Pax Christi NJ Spring Assembly 2009

"Your light from within can banish the darkness, and when we stand together, in a great glow of illumination, may it be the power of good over evil.” Martin Luther King, Jr.



Pax Christi NJ Spring Assembly 2009

Banishing the Darkness: Our Christian Witness for Disarmament and Demilitarization

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Felician College, Lodi, NJ

The day begins with Registration and exhibits at 9:00 a.m.

Program (which will include Liturgy and Box Lunch) 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Joshua Casteel

Joshua is a former interrogator at Abu Ghraib, turned conscientious objector and a recent convert to Catholicism. and a new book called “Letters from Abu Ghraib”. Joshua gave witness at Winter Soldier and traveled to Rome in March of 2007 with the Catholic Peace Fellowship to meet Pope Benedict XVI and to advance the issue of conscientious objection. He is featured along with Camilo Mejia and other CO’s in the documentary Soldiers of Conscience which aired this past fall on PBS’s P.O.V.

Joshua studied philosophy and literature at the University of Iowa and Oxford. He is currently a dual MFA candidate at the University of Iowa where he teaches rhetoric and theater history. He is the author of two plays about his experiences in Iraq and his new book "Letters from Abu Ghraib" is available on Amazon.com and Small Press Distribution.

Featured Speakers:

Joseph Fahey

Dr. Joseph Fahey is a co-founder and former General Secretary and Chairperson of Pax Christi, USA and was named a Pax Christi Ambassador of Peace. He also served on the international Council of Pax Christi International. He is the author of "War and the Christian Conscience: Where Do You Stand?," "Reinhold Niebuhr on Human Nature and World Peace," and the editor of "A Peace Reader: Essential Readings on War, Justice, Nonviolence and World Order." He has also written "Irenology: The Study of Peace," and "Peace, War and the Christian Conscience." He has written many articles, essays, and reviews on war and peace issues and Catholic Social Teaching.

Frida Berrigan

Frida Berrigan is Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. She served for eight years as Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City. And has worked as a researcher at The Nation. Ms. Berrigan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus and a contributing editor of In These Times magazine. She is the author of reports on arms trade and human rights, U.S. nuclear weapons policy, and the domestic politics of U.S. missile defense and space weapons policies. She has been a featured expert on national and regional radio outlets, and regularly speaks on national security issues to citizen’s organizations and at major conferences

Anna Brown

Anna J. Brown is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Saint Peter's
College in Jersey City, New Jersey. She has served with the Christian Peacemaker Team in Palestine and is the College delegate to a Sister City program in Los Amates, El Salvador.

She is a long time member, along with Daniel Berrigan, S.J. of the Kairos Community, a New York City based community devoted to prayer, reflection and nonviolent civil disobedience. Along with other Kairos members, she has enaged in over 60 acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.


Registration Fee: $35.00

Seniors and Students with ID: $20:00

Please bring your own mug.

TO REGISTER: (Please include the following information)


Name:
Address:
Phone:

Box Lunch (please note): Meat or Vegetarian

Send this information and your registration fee to:

Irene Donohue
673 Thoreau Terrace
Union, NJ 07083

Please make checks payable to Pax Christi NJ.

ADVANCE REGISTRATION RECOMMENDED

For further information about this program, please contact Kathy O’Leary 908-273-0751.