Pax Christi USA
Q. What is the mission of Pax Christi USA?
PCUSA strives to create a world that reflects the peace of Christ by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian nonviolence. PCUSA rejects war, preparation for war, and every form of violence and domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice, and respect for creation.
PCUSA commits itself to peace education and, with the help of its bishop members, promotes the gospel imperative of peacemaking as a priority in the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the efforts of its members and in cooperation with other groups, PCUSA works toward a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.
PCUSA is the U.S. section of the international Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi International. PCI began in 1945 when a small group of people in France met regularly to pray for peace. It bothered them that the French and German Catholics who professed the same faith and celebrated the same Eucharist had killed one another by the millions. So the group prayed for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for the peace of Christ.
PCUSA began in 1972, and the national office is currently located at the Center of Concern in Washington, DC. Pax Christi is active in more than fifty countries, with its international office in Brussels, Belgium. Pax Christi has consultative status as a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations.