 In
1945, a small group of people in France met regularly to pray
for peace. Their concern was not a vague one. What bothered
them, what kept them coming together was their experience
of an agonizing and dreadful fact: French Catholics and German
Catholics, who professed the same faith and celebrated the
same Eucharist, had killed one another by the millions in
the 20th century. That situation could hardly be the will
of God, as they understood it. So they prayed for forgiveness,
for reconciliation, for the peace of Christ.
A French woman, Marie-Marthe Dortel Claudot, is known as the
leader and founder of the movement. She invited a French bishop,
Pierre Marie Theas, to be the first Bishop President. While
in a German war prison camp in Compiegne, Bishop Theas had
already begun to pray and work for reconciliation.
Soon after the war, Pax Christi centers were established in
France and Germany; by the early 1950's the movement had spread
to Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and
Belgium.
Pax Christi began in the United States in 1972, thanks to
the initiative of a tiny handful of U.S. Catholics, mostly
lay. There was no national office or full time staff person
until 1979, and then the entire office was set up in two spare
rooms of a Chicago convent. The national office moved to Erie,
Pennsylvania in 1985 and remains there today.
Pax Christi is active in more than 30 countries, with a growing
presence in Latin America and Africa. Our national office
is located in Erie, Pa., and an international office and staff
are located in Brussels, Belgium. Pax Christi has consultative
status as a non-governmental organization at the United Nations.
Wherever they live throughout the world, members of Pax Christi
are united by their purpose, which is expressed in the international
statutes: "to work for peace for all humankind, always
witnessing to the peace of Christ." They do this through
prayer, study and action.
In 1982, speaking at Coventry Cathedral in England, Pope John
Paul II said, "Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed
patiently and with unshakable faith." Membership in Pax
Christi enables many Catholics and other Christians of all
walks of life to help build the cathedral of peace.
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