“John Dear’s is a beautiful message of peace.”
–Anne Lamott

“The Catholic social justice tradition, particularly the part condemning weapons production, easy resort to violence, and modern warfare, is often referred to as the church’s best kept secret. Few in the church work harder at bringing that tradition to the fore than Father John Dear. A prolific writer and tireless activist, he has written more than 30 books and been arrested some 75 times in acts of civil disobedience, all the while traveling nonstop, it seems, to give lectures on peacemaking throughout the country.”
–The National Catholic Reporter

“To take care of each other should be our primary concern in this twenty-first century, and Father John Dear is steady on this course.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh

“John Dear not only talks about Jesus, he lives Jesus–radical, loving, nonviolent Jesus. He prisms Jesus through his own life and brings us into the adventure.”
— Sister Helen Prejean

“John Dear has the gift to capture the social gospel as Jesus and the apostles proclaimed it. His writing is in the tradition of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Daniel Berrigan.”
— J. Christoph Arnold, The Bruderhof

“John Dear’s inspired journey–inside and out–gives us renewed hope for our own personal and public peacemaking.”
— the late Fred Rogers, TV star of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”

“‘Living Peace’ is a deeply moving and profoundly inspiring account of John Dear’s journey of enviable courage, boundless faith, unquestioned hope and unconditional love.”
— Martin Sheen, actor and activist

“John Dear has walked where holy words lead: to a high mountain of instruction, into the desert of forty days, into the garden of anguish. He has poured his blood on nuclear weaponry and has paid up in kangaroo courts and unspeakable jails. He has trekked about the world bearing the gospel in hand and heart, a wing-shod messenger of peace. He has lived in solidarity with the wretched of the earth–whose plight, as he well knows, is the mean feat of abominable economics and killer instincts on rampage. In this century, in this land, cleft in fragments of gigantic disorder, what a witness!”
–Daniel Berrigan

“Some teachers are all theory and some are all practice. John Dear has earned ability to be both. Some teachers are very orthodox and some open new ground. John Dear puts the two together knowing they are the same.”
–Richard Rohr

“John Dear has been arrested in the cause of peace and human decency more times than anyone else I know. I am honored to consider him a friend.”
-Joan Baez

“John Dear’s extraordinary autobiography, A Persistent Peace, reaches its climactic scene when a National Guard unit, prior to going to Iraq, stands in the early morning outside the door of his parish in New Mexico, where he has been preaching against the war, chanting ‘One bullet, one kill!’ His life might well be summed up by that scene: a priest whose commitment to nonviolence and peace carries him to El Salvador, the Middle East and all over the United States, and whose protests land him in jail again and again. His deep faith and steadfast devotion to the principles of Jesus, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Daniel Berrigan, lead him to defy the authority of hierarchies, whether in his church or in the nation, and hold fast to his beliefs even when soldiers, chanting threats, show up at his door. John Dear’s life story is inspiring and heartwarming.”
—the late Howard Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United States”

“The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are Jesus’ blueprint for peace. I urge everyone to study John Dear’s beautiful reflections [“The Beatitudes of Peace”] and join his campaign of peace and nonviolence.”
—President Jimmy Carter