Rest in Peace: Thomas Gumbleton
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton died on April 4, at the age of 94. He was a consistent-life endorser and a founding leader of our member group Pax Christi USA. He started his long-lasting activism for peace and nonviolence by opposing the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam in the 1960s.
A book on his life is No Guilty Bystander: The Extraordinary Life of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.
Pax Christi USA offers Bishop Tom Gumbleton, iPresente!, which includes an obituary, a list of other online obituaries, and a couple of videos.
May 18: CLN Peace Vigil in Washington, D.C.
We continue to host quarterly peace vigils outside the White House to protest nuclear weapons and their threat to humanity. Our next vigil will be on Saturday, May 18th, from 10 am to 12 pm ET. We will be on the roadway in front of the White House. Co-sponsors are The American Solidarity Party of Maryland and DC, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, and Rehumanize International. Other groups are welcome to join us. For more information, contact John Whitehead.
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month
Sexual abuse is common in war and connected to abortion, poverty and racism. Here are blog posts of ours addressing the topic:
Referendums
We’ve added a category of Tax Relief under our heading of Poverty. We obviously won’t include the kind of tax relief that benefits the rich, but we do find some that can help with those of lower income. This year we find three:
Arkansas: Exempt Feminine Hygiene Products and Diapers from Sales Tax
Missouri: Property Tax Exemption for Childcare Establishments
South Dakota: Prohibit Taxes on Groceries
Also, we’ve found that New Hampshire has a possible referendum on a state constitutional amendment abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. It appears they’ve never had one before.
Political Dynamics
Ross Douthat as a conservative columnist for The New York Times has often made good pro-life points in that venue that we’ve quoted. For those interested in following different ideas on how political happenings might impact social movements, he recently published a thoughtful piece on How the Pro-Life Movement’s Deal With Trump Made America More Pro-Choice.
Our Latest Blog Post
Earth Day is coming up, and Christina Yao Pelliccioni shares - https://consistent-life.org/blog/index.php/2024/04/09/caring-for-the-earth/ How Caring for the Earth Fits into the Consistent Life Ethic.
Quotation of the Week
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton on Democracy Now, April 12, 2013
Well, on abortion, I certainly stand with the idea that it’s evil and immoral, a crime to kill an infant, even in the womb. And the killing of any human person, I am convinced, is evil and wrong. I believe in what Eileen Egan, a peace activist who helped Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker, developed the idea of a spectrum, a seamless garment. If you’re going to be against violence, you have to be against all violence. And so, if abortion is an attempt to bring about a violent solution to a very complicated problem, I don’t think a violent solution is the right solution.