an interesting encounter that Pope Leo had on his apostolic visit through Spain in June. In his stop in Barcelona, the Holy Father had a dialogue with three young people, each of whom drew on their own very personal experiences to raise questions for him to consider and respond to.

by Johnny Zokovitch For most of my adult life, the idea that one might critique capitalism as unsustainable or even morally wrong invited eye rolls and one’s immediate dismissal as being an “unserious” person. To be labeled as a socialist or a communist meant being shunted to the extreme margins of our national conversation, or worse, considered treasonous and unpatriotic. …

The following alert was prepared by our colleagues at the Quixote Center. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is proposing 34 rule changes that will make the selling and trafficking of weapons much easier and the gun industry far more deregulated. The Quixote Center has prepared a helpful comment guide regarding what they consider the four most egregious rule changes.

How Silicon Valley tech firms remade US defense contracting. And then opened the Pentagon’s checkbook—wide.

Bishops Boxie and Studniewski Excitement filled the air as my husband and I joined more than 2,500 people in the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on July 7. For the first time in a long time, two local men – Robert Boxie, III and Gary Studniewski – were elevated to the order of bishop. At age 45, Bishop Boxie is now the youngest bishop currently serving in the United States.

by Johnny Zokovitch This past weekend, a visiting priest at my church offered a poignant story. He shared that as he was traveling to St. Louis (wearing his collar so visibly a priest), a man came up to him in the airport and wanted to tell him the story of why he no longer goes to church. The man started by explaining that he was in church one Sunday, worshiping with his wife.

From our colleagues at Pax Christi International: The expansion of the death penalty under recently approved Israeli legislation has raised serious legal, human rights, and moral concerns. In response, this Friday, July 17 at 8 AM Eastern/5 AM Pacific (2 PM Brussels), Pax Christi International and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel are offering this webinar to examine the law from both legal and ethical perspectives. 

Last month, Marie Dennis (Pax Christi USA's 2022 Teacher of Peace) and Pace e Bene's Ken Butigan, the co-directors of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence (a project of Pax Christi International), joined Catholic Nonviolence Initiative director Nicolás Paz in Rome facilitating the institute’s seminar “Answering Pope Leo's nonviolent appeal,” featuring scholars of strategic nonviolence Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham (University of Maryland), …

Over the past year, the increase in military spending worldwide …  has been enormous: let us not call “defense” a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, depletes investment in education and health, undermines trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good. —Pope Leo XIV, address to Sapienza University, May 2026 The following alert is shared from our colleagues with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas…

Written by Leslye ColvinAuthor of Pax Christi USA's "Seeking Wisdom's light: Reflections for Advent 2024" Use this link to find additional resources related to the 250th anniversary of the US. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

by Johnny Zokovitch I’ve been contemplating this column, falling as it does on the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, for some time. I’m old enough to remember the bicentennial year, 1976; although I was only eight, I recall a different mood, a different sense of celebration, than what I am seeing now. But I’m neither romantic nor nostalgic about the past.

In May, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. Pax Christi USA invites all to join us for a special webinar about Magnifica Humanitas, its messages and lessons. Panelists will discuss Catholic Social Teaching, just peace, war, labor and economic justice, education, and more.