Fifty years since the Catonsville Nine

“Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.” -- Rev. Daniel Berrigan

May 17, 2018 is the 50th anniversary of the Catonsville 9, a nonviolent protest of the Vietnam War by Catholic priests and lay people.

(I have spent almost two hours figuring out how to post a photo while using an iPad. Sigh.)

[and now I have an external keyboard ... Praise God, it seems to work.]

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Pax Christi USA, 1972–2022: The evolving Catholic peace movement in the United States

Written for the American Catholic Studies Journal, vol. 133, no. 4 (Winter 2022). Pax Christi USA, 1972–2022: The evolving Catholic peace movement in the United States Judy Coode Judy Coode is the incoming communications director for Pax Christi USA. Since 2016, she served as the project coordinator of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International; she previously worked 20 years with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. For further comment please contact the author: jlcoode@gmail.com. In early August 2022, more than 300 people gathered at a hotel in Northern Virginia to celebrate 50 years of Pax Christi USA and Catholic peacemaking in the United States. The weekend included workshops on the Doctrine of Discovery, the U.S. military budget, justice for Palestinians, the nuclear weapons treaty, and Thomas Merton, to name only a few. The conference space was decorated with peace cranes, doz...

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The gentle strength of nonviolent witness

Originally published on the Pax Christi International Peace Stories blog, May 8, 2021 On January 6, [2021] many watched in horror as thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in a furious, chaotic, and deeply misguided attempt to nullify the November 2020 election of Joe Biden as president of the United States. The insurrectionists broke windows and furniture, swarmed offices, menaced members of Congress and their staff, stole property and inflicted a sense of terror on those who work in and near the U.S. Capitol. In the aftermath, five people were dead, at least 140 injured, and unknown more were traumatized. The January 6 attack was violent: in attitude, language, action, and result. Rather than stabilizing our democracy it has painfully accelerated social divisions. The United States has a history and culture of nonviolent demonstrations, most of which are peaceful. As the nation’s seat of power, Washington, D.C. is accustomed to protestors, both ...

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