Our First Year to Date- News from Pax Christi Summit…

I was recently asked to right a few lines for the Community Peace Voice which is the quarterly publication for the New Jersey State Pax Christi. As I sat down to write what I thought would be a few sentence turned into paragraphs and I began to recall all of our activities. I thought I would share.

We have had a rather busy 1st year at Pax Christi Summit. In April we held our first peace vigil which was well attended. We also got the attention of the Star Ledger which published photos and an article about the vigil on the front page of the Union County section of the paper.

In May we held a Death Penalty/Consistent Ethic of Life discussion panel which was co-sponsored by New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. We heard from four speakers, Lorry Post the father of a murder victim, Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person exonerated of a capital crime using DNA evidence, Art C. Cody a Catholic lawyer who has defended death row inmates and Celeste Fitzgerald the executive director of NJADP. We had a diverse group of attendees from different towns including Stockholm, Scotch Plains and Morristown. Thanks to Art and Celeste and their artful use of the language of Cardinal Bernadin’s “Seamless Garment” we were able to successfully make an argument to pro-life Catholics that it is in their interest to support all life issues and speak in terms of a consistent ethic of life.

June was supposed to be a slow month as we had not events scheduled but it did not turn out that way. Several of us went to hear Jack Jezereel, the founder of the Just Faith Program speak about putting faith into action. Cathy Ballard is now recruiting for the next class of Just Faith at St. Teresa that is scheduled to start in the fall.

Pat Franks began working with Beyond Just Faith at St. Teresa on lobbying for affordable housing and for a state budget that does not cut out millions of dollars in rental assistance. She participated in a meeting at Senator Keane’s office to discuss these issues.

Several of us called our Congressman, Mike Ferguson, and encouraged him to vote in favor of the McGovern-Lewis amendment to the Foreign Appropriations bill which would cut off funding for the School of the Americas. Despite our efforts he voted against the amendment. Some of us have called his office to ask for an explanation.

On June 13th the National Religious Campaign Against Torture published an ad in the New York Times against the use of torture. Several of us have signed the statement and allowed our names to be published on the website. I also submitted a letter to the editor of the Independent Press which will be published in the next few weeks about the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

This summer Theology on Tap, which is an outreach program for Catholics in their 20’s and 30’s has asked for our help. They would like us to help them find social justice speakers for their upcoming programs in the Paterson and Metuchen Diocese and in the Newark Archdiocese. They will also give us an opportunity to distribute literature and make a plea for Pax Christi members at their upcoming events.

In the fall we will be planning another peace vigil. I have discussed co-sponsoring an all day workshop with the Beyond Just Faith group at St. Teresa’s in Summit on Just War, pacifism and non-violence which would precede the peace vigil. I have contacted the Catholic Peace Fellowship which has experience in running these kinds of workshops. I will be reaching out to other Pax Christi Chapters and Catholic peace and social justice groups as well.

That is quite a bit to talk about. We should all be very proud of what we were able to accomplish. I hope you are looking forward to the future of our group and our work with as much anticipation as I am. Thank you everyone for working so hard.