Social Justice


"When two or three come together in his name, Jesus is there. Community is the sign of this presence; it is a sign of the Church…a community which prays and loves is a sign of the resurrection." - Jean Vanier Pax Christi USA is the national Catholic peace movement of 14,000 members who are committed to the gospel imperative of seeking peace through nonviolence. Our membership includes: Individual Members - 14,000 members nationwide at various levels of support. Members receive regular mailings and our quarterly newspaper, the Catholic Peace Voice. Bishop Members - Over 140 U.S. Catholic Bishops are members of Pax Christi USA. Parish Sponsor Members - Almost 600 Parish Sponsors receive resources designed especially for today's Catholic parishes on the gospel message of peacemaking and justice. University Members - Our university members receive materials to inspire and shape tomorrow's Catholic leaders and assistance in forming Pax Christi campus groups. Religious Community Members -Almost 600 religious communities help to spread the message of gospel nonviolence while lending their support morally and financially. Local Groups and Regions - Pax Christi Local Groups consist of three or more persons registered as Pax Christi USA members with the National Office who come together to pray, study, and act for peace with justice. A Pax Christi USA Region consists of six or more Pax Christi USA registered local groups or 200 registered Pax Christi USA members in a specific geographic area. Young Adult Forum - The YAF is made up of young persons ages 18-30 who seek to transform society while transforming themselves. Members of the YAF attend special young adult retreats and receive the PCUSA young adult newsletter, Locusts and Wild Honey. Pax Christi International is a non-profit, non-governmental Catholic peace movement that began in France at the end of World War II. Today, it is comprised of autonomous national sections, local groups, and affiliated organizations spread over 30 countries and 5 continents, with over 60,000 members worldwide. The movement works in all areas of peace but has a specific focus on demilitarization, security and arms trade, development and human rights, and ecology. PCUSA is a section of Pax Christi International. Peace Studies Committee - Members of the Peace Studies Committee come from a variety of academic disciplines and hold memberships in various academic associations. The group fosters interdisciplinary dialogue on peace and justice issues generally through their internet discussions. They periodically act in an advisory capacity to PCUSA National Council and National Office staff. Haiti Task Force Under the umbrella of the Human Rights and Global Restoration priority area, the Haiti Task Force is ever watchful of the changing political situation in Haiti. The HTF has been active in Haiti since the 1990 elections and was in Haiti again as election monitors for the 2000 elections. NETWORK envisions a social, economic and political order that: ensures human dignity and ecological justice, celebrates racial, ethnic and cultural diversity, and promotes the common good. NETWORK supports and builds political will to develop a just, participatory and sustainable world community. Founded as a contemporary response to the ministry of Jesus, NETWORK uses Catholic social teaching and the life experience of people who are poor as lenses for viewing social reality. As a women-led membership organization, NETWORK values participation, mutuality, cooperation and stewardship. The Catholic Worker Movement, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and foresaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms. The Rainbow Sash Movement The Rainbow Sash Movement is an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Catholics, with their families and friends, who are publicly calling the Catholic Church to conversion of heart around issues of human sexuality. Members of the movement are committed to bringing the gifts, the witness and the challenge of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people into the heart of the church. Through our public, prayerful, visible presence at the Eucharist and in the ongoing life of God's People, through our work for justice, through speaking the truth of our lives and our loving, we call the whole church to build with us a future of liberation, reconciliation and joy for all people.

	SOULFORCE The purpose of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.

	8th Day Center for Justice Impelled by the belief that all creation is sacred and inter-related; Imbued with the principles of nonviolence, mutuality and cooperation, 8th Day Center for Justice, a coalition of Catholic, religious congregations, commits to act as a critical alternative voice to oppressive systems and to work actively to change those systems.

		Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service Pace e Bene’s mission is to develop the spirituality and practice of active nonviolence as a way of living and being and as a process for cultural transformation. Founded by a small group of Franciscans in 1989, it is a growing community representing a diversity of spiritual traditions and cultural backgrounds now reaching across the continent and networking with nonviolence practitioners in many countries.