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Pax Christi Massachusetts Newsletter

Violence Ends Where Love Begins Volume 21, Number 2, Winter-Spring 2015

Coordinator’s Corner: Reflections on the Journey By Pat Ferrone Again we embrace the time and spirit of Lent, donning our metaphorical “sack-cloth and ashes,” and mindfully walking the path of repentance. With wounded but hopeful hearts, we welcome the mercy of God as we assume responsibility for our failings and the choices we sometimes make to abandon the Way of Christ. We let our hearts be cracked open, and make amends, for the prophet Joel tells us, “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord our God. “ In a more contemporary way, the singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen suggests in his song, “Anthem,” that we: “Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.” Perhaps both “prophets” give us counsel necessary for our journey, reminding us that somehow hope can be wedded to our broken selves, if we allow the light in, “ring the bells,” and “return to the Lord.” Cohen elaborates further: “that’s where the resurrection is… and that’s where the repentance is. It is with the confrontation, with

the brokenness of things.” So, broken selves in hand, and handed over, let’s reclaim the path that leads to Easter. For me the past few months have included experiences of pilgrimage to two sites of degradation, both of which, inexplicably, also revealed glimpses of courage and hope in what seemed the most hellish of human constructs. I often find that “still-silence” in the face of deep evil seems most appropriate. How, I ask, can I use words to witness to

Auschwitz Gate (en.wikipedia.org) what I’ve seen and learned when falling to my knees seems the most appropriate thing to do? But the need to translate my encounter with the “unspeakable” into words, even tentatively, seems important. On February 6 – a frigid day of sleet-gray skies and wind-driven pelting snow – I passed through the iron gates of Auschwitz, the welded steel motto of “Arbeit Macht Frei,” cynically proclaiming Continued on page 2

My Journey to the Mexican Border By Jeanelle Wheeler When I went to the Southwest this January, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never seen a cactus before, nor had I realized that the border was more than an invisible boundary. And yet, when I flew into Tucson to join the Brown-RISD Catholic Community on an educational journey sponsored by the organization Borderlinks, not only did I see lots of cacti, but the border became visible and all too real. Borderlinks “raises awareness about border and immigration policies and inspires action for social transformation.” In its Tucson headquarters, Oscar Romero’s portrait hangs on a wall along with signs that read, “Revitalize, not militarize the border!;” “Peace!;” and “If you want peace, work for justice!” There is a palpable sense of energy at Borderlinks, as delegations from Continued on page 5 NOTE: To promote a greener future with a leaner budget, print copies of future issues of this newsletter will be mailed only to our readers who have no access to email.

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Coordinator’sCorner… Continued from page 1 “Work brings freedom,” prominent over the arch-way. On January 27, the 70th anniversary remembrance of the “liberation” of this concentration/extermination camp by Soviet forces had taken place. Among those in attendance were 300 survivors of Auschwitz/ Birkenau and representatives of nearly 50 countries. Christian prayers and the Jewish Kaddish were intoned, echoing Abraham Joshua Heschel’s belief that, “The words of our prayers are different, but our tears are the same.” Here at Auschwitz/Birkenau, the lives of precious human beings were swallowed over the course of only five years: Jews from all over Europe; 100,000 (mostly Catholic) Poles; political prisoners, the intelligentsia, and the resisters; the clergy and Gypsies; the disabled and gay; the young and the old – but mainly the Jews – targeted especially by Hitler and Company as part of his “Final Solution” for the “Jewish Question.” Of the estimated 1.3 million who died at Auschwitz, 90% were Jews. In 1933, a national census was undertaken by the Nazi regime, utilizing “punch cards” manufactured by the company Dehong. This technology served to identify, locate, and isolate the Jews, and others, and efficiently mechanize roundups. According to Edwin Black, an investigative journalist, in his book IBM and the Holocaust, the U.S. IBM company generously, and enthusiastically, augmented the financial resources of its German subsidiary Dehomag , whose

ingenuity helped make it possible for the Nazis to ultimately destroy the country’s Jews and Gypsies, both considered “racially inferior.” Before arriving at the death camp, all manner of desperate human beings were herded like animals onto transport trains for trips lasting up to 18 days, deprived of food or water.( Imagine the children, first bewildered, then terrorized. Imagine the mothers whose assurances failed to comfort.) Thousands died en route. On carefully maintained train schedules, they finally passed through the town of Oswiecim (the Polish name for Auschwitz), the crossroads for rail transport, and the site chosen for Auschwitz/ Birkenau for its accessibility. St. Maximilian Kolbe (www.olgcblog.com)

Delivered into the grip of malevolence writ large (the imagination incapable of perceiving depravity of this magnitude), most of those who survived the trip were immediately exterminated. The elderly, and children held in the arms of their terrified mothers, were forced to march and sing their way to the gas chamber – as even music was used as a “weapon of misery.” I.G. Farben, the fifth largest conglomerate in the world at the time, made available (and made a fortune providing) the pesticide Zyklon B to gas the

“chosen.” September 3, 1941 marked its first use, when 600 sick Soviet POWs and 250 others were gassed in the cellar of the infamous Block #11. This is the same block in which the Polish Franciscan, Maximilian Kolbe (#16670) was placed in a cell with five others to endure starvation, thirst, and neglect unto death. He survived for two weeks before he was finally murdered by an injection of carbolic acid on August 14, 1941. His gruesome martyrdom on behalf of another was the culmination of a life of faithful witness to Christ. Sergius Lorit, in The Last Days of Maximilian Kolbe, wrote: “In that dismal kingdom of hatred, the dazzling brilliance of this act of love had overcome the darkness.” Kolbe was canonized in 1982. Torture was ubiquitous at Auschwitz, and diabolically inventive. It could be initiated by one of the more than 6,000 German SS for a minor offense, or for no reason at all, or as part of deliberate stone-hearted and sadistic Nazi policy. Medical experiments under the direction of Dr. Josef Mengele were carried out in defiance of the Hippocratic Oath. Gypsies were made to drink only sea water to observe its effects. The backs of prisoners were broken on specially designed torture chairs built by the company Krupp Dresden. Others were ‘cudgeled’ by instruments also designed by Krupp. Prisoners were forced to stand outside for hours in fragile clothing, or naked, during winter months, then sprayed with water which iced over, encasing them in a frozen sarcophagus. Others were summarily executed at the wall

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outside Block 11. Desperation drove prisoners to insanity, or to the electrified fence surrounding the camp. But, you know all this, don’t you – the indescribable infamy of those who defied all God’s laws and rendered Christ’s message of love dead. A Jewish Holocaust survivor once wrote, “God has hidden his face from the world and delivered mankind over to his own savage urges and instincts.” It would seem so, given the evidence, but the indictment is perhaps misdirected. Really, are not we, collectively - whenever we permit such atrocities to occur as a result of our silence, or participate as direct agents of such heinous crimes - the ones who have abandoned God and savaged ourselves? Where, for instance, were (are) the voices of the institutional churches during this time (during our time)? Where/ are the witnesses of yesterday and today: those who say a simultaneous, “No to death/Yes to life?” Piotr Cywinski is the current director of the Auschwitz Museum. His office looks out on a gas chamber, exposing him to the reminders of unconscionable suffering. Each day he is challenged to answer the question of how it was possible for the perpetrators to participate in genocide on an industrial scale. He says, “We throw accusations against people who were bystanders, who did nothing at the time, and then how do we look in the light of that period? When we look at genocide or tragedy or famine or totalitarian regimes, our silence today is indefensible. And we know how it ends, what is the outcome for the victims…” It is true that we can hold up to the light examples of individual witness that occurred during the

Holocaust years: Maximillian Kolbe; Franz Jagerstatter, the Austrian peasant who said, “If the Church stays silent in the face of what’s happening, what difference would it make if no church were ever opened again?,” and was executed for refusing to serve in Hitler’s military; The Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who, though part of a plot to assassinate Hitler, wrestled with the question of who Christ was in the religionless world of the Nazi era. He, too, was imprisoned and executed. Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg (1875-1943), is another witness who, beginning in 1931, waged an ongoing public condemnation of Nazi persecution and policies. When the anti-Semitic boycott of Jewish businesses was to take place, he appealed to Cardinal Bertram, Archbishop of Breslau and President of the German Episcopal Conference, to intervene

Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg (www.catholicherald.co.uk) and speak out, but in vain. As with other pleas directed to the Church hierarchy, this matter was considered outside its purview. Following Kristallnacht in November 1938, Fr. Lichtenberg said, “We know what happened yesterday, we do not know what lies in store for us tomorrow… Outside burns the temple. This also is a place of worship.” From this point until his arrest on October 23, 1941, Fr. Lichtenberg prayed

daily from his pulpit for Jews, Christians, and other victims of the Nazis. He died in transit to Dachau concentration camp on November 5, 1943, condemned as “incorrigible.” He was beatified by John Paul II in 1991. And there are many more - the known and the hidden: Etty Hillesum, and dear Anne Frank whose writings, against all odds, were preserved; Edith Stein – now St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross; and the mothers described by Primo Levi in “Survival in Auschwitz” as they received notice of pending transport from a detention camp in Italy to Auschwitz: “All took leave from life in the manner which most suited them. Some praying, some deliberately drunk, others lustfully intoxicated for the last time. But the mothers stayed up to prepare the food for the journey with tender care, and washed their children and packed the luggage; and at dawn the barbed wire was full of children’s washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?” At the January 27th ceremony of remembrance, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops conference, said Auschwitz ranked “among the fundamental experiences of mankind” as a place where “the Germans systematically and industrially organized the destruction of European Jews,” adding that the death camp remained “an open wound on the body of humanity” and that it was important to ask “why the crimes of Auschwitz happened on a continent marked for at least a

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millennium by Christianity.” Indeed for Auschwitz, and equally so today whenever the Church and her people acquiesce to the means of violence and death, putting aside Christ’s message and Way of unconditional love for all. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ In November, on another kind of pilgrimage, I traveled to Florida’s Union Correctional Institution to meet the death row inmate with whom I’d been corresponding for two years. Marc (#178387) was condemned to death for two egregious murders committed when he was 23, and has been incarcerated for 28 years. His appeals for a resentencing to life imprisonment are exhausted, though his life gives witness to the possibility of repentance. He is a mild-mannered, peaceful man now, who believes in the mercy of God, and offers it to others. But this counts for little, so he will die sometime after Governor Rick Scott scrawls his signature on a death warrant. Of course, as during the Holocaust, it will be necessary for the hands of many others besides the governor to cooperate in the “final solution” to the problem of this man’s continued existence. Unless protest and mercy miraculously wend their way through hearts and minds, and end institutional approval for murder, his name will be added to the millions of human beings through history who were thought of as disposable commodities. From a concoction of chemicals injected into a large vein, he, too, will suffer a fate not unlike that inflicted on prisoners in Auschwitz. With the assist of people like you and me, good and law-abiding, and “not responsible” – because someone else is - the

death machine will have its way again. I note here, in gratitude, the ongoing opposition to “business as usual” in terms of the death penalty by the Florida bishops and Pax Christi Florida. Currently 32 states maintain that the death penalty is appropriate punishment for those who murder. Over the course of time, the United States has hung, electrocuted, gassed (1924, AZ, for the first time), and used lethal injection (1982, Texas, for the first time) on the guilty – and the innocent (though Jesus makes no distinction, does he?). Since 1976, 1402 people have been executed in the U.S. Currently, 3000 prisoners remain under sentence of death.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (en.wikipedia.org) The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused Marathon bomber, is underway in Massachusetts, one of the states free of the death penalty (last used in 1947). However, the jury is comprised of only those are open to the possibility of voting in favor of the death sentence, legally applicable for 17 of the 30 federal crimes of which he is accused. As Catholic Christians, and as Pax Christi people, our simple “No” to collaboration with death-dealing in all things is one of the ways in which we affirm our commitment to the difficult, but life-giving witness required of us in the name of our God, who, in Jesus, is Love

incarnate. Our “Yes” to the affirmation of life in these most difficult of times, the days in which we live, when Technicolor images of diabolical madness are our daily fare, must be loud and unequivocal. And so we pray: for the millions who perished in the Holocaust; for the souls of the death merchants and their accomplices yesterday and today; for the dead and living martyrs whose fearless witness empowers us; for the guilty and the innocent; for time to fashion hope for a world whose bleak future confronts us with its pain. Pat Ferrone is Coordinator of Pax Christi Massachusetts. ************************* PCMA Letter, 2-19-15 Dear Cardinal O’Malley, As of this date, jury selection continues for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev begun on January 5. Ultimately, twelve sitting jurors and six alternates will be selected to hear the evidence and deliberate on the fate of young Dzhokhar. The death penalty as an option will be demanded by the prosecution as seventeen of the thirty charges against him carry this possibility. In fact, an online form showing the six screening questions for potential jurors indicates that in federal death penalty cases, individuals must be willing to consider this option. This effectively eliminates the dissenting voices of those who might deepen the deliberations because faith or reason disallows the possibility, for them, of dispatching someone to death, even in extreme cases. We recall your statement regarding

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the death penalty, articulated shortly after the horror of the April 15, 2013 Marathon bombing in which three were killed and 260 people were wounded, some permanently. In no way do we minimize their horrific suffering, nor the anguish we, too, experienced. Certainly, the shock and sorrow of the assault was made even more painful because it took place during the glorious spring ritual of the Boston marathon, a joyous event that welcomes international participants. At a Mass at the Cathedral just days after the bombing, you said, “Obviously, as a Catholic, I oppose the death penalty,” pointing out that “there are other ways of punishing people and protecting people, without killing them.” On January 27, 2015, responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on January 23 to review the drug protocols of lethal injection in the state of Oklahoma you said, “We pray that the Court’s review of these protocols will lead to the recognition that institutionalized practices of violence against any person erodes reverence for the sanctity of every human life. Capital punishment must end.” We thank you for your witness, especially in light of the fact that within the United States, the death penalty is alive and well in 32 states. Though there has been a decrease in the number of executions each year, its barbarism continues, ensnaring both the guilty and those whose guilt or mental capacities are in question. Further, it deprives the convicted of the opportunity to repent of their crimes and become redeemed examples of God’s transforming love and mercy. Many of us in the Catholic community are able to witness to this powerful reality

through personal relationships with death row inmates. Bearing in mind your articulated convictions, and those of the USCCB, Pope Francis and others, it seems incumbent upon you to raise the question of the legitimacy of Catholics participating as jurors in cases in which they are obligated to consider the imposition of the death penalty. If “capital punishment must end,” one way in which this can be hastened is to teach that mercy and love negate this possibility. Our Lenten journey, which includes the crucifixion and death of Jesus, reminds us that “Capital punishment is not what Jesus taught, it is what He suffered.”

Cardinal Sean O’Malley (wgbhnews) We live in a time when prophetic voices must insist on the sacredness of all life, including the lives of those deemed “enemies.” Given that necessity, we, the undersigned, ask the following: *That you repeat your unequivocal condemnation of the death penalty, with specific reference to the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who could well be condemned to death within your own pastoral purview. You might issue a statement to the press; create a pastoral statement that is distributed through the archdiocese and reaches all parishioners; and include this same pastoral reflection in the Pilot or on your website. *That you meet with a small group of Catholic peacemakers at your earliest convenience to pray and dialogue together about ways in

which we may urge and enable the greater Massachusetts Catholic community to take a firm stand against state-sanctioned violence, including executions. Coretta Scott King reminds us that “Forgiving violence does not mean condoning violence.” For too long we have treated violence with violence and that’s why it never ends. May we Catholics remain steady in our faith, trusting that the mercy and love without boundaries taught by Jesus, finds expression through our words and deeds, as applied to the death penalty and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a child of God. In Christ Jesus, Patricia Ferrone, etc.

My Journey to the Mexican Border Continued from page 1 across the country gather to hear presentations from various community organizations. We heard from groups like The American Friends Service Committee (which spoke of problems with the prison industrial complex and the privatization of prisons), Mariposas Sin Fronteras (which supports LGBTQ people in detention), the Colibri Center for Human Rights (which finds and identifies the remains of those who have died in the desert), and Scholarships AZ (which provides scholarship opportunities for undocumented students). Right down the street, we also visited a federal public defender and saw the room where the government-run “Operation Streamline” takes place. This program counsels, arraigns, pleas, and convicts immigrants in just a

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few hours. Detainees are sentenced in seconds, and 70 people a day are convicted. And the Sanctuary Movement is still very much alive. We went to a beautiful candle-lit prayer vigil at a local church that houses a migrant woman named Rosa. Then we visited the Florence Detention Center, where I met young Rosila, who has been detained for several months. We also bore witness to a family who broke down in tears when they discovered their son was detained there. The next day we went to Nogales, Mexico, crossing the border easily. Easily, that is, because we were going to Mexico. As the migrant-helping organization Grupos Beta knows well, crossing the border is anything but “easy.” That’s why Grupos Beta and another organization called HEPAC help the migrant community with the many problems they have once they cross the border.

Jeanelle at the Border wall But no matter how many Grupos Betas and HEPACs there are, something undeniable looms large – a physical structure that exists in only two other places in the world. In other words, what do Palestine/

Israel, North Korea, and the US all have in common? They all have border walls. And what a border wall it is! It is big. Monstrous, really. And its main purpose is to keep humans out. That is, the same humans who were my homestay hosts in Arizona and Mexico and the same humans who live alongside me in the United States. I leave this trip with more questions than answers, more sorrow than joy. And yet, there is still hope. There is hope because I have met so many people who care about human life and justice. Immigration is such a complex issue, and there’s no “quick fix.” We need to diminish the current suffering while working towards eradicating the root causes, including war and economic inequality. No small task. But no matter what, we must bring down the walls that divide us and never stop caring about the problems of the world and the human lives affected. Jeanelle Wheeler is a first year student at Brown University.

Our SOA Journey by Sally and Martin Markey We traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia in November 2014 to participate in the annual SOA protest march. The School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001) has trained military forces of Central American states in “counter-terrorism tactics.” The SOA has been implicated in hundreds of civilian deaths in Central America over the past few decades. Several organizations participated in the protest and march, including

Pax Christi, Veterans for Peace, Maryknoll nuns and priests, members of many other religious orders, and lay people. Some of these people have served all over the world. There were also several busloads of people from Canada.

SOA 2014 mock funeral (PCUSA) Starting on a Friday afternoon, the gathering was comprised of multiple enlightening workshops, which continued through Saturday evening and focused on various issues related to peace and justice, including immigration, Mexican border crossings, environment, and the military industrial complex. We met on Saturday morning at the gates of Fort Benning, heavily guarded by military police behind the fence and Georgia police outside the fence. There we heard informed speakers on war and peace issues. The road to the base was lined with information tables. The entire atmosphere of the three-day event lent itself to networking, as we met with brothers and sisters in the cause of peace. A Mass of Inclusion was concelebrated on Saturday evening by ordained male and female priests. The highlight of the weekend was the annual mock funeral where the names and ages of victims of SOA practices were read aloud to the solemn beat of drums. The victims were so numerous that the reading of names spanned four hours. We

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each carried a small white cross with the name of a victim inscribed on it as we walked in silent procession. It was an emotional and enlightening weekend and well worth our trip. See you next year! Sally is a PCMA Board member. She and her husband Martin are leaders of Holy Cross Parish PC.

Journey from Coast to Coast to Coast By Susan P. Harden I had the opportunity to join the Witness Against Torture Rally and March in Washington, DC in January. This was not my first, and will not be my last D.C. event. Taking to the streets of our nation’s capital has a unique impact on me. Sometimes I refer to it as entering "the belly of the beast." More importantly, I believe there is an immense opportunity for a somewhat captive audience. There are always folks there from across the country and across the world. We open a space for dialogue among onlookers that otherwise would not happen. I recall a dad commenting on our presence to his son, about 12 years old. His son retorted, “But Dad, they’re right!” We also become part of the photographic story of visitors' trips to D.C. What do they say about us when they review their album back home? I’d like to think they keep the images as part of their experience. Now that’s an impact we don’t always get. In spite of this prejudice for Washington, D.C., I have experienced incredible moments while witnessing for peace across the country. Miracles happen from coast to coast to coast. Here are a few examples from my life.

While living on the West Coast in 2003, I was a member of Burlingame, CA Pax Christi. We were regularly marching in San Francisco as the Iraq War came into focus. After millions across the globe had protested repeatedly, I naively thought this moment would not come. Yet, it did. Emerging from the subway onto Market Street in San Francisco the day the war began, I encountered a young mother carrying her infant. Both were swaddled in an American flag. I hugged her, and we both began to cry. We shared a spontaneous moment of grief and solidarity. It caught the attention of

DC January 2015 (witnesstorture.org) a nearby reporter. The next day our photo and words were published in a San Francisco Chronicle feature article. Super coverage! On to the Gulf Coast. Six months after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, I walked from Mobile to New Orleans with Veterans for Peace. As a Pax Christi member and the mother of a son who had lost everything to Katrina, this was personal! Our walk connected the devastation our nation causes in the Middle East with the ignored devastation of Katrina six months after the hurricane had struck. Little did I know then how this event would prepare me for another important role. Later that year, just back on the Gulf Coast, I had a chance encounter with a dad distraught

over his suicidal son, a veteran. Because of the contacts I had made at Vets for Peace on the walk the previous spring, I was immediately able to get his son the support he needed. Many months later, his son was well enough to be reunited with his wife and small children. I remain grateful for being in a position to facilitate this miracle! Of the many witnesses for peace we have in Boston, on the coast I currently call home, our Good Friday Stations of the Cross resonate most with me. Jesus’ last walk among us is mirrored as we walk among the pedestrians of our time and place. I’m certain many passersby on the road to Calvary were wrapped up in their errands and took no notice of Jesus. We experience that sense as well. For me, however, the sorrow He felt, the pleading compassion He taught us, become uniquely palpable on downtown sidewalks. I believe our presence nudges a change of heart, a prayerful moment. See you there! Sue Harden is a former PCMA Board member.

We Are Called To Be Catalysts of the Encounter By Fr. Rocco Puopolo, s.x. Our November 2014 Assembly at Holy Cross, Worcester, on the theme of Militarism and Youth stirred a lot of old memories and new reflections for me about youth, war, and our responsibilities to offer nonviolent options in today’s world of conflicts and divided loyalties, politics, and even visions of what is good! It brought me back to my years in Sierra Leone, West Africa during the 1990s, when I was the national youth chaplain there, creatively offering youth opportunities to see

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through the lies of that conflict (see the movie Blood Diamonds), often rationalized as a revolt against politicians and economic policies and systems that did not serve the interests of the masses. It was certainly true that the population was being exploited, but the option to make change through a violent insurrection threatened everyone’s security and livelihood, causing mass displacement of peoples (25% of the total population), death and destruction. It traumatized a people for decades to come. Youth are often in the forefront of many a conflict, and they are the first to die. There were more than 15,000 child soldiers at the height of the war in Sierra Leone. It was a moral, ethical and social tragedy. I speak as a victim of that tragedy, having been shot accidently in the leg by an 11-year-old child soldier, who was killed the next day when caught by the civil defense forces because he shot a priest. But who was/is the victim? Both/all of us. Yet in the midst of all this chaos and manipulation, I discovered that youth can cut through the lies and reach out to other youth caught in this toxic system. I was one of five writers of a six-week residential training in conflict transformation and peace for middle management adults, such as nurses, social workers, and teachers, who would be the first “receptors” of those returning from refugee camps, traumatized by the war. We offered that course twice to adults. I shortened it to three weeks and offered it to youth leaders of the three dioceses of Sierra Leone. I was amazed how they not only understood conflict transformation, restoration of peace, and the myth of war as a means to change, but

were much more engaged than the adults we prepared, offering practical and inexpensive but significant outreach to other youths. The ripple effect went far and made an impact for peace through non formal educational outreach to street children (the first to be enticed to be child soldiers), witness talks at school assemblies

Former Sierra Leone child soldier/ author Ishmael Beah (unhcr.org) and further youth formation in peace education on local, diocesan, and parish levels. Those 24 youth who participated in this course reached out to over 8,000 other youths in less than a year through the above “next steps.” Peace education was contagious. At our assembly I was touched by the many who attended that day out of concern for their children, grandchildren, or students. Our investment in teaching peace is personal. The call for us to witness the common good and peaceful relationships with all was clear. But the challenge is for us to become “catalysts of the encounter” with the person of peace, Jesus Christ, as well as all who follow Him, and to take up His call for a new way of relating one to the other, seriously and intentionally. This is an underlying theme of Pope Francis’ teachings. Pax Christi has a lived spirituality of peace grounded not only in the engagements of many of its members but also in a network of

solidarity with a diversity of peoples throughout the world who say, ”No more! No more war!” Pax Christi has more than 50 years of powerful witness to the lies of militarism and violent conflict. As we heard at the assembly, even the concept of patriotism has been coopted to support militarism in this country. Our movement invites all to learn and practice a new way to bridge our differences based on nonviolence and the creative search for the common good that comes from God. Here are a few humble suggestions for some “next steps” after our assembly: *Find or create a curriculum on peace and nonviolent conflict transformation for middle school, high school and university students. The forums are many: high school or college religion or theology classes, sociology or history classes, confirmation and CCD classes, school clubs, etc. *Invite Catholic high schools and colleges or Newman clubs in state schools to initiate Pax Christi chapters. *Offer one-day conferences or prayer events for youth on peace issues. *Invite youth to our annual retreats and state assemblies. Make Pax Christi MA intergenerational. Send your ideas to me, and we’ll see what may come of it all. We have encountered peace in many ways. We have encountered the Prince of Peace. The challenge for us now is to seriously and intentionally become catalysts of that encounter to our young brothers and sisters. Fr. Rocco Puopolo, s.x., is a PCMA Board member. Email him: frrocco@xaviermissionaries.org

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Seizing Nonviolent Moments: The Spirituality of Transformation

A Retreat sponsored by Pax Christi Massachusetts will be held at

The College of Our Lady of the Elms (Elms College) 291 Springfield Street, Chicopee, MA

Saturday, April 11, 2015, 9:00am – 3:30pm Registration 8:30am

Faculty Dining Room in the Mary Dooley College Center

The Retreat leader is Nancy Small Nancy is a hospice chaplain, spiritual director, and a seeker of peace. She is a former national coordinator and current Ambassador of Peace with Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement. She is an Oblate of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania who holds a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary and a spiritual direction certificate from the Center for Spirituality and Justice. She lives in Worcester, Massachusetts with her husband, Carl. Copies of her recent book, Seizing the Nonviolent Moments, will be available. ***********************************************************************************************************************

Registration Form Name__________________________________ Street Address___________________________________

City/State______________________________ Phone/Email______________________________________

Suggested Donation -- $40 (Lunch Included), $35 if postmarked by April 1. Suggested Student Donation -- $15 I would like to be a Retreat Sponsor and will donate an additional $____ to help defray the cost of the Retreat. Retreat Sponsor donations are tax deductible. Please mail Registration Form and check, made out to “Pax Christi MA.” to

Ronald Holman, 15 Chris Drive, N. Attleboro, MA 02760

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2015 Pax Christi Massachusetts Peacemaker Award Nomination To be awarded at the annual Pax Christi Massachusetts Assembly Fall 2015

This award is given to an outstanding peacemaker who embodies the ideals of Pax Christi. She or he need not be a member of Pax Christi and may be a person as young as 16, or older. Nominations may be submitted by PC-MA members, teachers, campus ministers, parish pastoral leaders, youth ministers, family members or friends who have been inspired by the nominee. DEADLINE: Nominations must be received by September 1, 2015. SEND TO: Pax Christi MA, 947 Park Street, Attleboro, MA 02703 (please copy or clip above) Nominee’s name/s______________________________________________________________ School, if applicable_____________________________________________________________ Address_______________________________________________________________________ Phone__________________________________Email__________________________________ Social justice & peacemaking activities, volunteer involvement, etc. (attach, as needed) Your name______________________________Relationship to nominee___________________ Address_______________________________________________________________________ Phone__________________________________Email__________________________________ *******************************************

2015 Pax Christi Massachusetts John Leary Youth Peacemaker Award Nomination To be awarded at the annual Pax Christi Massachusetts Assembly Fall 2015

This award is given to an outstanding young peacemaker who embodies the ideals of Pax Christi, as John Leary lived them. John was a Harvard University graduate who worked with PC Massachusetts co-founder Gordon Zahn at the Pax Christi Center on Conscience and War in Cambridge and died at age 24 while jogging to Haley House, a Catholic Worker House in Boston, during the summer of 1982. Nominees for the John Leary Award need not be members of Pax Christi but must be no older than 24. Nominations may be submitted by PC-MA members, teachers, campus ministers, parish pastoral leaders, youth ministers, family members or friends who have been inspired by the nominee. DEADLINE: Nominations must be received by September 1, 2015. SEND TO: Pax Christi MA, 947 Park Street, Attleboro, MA 02703 (please copy or clip above) Nominee’s name/s______________________________________________________________ School, if applicable_____________________________________________________________ Address_______________________________________________________________________ Phone__________________________________Email__________________________________ Social justice & peacemaking activities, volunteer involvement, etc. (attach, as needed) Your name______________________________Relationship to nominee___________________ Address_______________________________________________________________________ Phone__________________________________Email__________________________________

Winter-Spring 2015 11

PC Central MA Breaks New Ground* Two years ago, Pax Christi Central Massachusetts heard from a group of parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Shirley, MA who wanted to know more about Pax Christi. After an introduction to Pax Christi and our local group, they urged us to come back so they might learn more and join us. In August 2014 we began meeting regularly with them and have officially integrated them as Pax Christi Central MA/Our Lady of Guadalupe. What took so long? Our Lady of Guadalupe is located inside the medium security prison at MCI Shirley, and its members are all inmates. Pax Christi was born inside a prison of French resisters during World War II when Bishop Theas called on them to love their enemies - Germany. Now we are bringing Pax Christi full circle with (as far as we can find) the first chapter located inside a prison, precisely where the ideals of justice, peace and nonviolence are needed most (and often hardest to follow). Although our groups can’t meet together, we both use Mary Lou Kownacki’s book Love Beyond Measure, A Spirituality of Nonviolence as a basis for instruction. We adapt the text for the prison environment, while our “outside” group meets monthly to discuss the unedited book. Pax Christi MA has generously given us a grant to

purchase copies of this wonderful book for 30 inmates. The three of us who visit our new PC members in the prison agree that this has been a very rewarding experience. When we signed up to do it, we expected it to be a ministry TO the inmates; now it’s a ministry WITH the inmates. Together we work to make this world, wherever we find ourselves, a more nonviolent and just place by prayer and, when we can, by our actions. We are also most humbled and honored to share the Eucharist after each session. Even before our invitation to the prison, the congregation of Our Lady of Guadalupe was very active in numerous ministries. They raise money each year for Toys for Tots by pledges to walk multiple miles around the exercise yard. And they have gone cell to cell for donations to help stock food pantries in the local area. They told us of an inmate who gave $1 of the $1.50 he had in his account toward this cause, an excellent example of Christ’s teaching of the poor widow in action. They also do letter campaign writing for support and change. A recent effort was to allow dying long term prisoners to be home with their families. Besides being a 1st chapter of Pax Christi in a prison, they are also the 1st prison chapter of the Thomas Merton Society, which started at about the same time. This ministry is not without its challenges. We do not know where it will ultimately lead.

We have no particular expertise. As Bishop Oscar Romero said “We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.” But we have a desire to do God’s work both inside and outside this prison and a mantra that we repeat together before every session “Holy Spirit, go before us and lead the way.”

With no prison resources to guide us, we hope to develop a handbook so future Pax Christi groups will benefit from our experience if they, too, are led by the spirit to prison ministry. We ask for prayers and support from our fellow PC members.

*Brian Ashmankas, Charlotte and Roger Stanley are PC Central MA members.

Pax Christi MA Board of Directors 2014-2015 Coordinator: Secretary: Pat Ferrone Jeanne Allen 238 Harris Avenue 10 Sutton Place Needham Easthampton MA 02492 MA 01027 781-449-3890 413-527-0037 patferrone@rcn.comjeanne.allen@hhcincorg Treasurer: Newsletter Editor: Ronald Holman Mike Moran 15 Chris Drive 135 Shearer Street N. Attleboro, MA 02760 Palmer, MA 01069 508-695-3896 413-283-5716 rholman55@comcast.net (email page 12) OTHER BOARD MEMBERS: Brian Ashmankas (Millbury); Nancy Carapezza (Wayland); Irene Desharnais (Jamaica Plain); Filomena Didiano (Sterling); Phil Harak (Southampton); Sue Malone (Westborough); Sally Markey (Springfield); Rose Morrissey (Westborough); Fr. Rocco Puopolo, s.x. (Holliston); Adam Sykura (Holy Cross College, Worcester). Quarterly Board meetings are held in the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross College in Worcester at 10 AM and are open to all PCMA members (the next meeting is June 13).

12 Pax Christi Massachusetts

Local Groups Beverly P.C. Sr. Linda Bessom, SND 15 Bubier Street Lynn, MA 01901-1704 (781) 595-7570 x18 linda@mahomeless.org Mtgs 2nd Tuesday, 7:00 PM St. Mary’s Convent Boston (Citywide) P.C. Christina Abbey Paulist Center, 5 Park St Boston, MA (781) 286-5004 LNCabbey2004@yahoo.com Mtgs 1st Monday, 2:00 PM Cape Cod P.C. Edouard & Francoise Rocher 77 Old Post Road Centerville, MA 02632 (508) 771-6737 Mtgs 2nd Wednesday, 9:30 AM paxchristi-cc@comcast.net Our Lady of Victory Centerville, MA 02632 Central Mass P.C./Our Lady of Guadalupe P.C. (MCI Shirley prison chapter) Sue Malone 45 Adams Street Westborough, MA 01581-3610 (508) 366-2050 organurse@gmail.com Mtgs 2nd Wednesday, 7:00 PM

St. Rose of Lima Parish Northborough, MA 01532 Holy Cross College P.C. Adam Sykura College of the Holy Cross 1 College St, Box 2847 Worcester, MA 01610 ajsiku15@g.holycross.edu Meetings and activities geared to college calendar Holy Cross Parish P.C. 221 Plumtree Road Springfield, MA 01118 Martin & Sally Markey (413)739-3278 parishsocialministry@gmail.com Mtgs 1st Monday, 6:30 PM Metro West P.C. Faith Madzar 24 Grove Street Natick, MA 01760 (508) 655-0268 fmadzar@gmail.com Contact for meeting info National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette P.C. Sheila Matthews 199 Maple Street Somerset, MA 02726 508-674-8220 sheilmatthews@aol.com Mtgs 1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 7:15 Chapel of Reconciliation

Rhode Island P.C. Bill Waters (401) 438-6612 wjtwj157@gmail.com Fr. Ray Tetrault (401) 453-2415 St. William Parish 200 Pettaconsett Ave Warwick, RI 02888 Mtgs last Sunday, 6:00 PM St. John’s Prep P.C. St, John's Preparatory School 72 Spring Street Danvers, MA 01923 Bill Mackinson 978-774-1057 wmackinson@stjohnsprep.org Prayer for Peace, Tuesday mornings, 7:45-8:00 AM St. Susanna Parish P.C. 262 Needham Street Dedham, MA 02026 Pat Ferrone 781-449-3890 parferrone@rcm.com Contact for meeting info Western Mass P.C. Jeanne Allen 10 Sutton Place Easthampton, MA 01027 (413) 527-0037 jeanne.allen@hhcinc.org Mtgs 2nd Friday, 7:00 PM Elms College, Chicopee

If you belong to a Pax Christi group that is not listed above, please let us know so we can add it to our list. If any information above is incorrect, or if you would like to be added to a list of Pax Christi “friends” and receive current messages from the Board, please email changes or additions to Mike Moran: moran3@comcast.netPax Christi Massachusetts 947 Park Street Attleboro, MA 02703 paxchristima@gmail.com www.paxchristima.org