Pax Christi Executive and staff preparing to welcome members to the 2020 AGM
More than 60 Pax Christi members joined the meeting in this, Pax Christi International’s 75th Anniversary, year. Vice President Valerie Flessati described the origins of our movement, in Second World War France. Pax Christi International Co-President Wamuyu Wachira brought us up to date, and into the presence of God, with a video message. Outgoing, Chair Holly Ball, called for a revolution in this change of era. Following reports by the four staff members, there was spirited discussion of the resolutions, voting, and election of a new Chair and four new Executive Committee members.
Ten breakout groups were formed in which members made proposals for Pope Francis to consider as part of the work of the Covid-19 Vatican Commission reflecting on the ‘new socio-economic-cultural future.’ The proposals will be collated and communicated directly to the Commission.
Our National President, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, spoke with appreciation of Holly’s time as Chair. Newly-elected Chair, Ann Farr, led us in a liturgy in which she invited us to ‘quietly renew our commitment to our witness and work as peacemakers’. The AGM was reported by Ellen Teague on Independent Catholic News. There is a fuller report on our website too.
We spoke the names of Pax Christi members who died this year
Permanent link to this article: https://paxchristi.org.uk/2020/06/09/our-2020-agm-online/
Today the Court of Appeal has ruled that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen are unlawful. The Court found that the government has failed to properly assess whether there have been breaches of International Humanitarian Law.
This historic judgment means that the government must now stop issuing new arms exports licences and suspend existing licences to export arms to Saudi for use in Yemen, and retake all decisions in accordance with the law.
Pax Christi is delighted with this news but the battle is not over! We know it should not have taken a court case and us campaigning for government to listen – Write to your MP now and tell them about this ruling, keeping the pressure on! These sales should never have happened in the first place. How many lives have been lost through the sale of BILLIONS of pounds worth of weapons from the UK? How long will this country refuse to acknowledge the blood on its hands…
If you would like to write to your MP please do so through the CAAT website
Sincere gratitude and thanks to all those who have taken part in this work.
Permanent link to this article: https://paxchristi.org.uk/2019/06/20/court-of-appeal-rules-uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-are-unlawful/
Imagine a world without nuclear weapons: it isn’t hard to do…
In the press this weekend, The Catholic Universe has published an article by Pax Christi Director – Theresa Alessandro.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty has been stuck on Article VI for decades. Nuclear weapon-possessing governments cite the risk to stability of any upsetting of a nuclear balance. They point to a reduction in warhead numbers as their contribution to disarmament. So the UK is down to 120 available warheads; equivalent to ‘only’ 960 Hiroshima-sized bombs. New ways to be players on the world stage and new ways to balance international relationships need to be constructed. Such are the shifting, complex, interconnected sands of wicked problems. The full article can be Found Here
(With thanks to Martin Birdseye for help with the reasoning around this topic, and to Mati Warwick for the photo of Theresa).
Permanent link to this article: https://paxchristi.org.uk/2019/06/07/in-the-press-pax-christi-a-world-without-nuclear-weapons/
There are signs of hope in the world about us, but one has to look hard to find them! The uncertainty of when – and if – Brexit happens, weighs heavily on us. Violence, and especially knife crime, continues unabated. Trident renewal persists, and exported British weapons are killing civilians overseas. Pax Christi is needed more than ever.
View highlights of our work, stats and figures of income / expenditure as well as feedback from members.
From The Catholic Universe | Sunday, 14th April 2019 | Picture: 2015 archive photo of HMS Vanguard, one of the UK’s nuclear deterrent V-Class submarines, sitting docked at Devonport, Plymouth. (Ben Birchall/PA)
We echo the words of Pope Francis regarding nuclear weapons: ‘The threat of their use as well as their very possession is to be firmly condemned’. Rather than the tired narrative that nuclear weapons are a necessary deterrent, we agree with Pope Francis that they ‘exist in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only the parties in conflict but the entire human race’. The tense, fragile relationships between nuclear-weapons possessing nations and their unbalanced relationships with others must not be described as peace.” The full article from The Universe can be found here.
Pax Christi is now calling for the Service of Thanksgiving to either be cancelled or changed to a Service of Repentance. Join us on May 3rd
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