The unexpected monks

Some evangelicals turn to monasticism, suggesting unease with megachurch religion - and the stirrings of rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.

By Molly Worthen | February 3, 2008

S.G. PRESTON IS a Knight of Prayer. Each morning at his Vancouver, Wash., home, he wakes up and prays one of the 50-odd psalms he has committed to memory, sometimes donning a Kelly green monk's habit. In Durham, N.C., Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and fellow members of Rutba House gather for common meals as well as morning and evening prayer based on the Benedictine divine office. Zach Roberts, founder of the Dogwood Abbey in Winston-Salem, meets regularly with a Trappist monk to talk about how to contemplate God. Roman Catholic monastic traditions loom large in their daily routines - yet all three men are evangelical Protestants.

The image of the Catholic monk - devoted to a cloistered life of fasting and prayer, his tonsured scalp hidden by a woolen cowl - has long provoked the disdain of Protestants. Their theological forefathers denounced the monastic life: True Christians, the 16th-century Reformers said, lived wholly in the world, spent their time reading the Bible rather than chanting in Latin, and accepted that God saved them by his grace alone, not as reward for prayers, fasting, or good works. Martin Luther called monks and wandering friars "lice placed by the devil on God Almighty's fur coat." Of all Protestants, American evangelicals in particular - activist, family-oriented, and far more concerned with evangelism than solitary study or meditative prayer - have historically viewed monks as an alien species, and a vaguely demonic one at that.

Yet some evangelicals are starting to wonder if Luther's judgment was too hasty. There is now a growing movement to revive evangelicalism by reclaiming parts of Roman Catholic tradition - including monasticism. Some 100 groups that describe themselves as both evangelical and monastic have sprung up in North America, according to Rutba House's Wilson-Hartgrove. Many have appeared within the past five years. Increasing numbers of evangelical congregations have struck up friendships with Catholic monasteries, sending church members to join the monks for spiritual retreats. St. John's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, now makes a point of including interested evangelicals in its summer Monastic Institute.

"I grew up in a tradition that believes Catholics are pagans," said Roberts, who was raised Southern Baptist and serves as a pastor in a Baptist church. "I never really understood that. Now I'd argue against that wholeheartedly."

In an era in which televangelists and megachurches dominate the face of American evangelicalism, offering a version of Christianity inflected by populist aesthetics and the gospel of prosperity, the rise of the New Monastics suggests that mainstream worship is leaving some people cold. Already, they are transforming evangelical religious life in surprising ways. They are post-Protestants, breaking old liturgical and theological taboos by borrowing liberally from Catholic traditions of monastic prayer, looking to St. Francis instead of Jerry Falwell for their social values, and stocking their bookshelves with the writings of medieval mystics rather than the latest from televangelist Joel Osteen.

The New Monastics come from a variety of religious backgrounds, from Presbyterian to Pentecostal. All share a common frustration with what they see as the overcommercialized and socially apathetic culture of mainstream evangelicalism. They perceive a "spiritual flabbiness in the broader church and a tendency to assimilate into a corrupt, power-hungry world," writes New Monastic author Scott Bessenecker in his recent book "The New Friars."

New Monasticism is part of a broader movement stirring at the margins of American evangelicalism: Evangelicals disillusioned with a church they view as captive to consumerism, sectarian theological debates, and social conservatism. Calling themselves the "emerging church" or "post-evangelicals," these Christians represent only a small proportion of the approximate 60 million evangelical Americans. Yet their criticisms may resonate with more mainstream believers. A recent study by Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois - one of the most influential megachurches in the nation - discovered that many churchgoers felt stalled in their faith, alienated by slick, program-driven pastors who focus more on niche marketing than cultivating contemplation. The study suggested that megachurch members know how to belt out jazzy pop hymns from their stadium seats, but they don't always know how to talk to God alone.

Many New Monastics live and worship together, and their practices sometimes resemble the communes and house churches associated with the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. Like the hippies who were "high on Jesus," New Monastics tend to favor simple living, left-leaning politics, and social activism. However, they are quick to cite the intellectual seriousness and monastic forms of prayer and study that set them apart. "I doubt most of the Jesus Movement people were reading the philosophers of their day in the way I have friends reading Zizek and Derrida," said Mark Van Steenwyk, founder of Missio Dei, a New Monastic community in Minneapolis. Van Steenwyk's group has also compiled its own breviary, a book of scriptural texts that guides the group's abbreviated version of the divine office sung in monasteries.

"The real radicals aren't quoting Che Guevara or listening to Rage Against the Machine on their iPods," writes Wilson-Hartgrove in a forthcoming book, "New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today's Church." "The true revolutionaries are learning to pray."

I their countercultural orientation, the New Monastics are true to the oldest monastic precedent. The founding father of monasticism, fourth-century Egyptian St. Anthony, gave away his worldly possessions and fled the temptations of the Roman Empire for desert solitude. Monasticism's subsequent history is a complicated story of both extreme asceticism and descent into decadence, of the Vatican's alternate promotion and suppression of charismatic holy men and women who criticized and compromised with the church hierarchy. Though by the 16th century there was much truth in the Reformers' charges of monastic depravity and corruption, the religious orders made up a diverse culture still home to rebels and critics: Martin Luther himself was an Augustinian friar.

Though New Monasticism is not entirely a product of the evangelical left - the Knights of Prayer, for example, are not interested in liberalizing movements within the church - most New Monastics are trying to create an alternative to conservative mainstream evangelicalism. They embrace ecumenism over doctrinal debate, encourage female leadership, and care far more about social justice and the environment than about the culture wars. Shane Claiborne, founder of one of the best-known New Monastic communities, the Simple Way of Philadelphia, asks that churches that invite him to speak offset the carbon emissions produced by his visit by "fasting" from fuel.

More fundamentally, New Monastics consider themselves "monks in the world." They are not interested in extreme isolation or asceticism (though there are stories about the occasional Protestant "hermit" living in the Mountain West). Nearly all have regular jobs and social lives. From the traditionalist perspective, many break the most essential monastic rule: they are married. Most groups support those who choose a celibate lifestyle, and a few have a member or two who do so, but it happens rarely.

Five centuries of Protestant heritage have alienated most New Monastics from the notion of religiously motivated celibacy. More importantly, these groups do not aim to separate themselves from society - on the contrary, they see New Monasticism as a means to better integrate core Christian values into their lives as average citizens. This is the fundamental difference between old monks and the new. New Monastics often quote one of their heroes, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who captured the ambitions - and the ecumenical limits - of the movement when he wrote in 1935, "the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new kind of monasticism which will have nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount in imitation of Christ."

Missio Dei is one of many groups that have deliberately made their homes in struggling urban neighborhoods. In addition to their routine of prayer and worship, they serve vegan meals to people on the street and offer hospitality to those who need it. Van Steenwyk sees hypocrisy in churches that preach social justice from the pulpit, but ignore their struggling neighbors for the rest of the week. "You can be involved with your church, but never really experience brokenness in another human being. Jesus lived with other people," he said. "So we ask, what are the resources throughout church history that can equip us to live life that way?"

Serving the poor is not a new impulse among evangelicals, but serious contemplation is. American culture has never placed a high priority on solitude, and historically, self-denial has gone hand in hand with bustling capitalist productivity, not contemplation (though the Puritans did balance their active lives with a heavy dose of journaling and soul-searching). America has produced a few geniuses of contemplative life - Henry Thoreau and Emily Dickinson come to mind - but we have no indigenous contemplative tradition comparable to that of Catholic Europe or Buddhist Japan. Yet contemplation is the heart of what it means to be a monk: the root of the word, monos, means "alone" in Greek.

Evangelicals have been tentatively exploring that side of Christian tradition since at least the 1978 publication of "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster, a Quaker theologian who recast fasting and meditative prayer for an evangelical audience. His book sold nearly 2.5 million copies and launched a cottage industry of evangelical contemplative literature - a phrase that, 30 years ago, was a contradiction in terms. Some evangelicals made pilgrimages to the handful of older ecumenical monastic communities abroad, such as the Taizé Community (founded in Burgundy, France, in 1940), and the Iona Community, founded in 1938 at St. Columba's landing place in the Inner Hebrides. They brought back what they learned, and have tried to make it their own.

N

ot all of their co-religionists, however, are pleased with these new spiritual ventures. Van Steenwyk received e-mails from friends concerned about his "fringe activities," including accusations that he'd "gotten into bed with the apostate Catholic Church." Deborah Dombrowski, along with her husband, David, founded Lighthouse Trails Publishing and Research Project in 2002 to counteract the "infiltration" of evangelicalism by "mystical spirituality." She fears that New Monastics' contemplative prayer is no different from Eastern meditation, and their openness to Roman Catholicism is only the beginning: "where it's going is an interspiritual, interfaith, one-world religion, where it all blends together."

Though many Roman Catholics have mixed feelings about evangelicals who adopt a hodgepodge of watered-down monastic practices and call themselves "monks," some are supportive of New Monasticism. They view the movement as part of a wider rapprochement between Protestant evangelicals and Rome. A half-century of theological shifts on both sides of the divide - Vatican II's liberalizing impact on the Catholic Church, and the waning of Protestant fundamentalism - as well as the decline of traditional ethnic resentments and an emerging pattern of political cooperation have all prepared the way. Father Jay Scott Newman, a priest in South Carolina, said that the New Monastic movement suggests a profound shift in evangelical identity.

"Until very recently, an evangelical of whatever stripe included in his self-definition not just opposition to, but violent rejection of everything Catholic," he said. "That's no longer true{hellip}that's dramatic, revolutionary, and, I think, lasting."

To some Catholic observers, it is no shock that evangelicals have begun to feel the lack of organized contemplative life and yearn for a bond with religious tradition - they're only surprised that it took them so long. "Monasticism has been such a powerful thing in the West and the East for so long that it would be very peculiar if it didn't, at one point or another, erupt in evangelical circles," said William Shea, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross.

"It's just too long, too deep, too creative a tradition{hellip}You could call this movement ersatz monasticism, but I would hold back and ask, where might this lead?"

Molly Worthen, a New Haven-based writer, is working on a book about evangelical intellectual life.

Letter urges Pope to protest war during U.S. visit

[H/T VoxNova ]

A letter with over 1250 signatures has been delivered to Pope Benedict XVI in advance of his scheduled April visit to the United States. Encouraged by the Pope’s public statements “that there were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war in Iraq,” the letter asks that refuse to visit President Bush at the White House as a sign of his protest. In the event that the meeting takes place, the letter asks that he speak “as a prophet should - issuing a warning and an invitation to repentance.”
The letter makes special note of the fact that Pope Benedict will be in the United States on his birthday, and reminds him of the many children of Iraq who will not live to celebrate theirs as a result of the current war.
Those signing the letter reflect an extraordinary range of individuals - Catholic and non-Catholic, religious and lay people, academics and activists - united in their expectation that the Pope will not let the war pass in silence

[text of letter and signatures below]
To His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI Most Holy Father: In your own words, “today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a ‘just war’.” Yet, during your upcoming visit to the United States, you are planning to meet with President George W. Bush, whose empty justifications for the violence in Iraq lead to increasing numbers of dead, injured and displaced people. Iraqi civilians still endure the “continual slaughter” which you described in your 2007 Easter Sunday address.Shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq, you rightly declared that “there were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war.” You’ve also called attention to the terrible new technologies which cause indiscriminate destruction. Five years later, how much more reason you have to call for an immediate end to this war, and to refuse to meet with the President of the United States until that is accomplished.If you kneel in grief and outrage before the cross of the tortured Christ, can you offer your blessing to a head of government who excuses the most terrible abuses of human minds and bodies as “legal”?

If meet with him you must, then meet as a prophet should - issuing a warning and an invitation to repentance. Courtesy cannot be used as an evasion of our biblical faith. Ezekiel was repeatedly reminded of his responsibility to admonish those doing evil if he desired to escape sharing in the responsibility for their sins. Shouldn’t any of us who recognize the horror of what is happening in Iraq be condemned if we are silent?

You are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. on the anniversary of your birth. We feel sure that you will be thinking of the countless children of Iraq who never reached their fifth birthday. In 2005 alone, 122,000 Iraqi children under age five died. There are many, both within the Church and outside of it, who long for your voice to speak for those innocent dead and - face to face with those whose policies denied all respect for their lives - demand that the killing stop.
We are, in faithful hope

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Archdiocese of Detroit
Kathy Boylan, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Stephen Vincent Kobasa
Kathy Kelly
Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Daniel Berrigan, S.J.
Anne Somsel
Eda and Mike Uca-Dorn, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Br. Richard Jonathan (Cardarelli), Society of St. Francis
Jackie Hudson, O.P., Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares
Ford-Marth Family, Bronx, New York
Royal W. Rhodes
Nancy Aherrn, CSJ
Rachel Kobasa
Clare Kobasa
Frank O’Gorman, People of Faith CT
Ardeth Platte, O.P.
Carol Gilbert, O.P
Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker
Jim Reale, RN
Michael Gillespie
Mike Rozumalski
Sandra R. Ross, Another Mother For Peace
Susan Crane
David E. Drake, D.O., Des Moines University
Rev. Chet Guinn, Des Moines, IA
Mark Lindahl, Des Moines Catholic Worker
Don Timmerman
Roberta Thurstin
Nancy Botta
William F Watts, Martin De Porres Catholic Worker
Jeff and Vickie Clingan, St. Johns Parish, Norwalk, IA
Henry and Kathy Krewer, Corpus Christi House, Boise Idaho
Linda Frank, Women in Black, Tacoma & Northwest Middle East Peace Forum
John H. Lewis
David L. Corcoran
Barbara L. Corcoran
Dottie Lynch
John Baker, Des Moines Catholic Worker
Cheryl L. Weaver
Johanna Berrigan, House of Grace Catholic worker
Mary Beth Appel, House of Grace Catholic Worker
Nancy Lee Farrell
Norman Chonacky
Rev. John Dear, S.J.
Todd Boyle
David Kane, lay missioner
Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ
Erin Elizabeth Cox, Graduate Student, Loyola University
Glen Anderson
Marilyn Kimmerling, PCO 306th Precinct 27th Leg. District Washington State
Bob Graf
Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
Bruce Martin Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University; Principal Advisor to the United States Catholic Bishops for The Challenge of Peace (1983)
Leon Ward
Jacqueline and Christopher Allen-Doucot and Brian Kavanagh, Hartford Catholic Worker, CT
Margie Skelly, parishioner at St. Gertrude Church, Chicago, Illinois
Kathy Slovick, Catholic, and co-founder of DAWN ( DuPage Against War Now)
Bette Chavez-Holcomb
Robert F. W. Whitlock
Michele Naar-Obed, Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker, Duluth MN
Olga Chyle Jung
Brother Denis Murphy FSC, Su Casa Catholic Worker, Chicago
Rosalie Riegle, Evanston, Illinois
Becca Lindahl
Karl Meyer, Nashville Greenlands
JoAnna Russell, Des Moines Catholic Diocese
Kim Williams, Steve Baggarly, Norfolk Catholic Worker
John Orsulak
Greg F. & Mary L. Woolever
Hugh R. Zurat, O.F.M.
Patrick Gilger, SJ
Joe Brady, Baltimore, MD
Jeanette Bauer
Eloise M. Cranke
Betty Voss, BVM
Mark Colville, Amistad Catholic Worker
Marlene McDonnell
Bernie White and Linda White, Central Iowa Call to Action, Ames, IA
Fr. Jerome A. Zawada, OFM
Sister Megan Rice, SHCJ
Mary Bernard, Fraser, Colorado
Cynthia Banas
Mary Lou Pedersen
LaVerne Hickey
Dr. Charlotte Joy Martin, Mount Mercy College
Scott and Maria Albrecht, The Catholic Worker Farm, London, UK
Alice McGary, Mustard Seed Community Farm
Tina Sipula, Bloomington, IL Catholic Worker
Peg F. Gallagher, Member of Nebraskans for Peace
Annamarie Kane BVM Chicago, Il
Chaplain Mark Lesniewski
Ray McGovern
Marge Fish CSJ
Marion Verhaalen, SSSF
Peggy Weber, Minneapolis, MN
Martha Larsen, RSM
Bill Quigley, Loyola University, New Orleans
Rev. Don Timmerman, St. Margaret’s Church, Park Falls, WI
Michael Salamone
Debra Dupre Quigley
Ciaron O’Reilly, London Catholic Worker
Jim Bernard
Dawn Willenborg, Brad Grabs, Ric Hotzel, Shalom Catholic Worker, Kansas City, KS
Rev. Milton P. Andrews
Ann M. Clune, and Jim Clune, Zacchaeus House Catholic Worker
Ellen Euclide, Su Casa Catholic Worker Community , Chicago, IL
Leona Mason Heitsch, grandmother, great grandmother, retired teacher, orchardist, and one of thousands of Poets Against The War.
Megan Rice, SHCJ
Janet Lind
Catherine Marie Schmitt
Prof. Roselyn Schmitt
Anne Wisda, IHM
Patrick Kennelly, Casa Maria Catholic Worker
Jane Cadarette
Sigrid and Ron Dale, St. Leo Pax Christi, Detroit Michigan
Msgr. Edward Pfeffer, retd., Diocese of Des Moines
Tim Auer, S.F.O., St. Louis, Mo.
Michael Sersch
James F Orwig, counselor, Scott Greening Addictions Treatment Center, Joplin, MO
Michael Murphy
John & Lorraine Lum
Anne Harter
Dianne Henke, mother
Mike Wisniewski, Los Angeles Catholic Worker
Sister Georgeann Quinlan
Sister Elizabeth Walters
Carol A. Leary Belleville, IL Member Fellowship Of Southern Illinois Laity
Sheila Anderson, LMHC
Blase Bonpane, Director, Office of the Americas, Los Angeles, CA
Richard Bossie, M.A.
Claudia Weddaburne-Bossie, M.D.
Chris Rooney, Sarah Bjorknas,Sr. Victoria Marie OSC,Yvonne Williamson, Vancouver Catholic Worker, BC, Canada
Suzanne Jabro, CSJ
Patricia Krommer C.S.J., Pax Christi, Los Angeles
Dixie Webb, Ankeny, Iowa
Alicia Schmidt Camacho
Stephen Pitti
Deacon Dave Bartemes, Diocese of Des Moines
Lourdes Fonseca-Nearon, concerned citizen of the world
Mary Perrin, Substitute Teacher, Crystal Lake, IL
Sister Annette Debs, CSJ, lawyer
Betsy Schonitzer, Teacher
Diane L. Gozdzialslki
Rev. Timothy Taugher, Binghamton, N.Y., Diocese of Syracuse
Sally Sommers, Villa Park, Il
Rose Bagley, Naperville, Illinois
Cambria Smith, parishoner, Archdiocese of Los Angeles
J’Ann Schoonmaker Allen, a Catholic wife, mother of six, grandmother of nine, educator, worker in clay, and worker for peace and justice
Dr. Tobias Winright, Dept of Theological Studies, Saint Louis University
Victoria L. Endres, Catholic Peace activist, Flagstaff, Arizona
Eileen McGartland, Assistant Director, Deaconess Parish Nurse Ministries, mother of two daughters, St.Louis, MO
Sr. Miriam Terese Sheehan, S.S.S.F
Fr Chris Ponnet, Pax Christi Southern California Coordinator/Los Angeles Unit Chair
Peter J. Eichten, Minneapolis, MN
Sr. Barbara Beesley, IHM, Campus Ministry, Marygrove College, Detroit, MI
Fr. Jim Murphy, Diocese of Madison, WI
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Emeritus, Temple Kol Tikvah, Woodland Hills,CA
Angela Faustina, CSJ, Director of Music and Worship, St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Community, Winnetka, CA
Mary Louise Tyrrell
Cynthia Russett, Larned Professor of History, Yale University
Harold W. Attridge, Dean, Yale Divinity School
Dr. Renata Marroum
Sister Rosanne Belpedio, CSJ
Thomas E. Ambrogi, Progressive Christians Uniting
Therese J. Terns, IHM Associate, IHM Peacemakers, Pax Christi and Call To Action
Rev. Alice de V. Perry, Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, Board of Directors, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Paul and Katja Rehm
George P. Alcser, Marygrove College
Deborah Larson, Director of Faith Formation St. Joseph Church, Montevideo, MN
Maureen Daniels RN MN, Director, Deaconess Parish Nurse MinistriesSt. Louis, Mo.
Chuck Quilty
Carol L. Gloor, Attorney at Law
Dennis Apel, Catholic Worker, Guadalupe, CA
Ted von der Ahe, Jr.
Jill L. Vonnahme, student at Creighton University, Omaha NE
Nick Egnatz, Veterans For Peace
Maureen Irvin, OSF Pax Christi, Springfield, IL
Diane Lopez Hughes, Pax Christi, Springfield, IL
Brian Culley, C.M.F.
Mary Ellen Gondeck, CSJ
Earl R. Rosenwinkel
Connie Hall, Friend and supporter of Voices, 8th Day Center for Justice, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, and Chicago Metropolitan Sanctuary Alliance
Suzanne Camino, St. Leo’s Pax Christi, Ann Arbor, MI
Kelly Casey, Diocese of Belleville, IL, St. Peter Cathedral Parish
Mary Jo Comerford
Mary Lynn Sheetz, Bijou Community
Sr. Gerry Sellman, SCMM
Tony Fadale, Archdiocese of Los Angeles Justice and Peace Commission
Katlyn Finn
Anya Cordell, The Campaign for Collateral Compassion
Robt. Braam
Mary Ann Ford, IHM
Frances Crowe
Jean Fishbeck
John A. Hackman, Quaker
Aurora Camacho de Schmidt, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies
Swarthmore College, PA
Karla Braig, Dubuque Catholic Worker
Jim Wooten, Christian
Lucille Martin, Pax Christi
Dennis K. Kirby
S. Joellen Sbrissa, CSJ, Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, Congregation of St. Joseph
S. Patricia Schlosser, OSF
Donald James Dolton, Catholic Worker
Cederic Gend Bass-Bey, St. Harold’s Church Community
Ernest Adkinson, St. Harold’s Church Community
Laura Branstrador, St. Harold’s Church Community
Catherine M. Zatsik, Pax Christi, M.F.S.O.
Tony Hintze, St. Harold’s Church Community
S. Mary Kay Flanigan, OSF
Kathleen Barnes, St. Louis
Pio Celestino, Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas, EE.UU.
Veronica Haluska, Friend of Peace
Megan Wolters
Tiffany Drahota Macek, first year law student University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bonnie Wisniewski, West Covina, CA
Shirley S. Shaw and Kenneth C. Shaw
Andrea M. Hildebrandt, St. Leo Parish, Detroit, St. Leo Pax Christi, mother of two pacifist sons,
wife of 35 years to pacifist veteran
Sister Patricia Soltesz, IHM
Fr. Rich Broderick, Cambridge, NY
Shelley and Jim Douglass, Mary’s House, Birmingham, AL
Sister Rose Petruzzo
Gloria Rivera, IHM
Teresa Wilson
Art and Betty Jane Schlachter
Toni Kathleen Flynn, Shell Beach, CA
Matt Jones and Susan Jones
Steve Casillas
Kathy Thoma
Sandra E. Wright
Beverly C. Tomasi, Western New York Peace Center
Brent and Monica Newman, Des Moines, IA
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker, Worcester, Massachusetts
Patricia L. Nuelsen
Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Dept. of Political Science, Notre Dame University
Cody E. Maynus, President, Montevideo Area Peace Seekers; Pastoral Intern, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Montevideo, MN
Julie Scheib-Feeley
Giovanni V. Ramos
Elizabeth Griswold, Harvard Divinity School
Paula Grandbois, American Martyrs Parish
Tom Honore’, Call To Action USA
David Harris, Pres. Red Wing Chapter 115, Veterans for Peace
Steve Clemens, Pax Christi Twin cities Area Board
Pamela K. Davis
Sister Rita Mary Olszewski, Sisters of Mercy, Regional Community of Detroit, Michigan
Jacqueline Abbey, Mercy Volunteer Corps, Detroit, Michigan
Marti Bradbury, member of a parish social justice commission
Lisa Kelly, mother of 3, Omaha, Nebraska
Mark Rogness, Long term assistant, L’Arche Winnipeg
Isabel Chiquoine, Mohawk Valley Peace Coalition
Jill Giovas, concerned Orthodox Christian
Fr. Tom Zelker, Pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Granville, New York
Patricia Mood, OP
Wayne Daniel, El Paso, Texas
Sister Karen Nykiel, O.S.B., Illinois State Coordinator, Pax Christi USA
Joe Morton, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Goucher College
Dennis Dillon, Roman Catholic justice and peace activist, Minneapolis MN
Dr. Aurolyn Luykx, University of Texas at El Paso
Fr. Vincent Petersen OFM Conv., San Antonio Catholic Church, El Paso, Texas
Sarah Karas
Robert P. and Janet B. Heaney
Bernard J. Bush, S.J
Danielle Marie Mackey, Student, Saint Louis University
Fr. Jim Hoffman, OFM, Director, Sacred Heart Province JPIC Office, IL
Tensie Hernandez Guadalupe Catholic Worker
Rev. Frederick Daley, St. John The Baptist Church, Rome, N.Y
Richard Taber, State College, PA
John Owen, Los Angeles Catholic Worker
Mary C. Giesen
Eileen White, GNSH, for the Grey Nun Social Justice Group
Peter Canisius Hinde, O.Carm.
Marian E. Wright Board member Pax Christi Twin Cities
Gary Hildebrandt, St. Leo’s Parish
Rev. Edward Carpenter, El Paso, Texas
Carolyn Krebs, OP
Sylvester G. Black, Pax Christi
Jan Urban, Fullerton, CA
Pat Ryan Greene
Rhetta Alexander, Peace With Justice Committee, Santa Barbara District, UMC
Mickey Linck
Tom and Betty Kerwin
Rev. Dr. George F. Regas, Rector Emeritus, All Saints Church, Pasadena
Ann Stokka
Margaret O’Reilly Bowerman, Oakland, CA
Kevin Hawkins, Minnesota Peace Activist
William H. Privett, Regional Coordinator, Pax Christi WNY
Tom Wilson, Disability and Peace activist
Joe and Marilyn Schmit, Cradle Catholics who have become advocates for Peace
Eric DeBode, Program Director , Chowchilla Family Express
Mackensie Leigh Roland
James Griffard, St. Louis Mo.
Kateri Kerwin, Colorado Springs, CO
Lynda J. Chick, RN
Richard Lai
Dr. Wolfgang Sternstein, peace researcher and peace activist
JoAnn Sturzl, PBVM
Joe Esseff, Member of Los Angeles Archdiocese Justice & Peace Commission
Mary B and William J. Carry, Ambassadors of Peace, Pax Christi USA
Jeremy Brimer, student
Marlys Weber, Minneapolis, MN
Curtis Klueg, Maryknoll Lay Mission alumni and current Campus minister
Beatrice Parwatikar, Pax Christi Ambassador of Peace
Sarah Holtz, MSW, St. Louis, MO
Miriam Ward, RSM, Pax Christi Burlington, VT
Rev. Robert Dueweke, OSA, Theologian
Virginia Druhe, St Louis Catholic Worker & National Farm Worker Ministry
Irven Rule, Clovis, CA
Julie Bodnar
Nancy Amidei, Seattle, WA
Sarah Heiman
Lorna Paisley -Joliet, IL -St John the Baptist Catholic Church.
Sarah Postel
Richard Fischer
Rev. Kenneth M. Westray, Pastor, Saint Sebastian Parish, Kentfield, CA
Mickey Holtz, Youth Minister, Waukesha, WI
Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry
Bonner J. McAllester
Margaret P. Gilleo
Fr. George Horan, Office of Restorative Justice, Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Michael A Ketterhagen, PhD, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Julie M. Bordo, Evanston, IL
Joseph Gentilini, Ph.D.
Sr. Anne Dougherty, O.S.F.
Clifford Baker, Monterey, MA
Fr. David S. Matz, CPPS, Missionary of the Precious Blood
Lorraine Lynch Nagy
Thomas J. Nagy
Linda Panetta
Fr. Vincent McKiernan,CSP, St. Thomas More Newman Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Mary M. Black
Donna Acquaviva, Secular Franciscan Order
Robert L. Naylor, SFO
Rev. Douglas A. Doussan, Pastor, St. Gabriel the Archangel Church, New Orleans, LA
Sr. Gerry Sellman, SCMM
Mary Ellen Howard, RSM
Linda and Jerry Haley
Sr. Roberta Richmond, IHM
Joseph J. Walker, Paulist Associate
Carli Hildebrandt
Carol Walter, Pax Christi
Irene Therese Gumbleton, I.H.M.
Frank J. O’Donnell, SM
K. Bandell
Mary E. Seymour
Betty McKenzie
Matthew Myers
Mary Anne Perrone
Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, Loyola University Chicago student
Tom Cordaro, Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Dave Hawley, Grand Rapids, Michigan Pax Christi
Eileen Marie Ripsin
Sister Maureen Murray, RSHM, Pax Christi
Br. Howard L. Hughes, SM
John, Carol, Maureen, Megan, and Kevin O’Brien
George A. Koller
Diana Oleskevich
Father Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J., Christian Base Communities of Nicaragua
Sue Stempky
Cheryl Wollin, Evanston, IL
Bob Podzikowski, Plowshares Pax Christi
Christine Doby, Flint, Michigan
Lisa Michelle Doerr
David T. Davis, man of peace
Marsda Conner, Oak Park, IL
Deacon John F. Wright Washington, Michigan
Lynne Banta R.N., Peace Activist
Professor Dan McKanan, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University
Betty Ann Byington
Susan Iacuone Huetteman
Julie Telang, Pax Christi, MI
Arthur Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, D.C.
Gabe Huck, Theresa Kubasak, Iraqi Student Project, Damascus, Syria
Anne Cooper
Arnold Stieber, Father, businessperson, military veteran, Grass Lake, MI
Nick and Mary Eoloff, members of Pax Christ, USA and Pax Christi Minnesota
Julie Telang, Pax Chrisit MI
Kathleen F. Byrnes
Robert D. Byrnes
Joseph Nu’uanu, S.M
Harvey W. Slager, St John the Evangelist Parish, Jackson, Michigan
Christina Johnson, All Saints Catholic Church, Dunwoody. Georgia
Rosemary Sullivan, Ecclesial Lay Minister, Diocese of Lansing, Michigan
Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, Restorative Justice Practitioner
Deborah Harley, peace activist
Jim Rooney, Peace and Justice Committee, St. Athanasius, Evanston, IL
Mary Rooney, Ministry of Mothers Sharing, St. Athanasius, Evanston, IL
Anne Perkins, parishioner at St. Cronan Church, St. Louis, MO
Sr. Kathlyn A. Lange, SCSC, Pastoral Associate
Christine Bridenbaker, Buffalo Catholic Worker
Dorothy Olinger, SSND
Mark M. Smith, Director of Religious Education, Lay Ecclesial Minister, Social Justice Activist,
Jackson, Michigan
Rev. Dr. Gabriel A. DesHarnais, retired psychotherapist, former RC priest, now Episcopalian priest
Mary DesHarnais, retired school teacher
Nancy Cusack, Board member of North Shore Peace Initiative
Margaret Magee OSF, Franciscan Federation Third Order Regular of the United States
Jean Fishbeck
Judy Popovich
Robert L. Davis, Retired Deputy Asst. Secy., US Department of Labor
Stella M. Goodpasture, OP, Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose
Karin Grosscup, therapist and spiritual director, mother of three sons and two grandsons
Lida Sparer
Kathy McKinley-Goodrich, St. Margaret of Scotland Church, St. Clair Shores, Michigan
Margarita Silva-Potts
Mary Liston Liepold, Ph.D., Pax Christi DC - Baltimore
David Stieber
Dan Gumbleton, LCSW
Patricia Burbank, Director, The Cottage Retreat Center
Stephen A. Borla
Dr. Francis Fischer
Gary Ashby
Cal Robertson
Patricia White, San Diego, California
James Bowler, S.J., Coordinator of Catholic and Jesuit Mission, Fairfield University
Jocelyn M. Boryczka, Director, Peace & Justice Studies Program, Fairfield University
Larry and Elizabeth Reyes, opposers of the invasion from the start, and parents of a soldier twice deployed to the Iraq war
Maura Stephens, Ithaca, NY
Jack and Kate Neis
Allen G. Shores, Palm Desert, CA
Mary M Miner, RSM
Carol Marozzi, SSJ
Sister Rose Marie Canty, CSC
Paul Lakeland, Ph.D., Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Professor of Catholic Studies, Fairfield University, Fairfield CT
Fr. Emmett Jarrett, TSSF, St. Francis House (Catholic Worker), New London, CT
Nancy J. Peters, Pax Christi, Muskegon, MI
Joseph G. Driessen, SFO
Elaine Shegitz
Patricia Heath, SUSC, Healthcare Administrator
Jo Sippie-Gora, Seeds of Peace Committee, Morristown Unitarian Fellowship
James W Prescott, Ph.D., Director, Institute of Humanistic Science
Barbara B. Broderick
Julie Beutel, teacher, singer, mother
Dorothy Prettyman, SSJ
Katharine and Clinton Bamberger
Rev. William F. Brisotti, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, Wyandanch, NY
Jean W. Pierce
Mary Ann Mulzet, SSJ
David Breeden, minister
Teresa Delgado, Professor of Moral Theology, Iona College, NY
Fr. Francis Pizzarelli,SMM , Executive Director-Founder, Hope House Ministries
Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ
Catherine E. McMahon
Nancy and Frank Greaney
Sue Petruzzi
Carolyn Cicciu, mother, teacher, peace activist
Richard K. Taylor, author
Marilyn Wilson, BVM
Rose Mary O’Connell
Eugene Hamond
Nora Hamond-Gallardo
Christopher M. Bryan, Waterville, Maine
Barbara Quinn, RSCJ
Marge Hickey, Voice of the Faithful, Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
Margaret Melkonian, Pax Christi, LI
Gene Zirkel,, Nassau Community College Catholic Chaplain, Retired, Director LI Voice of the Faithful, Retired
Nancy Dwyer, Pax Christi, LI
Sister Mary Ann Cunningham, Loretto Community
Arthur J. Kubick, Retired Professor, Rivier College
Mark Scibilia-Carver, St. James Parish, Trumansburg, Arborist
Janet Liotta St. Kilian’s Roman Catholic Church, Farmingdale, NY
Peter Sirois, Pax Christi, Maine (495)
Rev. Michael J. Doody, SJ, Director of Campus Ministry, Fairfield University, Connecticut
Virginia M. Ryan, Rivier College
Patricia McCormick Zirkel, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Kubick, Mont Vernon, NH
Rose Mary Ronnow
Dr. Victor R. De Vita, married priest
Cynthia A. Murray-Beliveau, Maine
Joanne Archer, LCSW, Long Island,NY
Mark DiMeo
Nancy Small, Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Joan L. Tirak, Pax Christi Michigan
Pat and Walter Niewiadomski, Lansing, MI
Genny Kortes, spiritual humanitarian for peace
Sue Malone
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish SNDdeN
Rev. George J. Kuhn, Pastor, St. Joseph’s Church, Yonkers, NY
E. Paul Kelly, former Jesuit scholastic, retired lawyer
Jean and Joe Gump, Bloomingdale, MI
Sheila M. Rietano
Marita-Constance Supan, IHM, Ph.D. The Healing Place, Metro Detroit
Ada Burns, RSCJ
Joan B.Manion, S.G.M.
William Schmidt Ph.D, Humble, Texas
Nicholas Troilo, St. John the Evangelist Parish, Stamford, CT
Joy Gordon, Professor, Philosophy Department, Fairfield University
Terrence W. Tilley, President-elect, Catholic Theological Society of America, Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department, Fordham University
Elizabeth and Dennis Keenan
Dawn Silver, Chicago, IL
Edward and Beverly McNichol, Our Lady of Peace parishioners,Stratford,CT
Rev Andrew P. Blake
Atty. Edward T. Blair
Joanne P. Blair
Michele Saracino
Dolores Chepiga SSJ
Richard P. Doherty
Paul Ferris
Stephen R. Aucoin, Waterville, Maine City Council
Edward J. Thompson, Sr.
Nancy Feeney
Barbara Steinbeigle
John Dwyer
Sister Alice Zachmann
Claire Sinotte, OP
Mary E. Ford, Ocean Pines, MD
Rev. Norman J Simoneau
Stuart O’Brien
Joseph Hassan, retired married priest, NY
Eileen T. Lundy
Barbara Goldberg, L.I. Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
Frank Kromkowski, Peace and justice worker, Helena, Montana
John and Patty Hyland
Barbara Corcoran
BJ Fjeldheim
Aidan Surlis, married catholic priest
Joan Chittister, OSB, Co-Chair, Women’s Global Peace Initiative; Co-Chair, Network of Spiritual Progressives
Margaret Barry
Dave and Mary Ann Van Etten, Child Care Providers
Gayle M. Hickok,BsEd,CDT,NMT
Suzanne Hedrick
Sister Mary Ann Coyle, Loretto Community
Beth and Larry Brockman
Linda Britt, Ann Arbor, MI
Joel Welty, Great Lakes Humanist Society
John D. Ryan, Ph.D.
Jeanne Fogg, Port Chester, NY; member of Emmaus Community, Stamford, CT and Voice of the Faithful
Kimberly Redigan, Pax Christi Michigan
Edward Ciaccio
Victoria Loudis
Mari E. Ryan, CSJ
Dr. Michael L. Proulx, Dept. of History, The City University of New York
John J. MacDougall
Janer A. MacDougall
Beth Rindler, SFP
Renee Watkins RN, Chairperson of the Social Justice committee, St. Agnes Parish, Marion Michigan
Carla Dawson, Des Moines
Eugene S. Long, Ph.D., ret. community college dean, Franciscan Multicultural Institute, Voice of the Faithful, Just Faith, and Joan Long, ret. Community College Prof., Voice of the Faithful, Just Faith, both of Corpus Christi Parish, Oakland, CA.
Caroline Herzenberg, Hyde Park Committee Against War and Racism
Thomas P. Dowling, Esq. NY (581)
Colleen Eren, City of New York Graduate Center
Donna Marsh O’Connor
Lin Romano, Atlantic Life Community
Arline M. Schoenberger, a mother
Macy Morse, 87 yrs., mother of 13 children, peace activist
Stephanie Campbell, State of Delaware, Sussex County, USA
Geraldine Schaedler
Mary Jo Kolb, Portland OR
Thad Huetteman
Patricia B. Powers
Kieran Scott
Ellen O’Rourke
Ann Shaw, CSC
Lelia Mattingly, Tucson, AZ
Janice K. Schuler
John R. Sachs, SJ, Academic Dean, Weston Jesuit School of Theology
Sister Margaret Mary Lavonis, CSC
Gloria Seymour, Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
Vicky, Cathy and Diana Cosgrove
Rev. Thomas G. Gallagher, N. Merrick, NY
Claire Deroche, Social Justice Coordinator, Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, Manhasset, NY
Edward J. Farrell
Fred A. Wilcox
Beverly Ellingwood
Marian Klostermann, OSF
Elaine Rittersdorf Ryan
John Chuchman, Sacred Quest
Fr. Frederick L. Thelen, Pastor, Cristo Rey Church, Lansing, MI
Vincent Ricciardi, Kalamazoo College student, USA
Gwen and Tom Umlauf
Gerald and Elaine O’Neill
Fred Dabrowski
Mary Premo
James E. Claffey
Nalini C. Claffey
Colleen Eren, New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty International PADP Steering Committee
Maryann Shine
Thomas A. McCabe, member Pax Christi USA
Larry B. Ahlgrim
John and Catherine Guinn
Judith Hallock, CSC
Anna D’Angelo-Attard
Mike Nashleanas, Theology, Marquette University, 1971
Sr. Lilianne Flavin
Lilly Williams
Karen Anklam
Don Everard
Joe Mueller
Paul Troyano
Sue Troyano
Claire Fitzgerald
John Koeferl
Katy Herren
Luke Koeferl
Kevin Fitzgerald
Dan Fitzgerald
John Fitzgerald
Max Fitzgerald
Anna Koeferl
Vicki Judice
Katy Quigley
Anna Rita Barron, St. Luke the Evangelist, Bellaire, MI
Mary Dennis Lentsch PBVM
Kathleen O’Farrell
Alice E. Gerard
Joan A.M. Miller, Kalamazoo College, Student, USA
Margaret Flanagan
Susan P. Mills
Mr. and Mrs Joseph A. (Sr.) and Natalie M. Buckley
Pat McNamara, Fairfield, CT
Pamela Rups, Campaign for a Department of Peace, Michigan 6th District
Renée Rewiski, Hawthorne, NJ
Marguerite Bozarth, Michigan 6th District Department of Peace Campaign
Deacon Robert W. Gronenthal
Patrick Sullivan, Kalamazoo MI
Peggy Fitzpatrick, 2007 Returning Peace Corps Volunteer
Charles W. Michaels, Esq. Coordinator, Pax Christi Baltimore
Father Leo Shea, M.M.
S. Maryanne Zakreski, SSJ
Eileen Doherty
Brian Doherty
Dr Stanley Doherty CTA
Sister Ellen Ann Gardner SC
John S. Hooper, Gesu Parish, Detroit, Michigan
Karen M. Donahue, RSM, Justice Coordinator, Sisters of Mercy, Detroit, Michigan
Dr. Ronald E. Modras
Sister Mary Frances Gebhard,OSB
Eva E. Moss
Roberta Cochrane, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, No. Babylon, NY
Bette Gambonini, BVM, Sunnyvale, CA
Anne Pawli
Mary Ann McCarthy
John S. Santa, K.M.
Kevin Cassidy, Professor of Politics, Fairfield University
Lawrence P. Mulligan
Marlin Gerber, Retired Professor, Kalamazoo, MI
MaryLee Brisotti
Jane Givens
Anne Cagnina
John Cagnina
Marie T. Stoline, RN, Kalamazoo, MI
Lisa V Rocheleau
Ann Vinup, Peace and Justice Committee, St. Ignatius Church, Baltimore MD
Rev. Carl P. Meulemans
Ronald T. Mason and Joyce E. Mason, Members of Call to Action Washtenaw Area, Michigan
Mary McCauley, BVM
Russell L. Morey, nurse for peace
Dorothy Ritter RN, BSN
Mary Donlan, St. Gertrude Parish and Pax Christi
Dick Bernard, immediate past-president, Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers
Dorothy Dwight, BVM
Pat McSweeney, Taunton, MA
Ray Mack, former seminarian, Boston, MA
Cindy Sheehan, Mother of slain US soldier: Casey Sheehan, Peace Activist and Candidate for Congress, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
Carolyn Cole, Peace Activist, Roman Catholic
Marilyn Barnett, OP
Mary P. Lees, Pax Christi, MA
Robert M. Weir, writer/speaker, Dept of Peace campaign
Mike Citarella and Don Citarella, Hoboken, NJ
Jeanne Tarrant
The Rev. David. W. McShane DD, United Presbyterian Church, USA
Kathleen Weber, CSC
Steve Senesi
Faye George, with Citizens for an Informed Community
Joseph Protano, Jr., Roman Catholic priest
Lois T. Dickason
Joan L. Khaled
Amanda and Matthew W. Daloisio, New York Catholic Worker, Witness Against Torture
Anne Tyler Calabresi, New Haven CT
Mary Ellen Briganti, former RCIA leader and present member of Pax Christi
Clare Grady, Ithaca Catholic Worker
Antoinette Bosco, Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty
Mary M. Brockway, Pax Christi Member
Jeff Monjack, High School Teacher
Louise Rauseo
Sister Rosemary Balog, C.S.J. Congregation of St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, MI
Edouard Rocher, PhD, Co-Coordinator Pax Christi MA
Ann F. Eno, Westford, Massachusetts
Kathleen M. Herrick
Rev. James L. Meyer, MA, JD, Archdiocese of Detroit
Kevin and Linda Regan
Sr. Mary Margaret Weber, CSC
Stephen T. Krupa, S.J., Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago (732)
M. Kathleen Pritty, RSM
Benedictines for Peace, St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, MN
Members of Pax Christi St. Cloud
Maureen Butler
John and Jeanne Hynes, Church of St. Stephen, Minneapolis, MN
Patrick and Vera Nugent
Charles and Margaret SeBour, Advocates for peace
Dorothy Latour, 73 year old Catholic still
Michael and Christine Perlin
Janet Kurtz, CSJ, Nazareth, Michigan
Sander Hicks, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, New York Megaphone
Denese Badgerow
Beth Huggins
Deacon Joe Schmitt, Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan
The Rev. Dr. Richard S. Gilbert, Retired Unitarian Universalist Minister
Rev. Thomas Goekler, MM
Shreena Gandhi
Larry Rose and Pat Rose, members Pax Christi National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette
Matt Vogel and Tanya Theriault, New York Catholic Worker, Managing Editors, Catholic Worker newspaper
The Peace Farm
Malachy McCourt
Paul and Donna Schonveld
Cathleen Bleidorn, Milwaukee Area Technical College, instructor at House of Correction
Barbara Steinbeigle
Marc V. Simon, Pax Christi Wood Co. Ohio
Catherine M. Pfeiffer, Pax Christi MA
Donna M. Wright
Mares Hirchert, Marygrove College Graduate 1968, Peace Activist, Constituent of the American Friends Service Committe, Associate member of Veterans for Peace
Mary LaVoy
Judith Rich, Pax Christi MA
Margaret A. Mooney, Stamford, CT
Faith Madzar, Pax Christi MA
Renee Espeland, Iowa Peace Network
Carol L. Ries, SNJM
Lydia P. Priest, chaplain, Northeast Health System, Beverly Hospital, MA
Mary Ellen Foley
Barbara Stanbridge, IHM
Jane F. Morrissey, ssj
Denise Ryman, Second Year Lay Ministry Candidate
Jane Alderman, Ankeny, IA
S. Kathleen Desautels, SP
Rosemary Doyle
Deonne M. Schwartz, Saint Julia Bible Study and Interfaith Coordinator
Bill and Marjorie Pfeifer,Facilitators for Pax Christi McHenry County, IL, USA
Kathleen A. Byrnes, Assistant Chaplain, Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel,Yale University
Joan M. Foley
Mary Beth Moore, SC
Mary Jane Daily, SSJ
Kathleen Winner, SSJ
Barbara Reuben, SSJ
Maureen Kelly, SSJ
Linda Larsen, SSJ
Jean Amore, CSJ, Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, NY
Kathryn Rod-Wahlquist
Sister Mary Walsh, CSJ
S. Lucy Blyskal, CSJ, Brentwood
Mary Lou Buser CSJ
Eugenia Calabrese CSJ
Kathleen Keller, SNJM
Rev. Rosanne M. Anderson, Pastor, Transfiguration Lutheran Church,Taylor, MI, Associate of the Sisters of Mercy, West Midwest Regional Community
Theresa Blaquiere, RSM
Bob Rauth, Coordinator Pax Christi Virginia
Adele DellaValle, Haiti Outreach, Diocese of Richmond (804)
Patricia Gronenthal
Marie and Jim Borrone
Sister Annette Zipple, RSCJ, President, Women’s Cultural Collaborative
Marla Yeck, RSM
Sister Rachelle Harper, Sister of Mercy
Sister Patricia Wallace, SP
Sister Susan Dinnin, SP, Sisters of Providence, St. Mary of the Woods, Indiana
Sister Frances Gerhard, RSM, Sister of Mercy
Marcie Greeley, Associate, Sisters of Mercy
Tom and Linda Walsh
Sister Mary Canice Johnson, RSM, Sisters of Mercy, Regional Community of Detroit
Sarah Ruth Foster, RSM
Mary A. Bodde, SC, Sister of Charity of Cincinnati
Rosemary Smith, RSM
Marty Jennings, Catholic Chaplain, Social Worker, Addictions Counselor, Sisters of Mercy Associate
George Van Antwerp
George Anderson, S.J.
Rev. Leonard J Tighe, Archdiocese of Boston, MA
Toni Perior Gross, Ed.D.
Dianna L. Kielian
Richard J. DeBona
Mary Louise Yurik, RSM
Jean Umlor, RSM, RN, Grayling, Michigan
Barbara Vinton, Associate of Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit
John F. and Laura S. Locher, Justice Coordinators for the Sisters of Mercy, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Margaret Weber, RSM
Helen Ruhl, RSM
Donna Deedler, RSM, LMSW
Father Michael Tyson, OFM
Teresina Grasso, SP, Associate Director, Institute of Religious Formation and the Hesburgh Sabbatical Program
Cecilia Farrell-Holland,Mi
Sister Jolene Van Handel, O.P.
Rev. Jerome C. Singer.
Patricia Latshaw Halling
Gregory Halling
Seth Halling
Sister Joan Peltier, M.M.
Sister Marilyn Ingraham, M..M.
Sister Mary Grace Krieger, M.M.
Mary Reilly RSM
Aileen Ryan
Mary M. Buck, Portland, ME., Mercy Corps Volunteer
Doris Lavery
Dan Lavery
Jacquelyn Hoffman, S.P.
Emily Tetalman
Janet Houlihan Kain, mother of 7, grandmother of 14, active catholic working for justice and peace
Peter Valuckas
Camille D’Arienzo, RSM
Barbara Valuckas, SSND, Pilgrim Ministries, Inc.,Watertown, CT
Patricia H. Dervish, Esquire
Virginia Farnan RSM
Anne Marie LaHaie
Kristina A. Davis
Ann Strizek, C.S.J.
Jess Ochalek, Matt Ochalek and Anne McCarthy, OSB, Mary the Apostle Catholic Worker
Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
Edward Doherty, teacher
Barbara Scheele, faithful parishioner, Pacific Grove, CA
Lorean E. Whiteman, SNJM
Bill Ofenloch, Catholic Peace Fellowship, NYC
Mara Bard. Co-Chair of Long Island School of the Americas Watch
Sister Dolores Rachel Dietz, OSB, St. Scholastica Monastery, Ft. Smith, Arkansas
Deborah Allen
Martin Bradley, St. Mary’s of the Angel Parish, cofounder, Plowshares Peace and Justice Center, Ukiah CA
Sister Rita Clare Gerardot, Sister of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana
Canice Johnson, RSM
Stella Auricchio, CSJ
Eric LeCompte, Coordinator of SOA Watch and former Chair of Pax Christi USA
Rev Roy Bourgeois, MM, Founder of SOA Watch
Bill Wylie-Kellermann, Pastor, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church - Detroit
Sister Connie Schoen, OP
Paul V. Rafferty, “U.N. OBSERVER & International Report”
Robert F. Byrnes, Prof., Suffolk County Community College
Br. Eric Smith, Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, GA
Cesar Jose Rosa, Reading, PA
Ann B.Nostwich
Constance Poindexter Durkin
Sarah Melici, actress
Barbara Jo Weller
Veronica A. Levesque, Wyomissing, PA
Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J.
Bob and Janet Aldridge
Martha Hennessy, granddaughter to Dorothy Day
Maryanne Meyerriecks, Director of Communications, St. Scholastica Monastery, Fort Smith, AR; Correspondent, Arkansas Catholic, Diocese of Little Rock
Sister Catherine Markey, OSB
Martha Holden Bagley, retired teacher
Pat Berger
Francis D Hussey MD, Naples, FL
William Hickey, Gesu Detroit Peace & Justice Committee
Carolyn S. Scarr, program coordinator, Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC
Kara Speltz, Catholic chair, Soulforce, Inc.
Rosaleen Mazur
Emilie Trautman
Marie Viola
Peter Wood
Pattie Hughs
Anna Zook
David Chandler, member of the Visalia Friends Meeting, Religious Society of Friends
Joan A. Koliss, OSF
Paul F. Kilroy, Ecclesiastical Notary for the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys
Rev John Wichman, Pastor Westminter Hills Presbyterian Church, Hayward CA
Scott Kennedy, Resource Center for Nonviolence
Evelyn I. Montez, OP, Adrian Dominican Sister
Phoebe Anne Sorgen, Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner
Gabrielle Welford, Ph.D.
Rebecca Michel, Church musician, CT
Janyce Murphy and Robert Hill, Jr.
Pat Landsel
Susan Dembowski
Richard F. Ambrose, Pax Christi, Birmingham
C. Alexis Ambrose, Pax Christi, Birmingham
Mary Martha Stevens
Peter Klotz-Chamberlin, First Congregational Church, Santa Cruz, CA
The Rev. David Grishaw-Jones, Senior Minister, First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ), Santa Cruz, CA
Eric Warden
Annie Elfing, Humboldt State University
Anne R. Laurance
Eli Sasaran McCarthy, PhD student, Ethics and Social Theory, Graduate Theological Union
Paul and Mary Springer, Grand Haven, MI
David Laurance and Nancy Lewis
Debra Redick, Texas
Amy J. Wieleba, Member Call to Action, USA
Father Stan Szczapa
Rosemary A. Rader, Member, Call To Action
Rosaline Secrest
Jeremiah Lennox, Student Leader of Youth Alive Campus Missionaries
Barbara Supanich, RSM, MD, Sister of Mercy and Medical Director of Palliative Care, Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, MD
Kathleen Boyd
Helen Waddington, Wellington, New Zealand
Gerald F Bradley
Alan Dornan
Rita Laurance
Earlene Mara, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Peter Mihaly
Helen C. Simon, Member, Call to Action Washtenaw Area, Michigan
Nancy and Paul Duggan
Dephine Palkowski
Rev. Ama Zenya, United Church of Christ
Carol Murry, DrPH
Elizabeth M. Loria, St. John Fisher Peace and Justice Ministry
Judy Szczesny, Detroit
Anthony and Marie Krajci, Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Santa Cruz, CA (956)
Sidney Callahan, Ph.D
Noah Simpson
Jack Gilroy, Chair, Peace/Justice Committee, St James Church, Johnson City, NY
Dr. Brian Donohue-Lynch
Maryann Donohue-Lynch
Mary Bentson, Sterling Heights, MI
William Bentson, Sterling Heights, MI
Rosemary Sarri
Robert Schutzius, Secretary, ARCC
Helen Olszewski
Sr. Kay Crumlish, RSM
Mary M. Howrey, St. Francis of Assisi parishioner, Ann Arbor, MI
Sister Emily Walsh, St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana
Fr. Art Kolinsky, C.M. Vincentian Missionary
Gwen M Farry, BVM
Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.
Kathleen M. Antol, BVM, PhD
Dee Myers, Belmont, CA
Tami S Blair, Las Vegas, NV
Remington James Blair, Las Vegas, NV
Marie Corr, BVM
Rev. Louis Arceneaux, C.M. justice and peace promoter, Congregation of the Mission, Southern Province, USA
Teri Hadro, BVM
Sue and Paul Troyano, New Orleans,LA
Dr. William DeGenaro, The University of Michigan Dearborn
Carol Cook, BVM
Theresa Billeaud, .D.P.
Mary Ann Krems Sisters of Charity, BVM Associate
Theresa Caluori
Sister Teresita Poulin, BVM, Santa Rosa, CA
Mary Ellen McDonagh, BVM
Sr. Margaret Wiener RSHM Marymount Convent Tarrytown, NY
Robert Desmarais Sullivan, Social Justice Team, First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
Sabrina Spence, Children’s Faith Formation Coordinator, St. Matthias Church, Redwood City, CA
Mary D. Joyce
Maureen McClean, Farmington Hills, Michigan
Al Bernard, New Orleans Jazz Musician, Pax Christi New Orleans
Karen K. Harris, Associate Member, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virigin Mary and Lifetime Catholic
Beth Kloser
Catherine Harvey, a woman against the war in Iraq, and against all war
Virginia McCaffrey
Patricia Peach BVM
Carol Spiegel, BVM
Laurie Coulter, Homemaker, catechist and peacemaker
Ginny Pauwels, Catholic school teacher
Barbara J Monda MA Catholic for Peace as a Reality
Rev. Carl Matthews-Naylor, United Ecumenical Catholic Church, Goldston, N.C.
John Hostage, Nashua, NH
Betty Voss, BVM
Rev. Richard Schiblin CSsR
Margaret Bitz, Catalyst for Social Justice Ministry of Nativity Church, Fargo, ND
Cynthia Tiedeman
Eileen M. Tittle, Social worker
Tanya Monsour Stager
Marie Ferrantino, Parishioner, St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church, Hartford, CT
Karin Bennett, SFO
Margaret Diener, OP
Jeanie Hagedorn, CHM
Elaine Hagedorn, CHM
Cynthia Pearson-Cunningham
Pete Yuslum, Pax Christi-New Orleans
John L Tiedeman
Kay D. Brown
Mulry and Elisabeth Tetlow, New Orleans
Noel Jurgens, Pax Christi, New Orleans
Rita and James Mize
Denise Johnston, Social Justice Advocates of Placer County
Michael J. Miller
Karen LeCarpentier, Peace & Justice Committee, Gesu Parish, Detroit, Michigan
Barbara Roseborough, mother, grandmother, Benedictine Oblate, Erie, Pennsylvania (1030)
Betty Bazur
Herb Bazur
Marie Anita MacWilliam, M.M.
Ms. Margaret A. Flanagan, MCA, Pax Christi Metro NY
Arnie Messing, CTA-MI and a married catholic priest
Mary Ann Cashin
Joan Petito, CSJ
Amy Woolam Echeverria, Columban Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Office
Florence Planta, Switzerland
Christine McGraw, Mercy Prayer Center, Rochester, NY
Sister Pat Miller
Sister Dorothy Ann Chevalier, C.H.M., Hospital Pastoral Care
Rev. Perry D. Leiker
Mary Kay Craig and George Waring, Justice Voices Ministry, Butte, MT
Rose Mary Meyer, BVM
Eileen McGovern, BVM
Sister Jeanette Kopel
Leszek Syski
Ann Lenore Eifert, BVM
Dr. Anneliese Sinnott, O.P.
Mary D. Hayes, Faithful Catholic
Madeleine Beaumont
Nancy McDarby
Steven A. Davis, Mary A. Davis; two more Catholics whose hearts are breaking.
Irene Munoz CHM-Multicultural Ministries
Kathleen M. Partyka
Brian Terrell, Executive Director, Catholic Peace Ministry, Des Moines, IA
Maureen McDonnell, O.P.
Brother Jack Isbell, OFC, Senior Bishop, United Ecumenical Catholic Church: North America
Yvonne R. Prowse, Executive Director, Jesuit Volunteer Corps Southwest
Marie LaVoie Kennedy, Secular Franciscan Order and Call to Action, Washtenaw County, MI
Fr. Bernard Survil, Diocese of Greensburg, PA
Rev. Suzan S. Holderbaum, Ordained Old Catholic Deacon of the Apostolic Catholic Church
Edna Knudsen, BVM. St. Paul, MN
Patti Scutari, Mother and Grandmother
Donald C. Matson
Joan R. Matson
Craig M. Holderbaum, Asst. Pastor, Harmony Way Community Church
Scott T Stewart RN
Barbara J. Gross, Davenport, IA
Miriam Todoroff
Charles and Marilyn Bushong, Fairfield, CA
Margaret A Kloecker, Benedictine Oblate, Erie PA
Benita Coffey, O.S.B., St. Scholastica Monastery, Chicago
Marvin Read, Pueblo, Colorado
Marge Sears, Gesu Church Peace and Justice team
Louise Wolf-Novak
Judith Kelly, DC Metro Area Regional Associate, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service
Robert and Marie Handley, members Gesu Parish, Detroit
Joellen McCarthy, BVM, President of the Congregation
Peggy Nolan, BVM, Vice-president of the Congregation
Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, Vice-president of the Congregation
Janet Estes Castaneda, SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Liturgy Committee Chairperson, Rocklin, California
Therese Hagemann, Pax Christi Sonoma County
Elizabeth Olsen, BVM, Hospital Chaplain
Sister Kay Heverin, S.S.J.
Joan and Stuart MacIntyre, Oakland CA, St. Leo the Great RC Parish, peace activist affiliated with Mustard Seed Peace Affinity Group, Ecumenical Peace Institute
Sheila H. Schultz, Wheeling, IL
Cedar Leeper Moss, Area Director, Jesuit Volunteer Corps: southwest
Alice M Sousa SFO (1096)
Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM
Deacon Jerome Miller, Saint Patrick’s Church, Iowa City, Iowa
David M. Hulefeld
Christine J. Litka
Deborah Hayden, mother of a crippled Iraq veteran
Marge Clark, BVM
Mary Casper
Mary Kay Hartman, MSN, APRN, FNP
Michael L Gayman Oakland Catholic Worker, Oakland CA
Jim Albertini, Hawaii
Theresa Butler
Rev. Thomas B. Fenlon, Pastor of St. Augustine Catholic Church, Bronx, New York
Catherine Fey
Bill Leece
Joan Novak, Youth Minister, Holy Infant Church
Jim and Brenda Manzardo, Pax Christi St. Gertrude, Chicago, IL
Julie Kipp, PhD, LCSW
Brian Koehler, PhD
Mary Alyce Behrns
Elizabeth G. Pinter
Fumiaki Tosu
Mary Vivian Zelaya
Adolfo R. Mercado, Sacramento, California
Joseph Chamandy
Evalee Mickey, PaxChristi Iowa City
Richard Earl Cross, pastoral musician
Frances E. Speight
Margaret Pabst
John and Sharon Munter
Barbara Thibeault, East Lansing, MI, M.Ed., LMSW, Alumna of 16 years of Catholic education
Carol Marie Baum, BVM, South Central Regional Team, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dubuque, IA
Jim O’Callahan, South Brooklyn Pax Christi
Dr. Mary Ogles
Lawrence Horvath
Louise McDonald, CSJ
Rob Currie, S.J. , Arenal, Nicaragua
Jocelyne Chamandy
Carla M. Knoblock, RSM
Raymond Thibeault, Director, Loaves and Fishes Emergency Shelter
Phil and Gwen Nordgren, Paradise, CA
Veronica Fellerath Lowell, Pax Christi Montgomery County, MD
Ann Westendorf Hirt, Lay Marianist, member of Micah Marianist Community
Pauline Westendorf, 85 year old mother of 7, grandmother of 26, great grandmother of 6
Judy Mannix, RGS
Monna Wejrowski
Patricia Silber, Professor Emerita, Fordham University
Francilla Kirby, BVM
Evelyn Lamoureux
S. Cecilia Ann Miller, S.P., St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana
Lee Steedle
Alice Steedle
Jacqueline Jill -Rito, member Pax Christi LI, teacher & advisor, Garden City Park, NY
Eleanor Oakley
Tony Korec, Educator
Kayla Scheib
Mary Beth Kabat
Laurie A. Ellis
Deacon Larry Bloom
Linda Bates
Nancy Bates
Marie Bates
John Parsons
Steven Mullen and Carol Mullen
Michael and Virginia Walter
Sally Gould
Catherine A. McEachern
Mary C. McEachern
John C. Magennes
Esther Smith
Margaret L. Thorne
Lauren and David Carboni
Maureen Hearn
Therese Selley
Kerry Gould
John Kelly
Helen M. Donovan
Gary Haskell
Louise Bolles
Mary Scanlon
Theresa Lemaire
Joanne Capelda
Neil Swant
Hans Hunteregger
Shirley Ellis
Maryanne Placentino
Daniel Head, Jr.
Caddlyn A. Jenkin
Peter Gould
Neil and Pat Cronin
Dorothy E. Caski
Irene and Ken Weeden
Paul and Joan Faley
Patricia Ferrone
Joseph Ferrone
Lorraine Brophy
Luanne Gaef
Arlene DePhillippo
Thomas J. Clinton
Eric Dorsheimer
Patricia R, Perkins, Braintree, MA, Co-President, Voice of the Faithful, Weymouth MA Chapter
Nancy O’Byrne, Coordinator of Pax Christi Northeast Florida
Virginia Burdick Skinner, MSW
Bonnie B. Waldron R.N.
Adel O’Regan, mklm-Maryknoll Lay Missioner
Catherine L. Herron, MA, MT-BC , Chaplain,Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pte. MI
Mary Sotir, St. Athanasius Peace & Justice Ministry, Evanston IL

_________________________________Mary Ellen O’Boyle, SC
Arleen Ketchum
Richard Melchione, R.Ph.
Mary Medved, SNJM
Anne-Marie Yu-Phelps
Anne-Marie Armstrong, Trenton, Michigan
Johann M. Vento, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Georgian Court University
Frank Higdon MM, Brasil
Jeanne Horvath
Cornelia A. Sullivan Pax Christi Boston, MA
Bill McNulty, School of the Americas Watch
Mary Adele Henze, S.C.
Catherine Montaldo, St. Andrew RC Church, Sag Harbor, New York
Veronica Fellerath Lowell, Maryland
P. Murphy, Boston, MA
Jonathan Yu-Phelps, Maryknoll Lay Missioner, João Pessoa, Brazil
Patricia Fox Redmond, member of Pax Christi and Fellowship of Reconciliation
Mary H. Marren
Dr Robert E Morris, Former Consutant WHO, Veterans for Peace, USN Vietnam
Rev. Paul Surlis
phoebe knopf
Suzanne Fitzpatrick
Eleanor M. MacLellan RSCJ
Joan Gannon, R.S.C.J.
Robert Mulligan,VOTF, Bridgeport CT
Maureen O’Connel, Pax Christi Palm Beach
Joan M. Wittreich Pax Christi
Donna Mehle
Elizabeth and Ian Ravenscroft
Sr. Maureen Kelly, OSF
Kate Flaherty, South Boston Residents for Peace
Catherine H. Pfeiffer Pax Christi Massachusetts
S.Maureen D’Onofrio, CSJ
Sr.Mary Sugrue S.C.
Alice Kast, Pax Christi Boston, MA
Michael Carey, Cambridge
Sister Mary Wentland, OSF
Kevin Heaton, Somerville, MA
Jean Henry
Maureen Irvin, OSF, Justice and Peace Coordinator
Dorothy Morris, retired
John M. McDonagh, PhD, ABPP, clinical psychologist
Mary Tarle Corcoran, St. Paul of Tarsus Justice and Peace Committee

JFK and the Unspeakable [Orbis Books, 4/30/8]

JFK and the Unspeakable
Why He Died and Why It Matters
by James W. Douglass

Advance Praise for JFK and the Unspeakable

"JFK and the Unspeakable is an exceptional achievement. Douglass has made the strongest case so far in the JFK assassination literature as to the Who and the Why of Dallas. The conjunction of unrestrained elements in cold war America—defense industry elites, Pentagon planners, and the heads of the intelligence community—were the forces that led inexorably to Dallas and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”--Gerald McKnight, author, Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why

“With penetrating insight and unswerving integrity, Douglass probes the fundamental truths about JFK’s assassination. If, he contends, humanity permits those truths to slip into history ignored and undefined it does so at its own peril. By far the most important book yet written on the subject.” --Gaeton Fonzi, former Staff Investigator, US House Select Committee on Assassinations

“Douglass presents, brilliantly, an unfamiliar yet thoroughly convincing account of a series of creditable decisions of John F. Kennedy—at odds with his initial Cold War stance—that earned him the secret distrust and hatred of hard-liners among the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA. Did this suspicion and rage lead directly to his murder by agents of these institutions, as Douglass concludes? Many readers who are not yet convinced of this ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ by Douglass’s prosecutorial indictment will find themselves, perhaps—like myself—for the first time, compelled to call for an authoritative criminal investigation. Recent events give all the more urgency to learning what such an inquiry can teach us about how, by whom, and in whose interests this country is run.” --Daniel Ellsberg, author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

“For forty years Jim Douglass has been our leading North American Catholic theologian of peace. But this monumental work on the witness of JFK is something deeper still. Douglass is trying to get us to connect the dots between our ‘citizen denial,’ the government’s ‘plausible deniability,’ and the Unspeakable. This book has the potential to change our narrative about our country, and our lives as citizens and disciples. May we have ears to hear these truths, hearts able to bear their burden, and hands willing to build a new story.”—Ched Myers, author, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus

“This book’s story of JFK and the ‘unspeakable’ is a stunning mix of political thriller and meticulous scholarship. Even as it points persuasively to rogue powers at work in the U.S. military-industrial complex, it also witnesses to the power of spirit, inspiring prophetic voices like Thomas Merton’s, turning a president like John Kennedy toward peace, thus also enabling readers to see into the current deep structure of U.S. war and empire. Douglass’s book offers a goldmine of information and is indispensable for building prophetic spirit and hope.”—Mark Lewis Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary

“A remarkable book: devastating in its documented indictment of the dark forces that have long deformed the public life of this country, while also illuminating JFK’s final vision of world peace and documenting beyond reasonable doubt the unspeakable assassination of our last partially admirable president. This book should be required reading for every American citizen.”—Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University

“This is the most thoroughly researched and documented book ever written about President Kennedy’s determination to prevent a nuclear war—and how his success in that struggle cost him his life. And yet, Douglass leads us well beyond the ‘whodunit’ dimensions of the story. He leads us straight into the urgent implications for the present, into what Thomas Merton called the ‘unspeakable.’ In the shadows of our own time we begin to become better prepared to break free of the violence that threatens all of us today.”—Don Mosely, co-founder Jubilee Partners

“A remarkable achievement, outstanding even in an overcrowded field. It is profoundly conceived, researched, considered, argued, and written. Douglass shows persuasively how Kennedy’s innovative steps in foreign policy produced dangerous opposition within his own national security establishment. Not all will agree with his detailed speculation as to what happened in Dallas. But Douglass’s large picture of America’s political agony is, I believe, incontrovertible and certain to last.”--Peter Dale Scott, author Deep Politics and the Death of JFK

"Jim Douglass’s spiritual and eloquent telling of President John F. Kennedy’s martyrdom for peace is a peerless and extraordinary historical contribution.”—Vincent J. Salandria, author, False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK

“Douglass writes with moral force, clarity, and the careful attention to detail that will make JFK and the Unspeakable a sourcebook for many years to come, for it provides us with the stubborn facts needed to rebuild a constitutional democracy within the United States.”--Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies

“Jim Douglass never ceases to surprise us, taking us where we do not expect or often wish to go. In this fascinating work he links politics and spirituality. In re-forming the past he reshapes the future, with hope, thank God.”--Bill J. Leonard, Dean and Professor of Church History Wake Forest University Divinity School

“Jim Douglass is a courageous and single-minded Christian whose convictions are reflected in his life and witness. In this provocative new book, he brings together history and spirituality at the intersection of one of the most pivotal—and yet still mystifying—events of the past century. A myth-exploding story and compelling read.”--Timothy George, Dean Beeson Divinity School of Samford University

“In JFK and the Unspeakable Jim Douglass steadily guides us toward a strategy of peace. By dramatizing JFK’s remarkable conversion away from a U.S. foreign policy based on military threat and force, Douglass holds forth hope for current generations to similarly dismantle our addiction to war. Douglass’s dedication to nonviolence could have salvific effects as people ponder this astonishing book.”—Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

An astonishing new examination of the Kennedy assassination and its meaning today for the struggle for peace.

James Douglass lays out the journey that led JFK in the course of three years from his position as a traditional ColdWarrior to his determination to break with the logic of the Cold War and lead the world in an entirely different direction. This sequence of steps led his adversaries in the military and intelligence establishment to view him as a virtual traitor who had to be eliminated.

Douglass’s book has all the elements of a political thriller. But the stakes couldn’t be higher. Only by understanding the truth behind the murder of JFK can we grasp his vision and assume the urgent struggle for peace today.

“For forty years Jim Douglass has been our leading North American Catholic theologian of peace. But this monumental work on the witness of JFK is something deeper still. . . .This book has the potential to change our narrative about our country, and our lives as citizens and disciples.May we have ears to hear these truths, hearts able to bear their burden, and hands willing to build a new story.”—Ched Myers, author, Binding the Strong Man

James W. Douglass is a longtime peace activist and writer.He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, and Mary’s House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, Alabama. His books include The Nonviolent Cross, The Nonviolent Coming of God, and Resistance and Contemplation.