This year, to mark the 59th anniversary of the horrific U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Pax Christi New Mexico invites you to come to New Mexico to join us for prayer and nonviolent action at Los Alamos.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is the home of the bomb. It is where we built the bomb and where we continue to design and develop the latest weapons of mass destruction. It is the mother of all weapons of mass destruction. If we are concerned about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in other nations, then we have to first demand that our government abolish our thousands of nuclear weapons and stop developing new weapons at Los Alamos.
We go to Los Alamos as people of peace, love and nonviolence to witness and pray for the immediate abolition of all such weapons, for the clean-up of our land, and for the spending of these billions of tax dollars, not on weapons of death, but on food for the hungry, homes for the homeless, education for our children, jobs for the unemployed, and healthcare for everyone.
Our gathering begins on Thursday evening August 5th, 2004 in Santa Fe, New Mexico at Santa Maria de la Paz Church, where we will have a potluck dinner, prayer and a lecture by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, one of the foremost voices for peace and disarmament in the United States. Bishop Gumbleton of Detroit, Michigan is a co-author of the 1983 U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference Pastoral Letter, “The Challenge of Peace.” He was named a bishop in 1968 and was one of the first bishops to speak out against the Vietnam War. A founding member of Pax Christi, he served as its president for over fifteen years, as well as the president of Bread for the World. A tireless advocate for peace and disarmament, he has traveled the warzones of the world, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Israel, Palestine, Colombia, Haiti, and Peru. He led a delegation to visit the American hostages in Iran in 1979. He has received countless peace awards and honorary degrees, and his homilies appear weekly through the National Catholic Reporter. He serves an inner city parish in Detroit, Michigan. He will speak about the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference Pastoral Letter on Peace, the Pope’s recent pleas for an end to war, the need for nuclear disarmament and the Gospel call to love our enemies.
On Friday morning, August 6th, we will drive to Los Alamos and gather at Ashley Pond at 7:15 a.m., just as Los Alamos employees arrive to begin their day researching the latest weapons of mass destruction. In a spirit of nonviolence and love, we will hold a solemn prayer vigil for several hours and beg the God of peace to help us abolish war and nuclear weapons and to stop these preparations for mass murder at Los Alamos. We will follow the guidelines of nonviolence used by Martin Luther King, Jr., and refuse to hate or judge anyone, but show only love and concern for the workers, the police, and one another. We will try to practice the wisdom of Jesus, that we love our enemies, and invite everyone to join that great teaching.
For further information, see: www.PaxChristiNewMexico.org or call 505-870-2275.
If you cannot join us at Los Alamos on August 6th, please continue to do what you can for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons and for our national conversion to the wisdom of disarmament and nonviolence. Please keep our modest efforts in your prayers, and continue to widen your heart to show love for all people everywhere, including those declared to be our enemies.