Successful mediation between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the government of Uganda to initiate peace talks in 2006 • a multi-year strategy to address deep-seated racism in U.S. communities • a closed door dialogue between civil society actors from the greater Middle East, including Israel and Palestine • “sports for peace” programs in South Sudan and Haiti • community-based reintegration of former combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo • dialogue between youth from Kosovo and youth from Northern Ireland • courses in preventive reconciliation using the principles of Aikido in the Philippines • work at a national and international level for the abolition of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons • high level solidarity delegation to post-coup Honduras • “peace week” initiatives, many of them annual, in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, UK, the African Great Lakes region, Kosovo, Russia, Croatia, the Philippines and Colombia • work to control small arms proliferation • excellent peace education programs in England and the Philippines • exchanges of experience between civil society from the Middle East and from Central Europe on their role in bringing about non-violent social change • more than 30 years of dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church • ongoing work with civil society groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine …
Pax Christi International incorporates a wide range of peacebuilding practices into its collective program, including all of the above and many more. Out of this deep and wide experience, we try to understand – and work for – the global common good, with a particular focus on building sustainable peace and inclusive human security. Like Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the work of Pax Christi is “inspired by Gospel values and the rich history of Catholic social teaching as they inform pressing moral issues of our time.”
Founded in France in 1945 to promote reconciliation between the French and the Germans following World War II, Pax Christi was recognized by Pope Pius XII a few years later as the official Catholic peace movement. At the same time, it has always been autonomous, with members of the hierarchy, clergy and laypeople working together on an equal and democratic basis. Our presidency, for example, is now shared by a bishop and a lay woman, both of whom were elected.
Pax Christi International has had consultative status at the United Nations since 1979 and is working at the UN in Geneva, New York, Vienna and Paris. It is also officially represented at the Africa Union and the Council of Europe and has regular access to the European Parliament, the European Commission and NATO.
Pax Christi member organizations and partners, representing well over 100,000 members, are now present and active on six continents. Everywhere, efforts to foster a culture of active non-violence, to insert moral and ethical principles on issues of war and peace into the public and political arenas, and to promote action for peace and social justice remain central to their mission. As a faith-based Catholic movement, Pax Christi pays special attention to both the positive and negative impact of religion in relation to violent conflict.
Given the role of the United States in the tragic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the global war on terror, in the development and marketing of deadly weapons, and in the consumption-driven pursuit of oil and other natural resources, the challenge to Pax Christi USA is unique in the global movement. In addition to addressing the violences of our own society, including the violence of racism, Pax Christi USA has an enormous foreign policy platform to track and helps to facilitate the interaction of the global Pax Christi movement with critical U.S. policy decisions.
Recently, a few of us from the U.S. participated in a Pax Christi International consultation on disarmament and demilitarization. It was not intended for this meeting to focus on U.S. militarism, but to give member organizations from around the world an opportunity to share their concerns about weapons proliferation and to develop some common strategies in support of global disarmament. Sitting around the table were representatives of Pax Christi member organizations in Thailand, Pakistan, Peru, Belgium, Canada, the US, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Russia and Poland. The concerns they brought to the table were many, including missile defense, nuclear disarmament, landmines and cluster munitions, trafficking in small arms and light weapons, U.S. military policy in the Pacific, depleted uranium weapons and on and on. No matter what the topic, all eyes turned toward those of us from the U.S. sitting at the table.
Pax Christi agrees wholeheartedly with CACG that “our Catholic tradition calls us to participate actively in public life in the service of human dignity, social justice and the common good.” To do so in relation to U.S. foreign policy is a daunting task, but Pax Christi also claims the hope that is characteristic of our Christian tradition.
At our 2004 Global Assembly, Pax Christi declared:
We are people of faith; we believe that another world is possible, and we commit ourselves to helping birth it… We see signs of hope on the horizon – right relationships being built and rebuilt, the gradual globalization of solidarity…. We commit our movement to articulate and promote a vision for peace and security grounded in the Gospel.
That is the ongoing task.
