A Brief History of Pax Christi GR by Mary Pat Beatty, OP

The first local group of Pax Christi USA was formed at Aquinas College in the 1970s.  The group was founded by Professor of Theology Vincent DiLalla, who encountered Pax Christi International when he was doing his doctoral studies at Louvain University in Belgium.  The Aquinas group sponsored a talk b Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit, one of the founders of Pax Christi USA.  The Aquinas Group "faded out" as various members graduated and moved on in their lives.

In October 1982, many individuals worked through the Institute for Global Education to put the Nuclear Freeze referendum on the Michigan November election ballot.  Many of the persons involved belonged to peace groups organized through their Christian denominations, such as the Methodist Peace Group and the Episcopal Peace Group.  The Roman Catholics who worked on the issue asked hy the Catholic Church had no peace group.  Margaret Hillary, OP, and Mary Pat Beatty, OP, told them about Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace group.  Both were members of Pax Christi at the national level.  Many individuals were interested, so Margaret and Mary Pat decided to start a local Pax Christi Grand Rapids group.  In January 1983, we sent out invitations to persons who had worked in the local Nuclear Freeze movement and members of Pax Christi USA who lived in the area.

Pax Christi Grand Rapids met once a month at the Grand Rapids Dominicans' Marywood mother house.  The first task was to form ourselves into a group based on the three-prong tenets of a Pax Christi group:  to pray, to study, and then to take action.  We were assisted in this by materials published by Pax Christi USA and the Michigan state coordinator, Joan Tirak.  Mary Pat attended the state coordinators' meetings held in Lansing about four times a year.  The coordinators set goals for the state groups and planned the annual state conference.

Pax Christi Grand Rapids worked on many different issues over its next six years of existence:

† Joined the peace presence at Williams International in Walled Lake, Michigan.  Williams International Inc. made engines for Cruise missiles.

† Participated in the Peace Ribbon movement.  Several of us went to Washington, D.C. to "tie" the Peace ribbons around the Pentagon and around the Washington Mall on August 4, 1985.

† Studied the death penalty issue.  We worked with the Diocese of grand Rapids Jail Ministry office to stop the Death Penalty Referendum from being put on the Michigan November ballot.

† In 1985, the Michigan annual Pax Christi state conference was held in Grand Rapids.  The main speakers were Jim and Kathy McGinnis, the founders of the Parenting for Peace and Justice movement.  The local group was the main organizer of the event.

† Planned and conducted the January 1 World Day of Peace prayer services held at Dominican Chapel at Marywood from 1985 through 1988.

† Helped plan the city-wide peace prayer services held on Pentecost Sunday for several years sponsored by various local peace groups.

† In  1989, the group helped plan a Faith & Resistance retreat.  The main focus of the retreat was to prepare for an act of civil disobedience.

The Pax Christi Grand Rapids group faded out of existence as more of the members became involved in the Faith and Resistance movement while two of the coordinators were changing their ministries and moving out of the Grand Rapids area.