News and upcoming events

Saturday, October 25 at 10 am Mass for Peace, Celebrant - Bishop George Lucas.  The Mass is in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the US Bishops' Challenge of Peace:  God's Promise and Our Response

Monday, November 10, 7pm  Mesalla: Activists in Iraq, film and discussion about Iraqi Nonviolence, LaOnf, movement in Iraq, Lincoln Library Carnegie North, 7th and Capitol, cosponsored by PCS and Mary Wood Branch of WILPF

Monday, November 17, 7pm  Pax Christi Springfield meeting and prayer service on School of the Americas Watch vigil

November 20 - 24 Trip to School of the Americas Watch Vigil, Columbus, GA.  For more information contact Maureen, 698-9045. mirvin@hsosf-usa.org

Saturday/Sunday, December 6 and 7 after the 4:30p, 8:30 am and 10:30 am masses Fair Trade Fair, St. Joseph Church School Cafeteria, 1345 North Sixth Street

Monday, December 8, 6:30 pm, PCS Annual Christmas Prayer Service and Potluck, DePorres Hall, Sacred Heart Convent, 1235 W. Monroe

Past Events

On Wednesday, October 15, Robert Naiman will present a program titled, “Iran, Iraq and the American Presidency,” at Lincoln Library Carnegie Room North, Seventh and Capitol, at 7pm.  Naiman is the Senior Policy Analyst and National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy. 

According to Naiman, “…from the standpoint of the interests of the majority of Americans, Iran is not a significant threat, because the majority of Americans have no stake in the neocon project of dominating the Middle East.”

Robert Naiman is also National Coordinator of the organization. He has worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. He has masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has studied and worked in the Middle East. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes a blog on Huffington Post. 

Just Foreign Policy is an independent and non-partisan membership organization dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy through coordinating the broad majority of Americans to advocate their interests and values.  For more information, www.justforeignpolicy.org

The event is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Diane at 544-3997.  

ROBERT NAIMAN

Robert Naiman is Senior Policy Analyst and National Coordinator at Just Foreign Policy. Naiman has worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. He has masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has studied and worked in the Middle East. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes a blog on Huffington Post.  

Download the flier for events surrounding the International Day of Peace and Ceasfire, 9/21/08.

Our next Pax Christi meeting will be on August 25 at De Porres Center at Sacred Heart Convent at 7pm.  We will begin with a prayer service to remember the losses from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Maureen will share a summary of the Convention for the Common Good proceedings, and we will begin to plan our October Peace Mass with Bishop Lucas.  Since this will be our last full meeting, we should also assess interest in holding another Fair Trade Fair as in the past two years (at St. Joseph parish and the Franciscan Motherhouse.)  We hope you'll be able to join us that evening - your ideas are much needed!

The Cost of Peace – Events from 9/10 to 9/21, the International Day of Peace Fr. Louie Vitale, Franciscan priest and Pace e Bene Board Member, will present "No to Torture: The Nonviolent Response to Terrorism;" and Michael McConnell, Great Lakes Director of the American Friends Service Committee, one of the pre-eminent groups addressing the Iraq War will lead off the week-long program with "The Cost of War.".

     Fr. Louie recently spent five months in Federal Prison for his witness at Ft. Huachuca, AZ (where our military teaches our soliders torture and aggressive interrogation).  There will also be a showing of "Meeting Resistance," two vigils and another quality interfaith service.  Check back for specific times and locations, and contact us (544-3997 or dianelopezhughes@gmail.com)  if you would like to volunteer for this Pax Christi Springfield cosponsored event.

Bishop Lucas will celebrate our annual Peace Mass on Saturday, October 25 at 10 am at Little Flower Church.  There will be no monthly meeting.

Pax Christi Spfld co-convenor Diane Lopez Hughes (third from left) with Witness for Peace Roots of Immigration delegation in Guatemala, 6/08

Mike Armstrong, center, Little Flower Church, carries the cross during the Good Friday Walk for Justice on 3/21/08. Left, Sister Mary Ellen Backes; right, Sister Bernice Juip, both from St. Joseph Parish, Springfield.

Pax Christi Springfield meeting on Monday, 3/24 at 7pm, featuring a prayer service on care for creation and an excellent program by Illinois Stewardship Alliance's Lindsay Record. We will make the connections between our spiritual call to a deeper relationship with our environment and practical ways to act on this faith. Don't miss it: Sacred Heart Convent De Porres Room, 1237 West Monroe. 

We will cosponsor a presentation at Lincoln Library, Carnegie North, 325 South Seventh Street, on Tuesday, 4/8 at 7pm: Connecting the Dots - A Brief Talk and Long Discussion on the War, the Economy, the Environment and Jail. Hope you can join us.

We will participate in the May 18 Interfaith Peace Potluck Picnic; the 6/1 Race Unity Day; Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance events (around 8/6 - 9), events surrounding the International Day of Peace, 9/21 (between 9/11 and 9/21). 

We will have a service date during the July/August Peace Camp, as well as possible Spillover Shelter dates in October, November and December. 

In mid-autumn we will begin to plan next year's peace mass (spring) and Ecumenical Epiphany Service for Peace (January 4).  

Peace Vigil - Saturday, March 15, 2008, between 12 and 1 p.m. at the Capitol Building (in front of Lincoln Statute), 2nd and Capitol Streets, Springfield, Illinois.

Showing of the documentary The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib - Tuesday, March 18, 7:00 pm. City Nights Theater, Capital City Bar & Grill, 3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy.  ACLU organizer Allie Carter will speak about US policy on torture after the movie. More info here.

Interfaith Service for Peace - March 19, 2008, at 7p.m. at Laurel United Methodist Church, 631 South Grand Avenue West, Springfield, Illinois (with reception to follow).

Monday, 11/12 at 7pm in DePorres Center at Sacred Heart Convent, 1237 West Monroe: We will have a prayer service to heal racial division, and Dr. Leroy Jordan, Office of Black Catholics Director for our diocese, will be our featured speaker. LaVern McNeese from the New Mission Church of God will also talk about Priscilla's Lost and Found, a mentoring program for women. Please plan to attend,and bring a friend! 

COOL TOWN MEETING: Facing Global Climate Change Locally

An event in conjunction with the national Step It Up 2007, will be held in the First Presbyterian Church Commons on Seventh and Capitol on Sunday, November 4, 2007 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm.