PAX CHRISTI: THE PEACE OF CHRIST

PAX CHRISTI: THE PEACE OF CHRIST

JESUS: THE PAX CHRISTI

• Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins [c]have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

• JN 21: 20-23

JESUS: THE VISION

• 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

JESUS: THE COMMAND

• When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ MATT 25: 39-40

HISTORY: WAR AND CHURCH

• PACIFIST JESUS AND FOLLOWERS• PERSECUTION• 300+ CONSTANTINE• JUST WAR St. Augustine• CRUSADES• DEVELOPMENT OF WEAPONS• TRANSPORTATION and WORLD AWARENESS

PAX CHRISTI IN EUROPE

• In 1945, a small group of people in France met regularly to pray for peace. Their concern was not a vague one. What bothered them, what kept them coming together was their experience of an agonizing and dreadful fact: French Catholics and German Catholics, who professed the same faith and celebrated the same Eucharist, had killed one another by the millions in the 20th century. That situation could hardly be the will of God, as they understood it. So they prayed for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for the peace of Christ.

• A French woman, Marie-Marthe Dortel Claudot, is known as the leader and founder of the movement. She invited a French bishop, Pierre Marie Theas, to be the first Bishop President. While in a German war prison camp in Compiegne, Bishop Theas had already begun to pray and work for reconciliation.

NEW REALITY OF WAR

• Pearl Harbor Dec 7th• Nuclear Bombs of Hiroshima (August 6)and

Nagasaki (August 9)

PAX CHRISTI INTERNATIONAL 70th Anniversary

• ……is a global Catholic peace movement and network that works to help establish Peace, Respect for Human Rights, Justice and Reconciliation in areas of the world that are torn by conflict. It is grounded in the belief that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.

PAX CHRISTI USA 40th Anniversary

• Pax Christi USA is a national Catholic organization, reaching over a half-million Catholics directly every year. We have over 400 local groups throughout the United States, over 100 bishop members, 700 parish sponsors, 600 religious communities, and 50 college and high school chapters.

PAX CHRISTI CORE PRACTISE

• VOW OF NON VIOLENCE– Personal and annual– Communal and Universal• Connecting the dots between my working at

peacemaking and relationships that can be a challenge and the social justice dots of the consistent life ethics from womb to tomb.

NON VIOLENT RESISTANCE• Anti-Racism• Education• Prayer• Vigils• Fasting• Organizing• Church/Religious/ Civic/Political engagement• Civil Disobedience: Public Witness for Life

PARTNERSHIPS

• Pax Christi other groups• Catholic Worker communities• Just Faith• Local peace and justice groups: 3rd Sunday 4pm • ICUJP and other interfaith peace groups: 7am Fri• Death Penalty Focus and Local Catholic Against

the Death Penalty LA– Model parish educational effort and sign up

PROPHETIC LIVING• We gather as community• We take serious the Gospels and

traditions• We discern together signs of the times • We are called to Solidarity• We are called beyond charity to Justice. • We frame everything as Consistent

Life and that violence is never a solution only peacemaking. “Peace I leave with you……”