Justice & Peace
Peacemaking & Non-violence
In light of recent events, we wanted to share a statement by the Nuns Against Gun Violence Coalition condemning the most recent shooting in Jacksonville.*
The Sisters of St. Joseph are a member of Nuns Against Gun Violence, a national coalition of Catholic Sisters and their allies that affirms the value of human life through prayer, education and advocacy for common-sense, evidence-based gun violence prevention.
In light of recent events, we wanted to share a statement by the Nuns Against Gun Violence Coalition condemning the most recent shooting in Jacksonville.*
Prayer – We have participated for the last 2 years in the Nuns Against Gun Violence Prayer Vigils held on National Gun Violence Awareness Day in June which is also Wear Orange Day. Sisters, Associates, Agregees and partners in mission have gathered at the Motherhouse as well as at Bethany Health Care Center and St. Joseph Hall to remember the victims of gun violence and their families and to commit ourselves to taking action to change the policies which contribute to this national crisis. Education – Nuns Against Gun Violence has held two educational webinars in which many of us participated: “Beating Guns into Plowshares” and “Firearms and Faith.”
Advocacy – Along with the MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and other organizations, we have advocated on the state level for An Act to Modernize Firearms Laws, a comprehensive bill which addresses a variety of gun violence prevention issues including untraceable ghost guns, updating licensing requirements, expanding Extreme Risk Protection Order eligibility, and creating a special commission to examine community violence funding in the Commonwealth. This bill passed and has been signed by the Governor.
To learn more, visit nunsagainstgunviolence.org
In light of recent events, we wanted to share a statement by the Nuns Against Gun Violence Coalition condemning the most recent shooting in Jacksonville.*
On August 6 and 9, each year, we commemorate the days in 1943 on which the United States conducted nuclear attacks against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastating their populations and destroying their infrastructure. The production and testing of nuclear weapons in the United States and internationally continues to harm the health, environment, and cultures of communities around the world. Our statement issued in 1984 regarding nuclear arms is just as relevant today as it was then. Read the statement below, along with other stances on non-violence.
Anti Violence Statements
Click below to read CSJ’s corporate stance on nuclear arms, The Sisters of St. Joseph’s federation statement on gun violence, and the statement LCWR issued with Pax Christi to the UN.
CSJ Corporate Stance on Nuclear Arms (1984)
The first corporate stance taken by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston is specifically entitled “On Nuclear Arms.” While this focus continues to address a clear and present global issue, the statement itself focuses more broadly on peacemaking in its varied dimensions (as in the selection below), and on reconciliation. Our charism of unity and reconciliation is manifested in nonviolence and peacemaking, in seeking justice for the poor and marginalized, and in advocacy for systemic change.
We, the women of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, take this stand regarding nuclear arms:
- We lament the reality of nuclear weapons.
- We recognize the sinful situation, which enables their existence.
- We condemn the creation of any first-strike weapon.
- We believe, nevertheless, that this situation is already a redeemed one.
- We deplore the cruel results of the proliferation of nuclear arms.
- We grieve the suffering of those countless women, men and even children who at this very moment are hungry.
- We sorrow with those persons, especially the young, who endure ever increasing anxiety and who move to hopelessness and despair.
- We sorrow with those who are deprived of beauty and art and all good gifts that lift the human spirit to that supreme Beauty “ever ancient and ever new.”
- We believe, nevertheless, that the power of good is stronger than the force of evil.
We resolve, then, not from fear of death, but from love of life, to focus our energies more intensely on peace-making:
- by confronting the demon of world hunger,
- by protesting a national prodigality that denies justice to the poor,
- by seeking relentlessly forms of systemic change,
- by making peace studies an essential component of our educational system,
- by being steadfast in the process of inner conversion,
- by remaining faithful to the task of reconciliation and to non-violence.
By the grace of God we determine
- to bend swords into ploughs,
- to remodel spears into pruning hooks,
- to reshape instruments of death into instruments of life, to turn the mushroom cloud into a rainbow of justice and peace.
Sisters of St. Joseph U.S. Federation Stance on Gun Violence (2019)
In August 2019, the U.S. Federation issued a statement sharing the following words:
As Sisters of St. Joseph, we share in the communal heartbreak of our nation in the face of unthinkable violence. The recent mass shootings in our country impel us to once again demand that all citizens and elected leaders end the rage and division that all too often results in mass, indiscriminate violence.
To learn more about peacemaking contact peggy.comfrey@csjboston.org
