“Angels Unawares” Sculpture commemorating migrants and refugees in St Peter’s Square” by Catholic Church England and Wales, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Members of Pax Christi Pennsylvania promote justice and the dignity of immigrants and refugees through prayer, witness, and advocacy. The Pittsburgh Pax Christi participates in a weekly vigil outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Members of Pax Christi in the Philadelphia area have helped plan and participate in prayer vigils outside the Philadelphia ICE office as part of the One Church, One Family movement.

“Marcellus Shale Gas Well” by WCN 24/7, CC BY-NC 2.0

“Our world is in a climate crisis. As Pope Francis stated in Laudato Si’, we cannot ignore the Earth and her people’s desperate and urgent cries for environmental justice. As heat waves, wildfires, famines, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels sprawl across the globe, the poorest and most vulnerable are being disproportionately affected. Climate change not only forces people in poor and struggling countries to migrate, but fuels poverty, food insecurity, displacement and violence in communities around the United States.  As a community of conscience, we stand together and call on the United States to declare the climate crisis a national emergency by recommitting to the Paris Agreement, reinforcing the Clean Air Act, investing in clean energy sources, and pursuing a comprehensive justice approach as expressed  in the U.S. Green New Deal” (Pax Christi USA Vision Statement)

“On average in the United States, 100 people are killed every day due to gun violence, resulting in over 36,000 lives sacrificed annually and millions more forever traumatized in deference to the gun lobby. The disproportionality of gun violence is evidenced by Black people being ten times more likely to be murdered with a gun than their white counterparts, and women five times more likely to die if they are a victim of domestic violence when their abuser has access to a firearm. Individual and community trauma resulting from gun violence is devastating. As a community of conscience, we stand together to call for common sense legislation that reflects how much we love our children and each other; this includes such reasonable measures such as universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and the recognition that gun violence is a national public health emergency” (Pax Christi USA Vision Statement).

“Seventy-five years after the appalling atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, the whole earth remains under the threat of nuclear weapons. Weapons of mass destruction do not make the world safer; they create a climate of fear, distrust and hostility. Yet, signs of a growing nuclear arms race receive a fraction of attention from politicians, policymakers, and the public. Military spending to develop weapons that are lighter and more destructive siphons precious resources that could be used to meet basic human needs around the world. As Pope Francis declared during his visit to Hiroshima in 2019, “even the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.” The  presence of even one nuclear weapon is a crime against the dignity of human beings and the future for our common home, and it threatens us with the unimaginable destruction of everything we hold dear. As a community of conscience, we stand together with the hibakusha (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in calling on the United States to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and fully support the extension of the New START Treaty” (Pax Christi USA Vision Statement).