October 26, 2026 – This Week’s Episode
Episode #96, John Dear with Melissa Parke, Exec. Dir. of the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
On today’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Melisssa Parke, executive director of the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.Melissa Parke is the former Minister for International Development for Australia, where she’s from, and was a member of the Australian Parliament from 2007 to 2016. Prior to being elected to Parliament, she worked as an international lawyer with the United Nations in Kosovo, Gaza, New York and Lebanon from 1999 to 2007.
“ICAN, the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (www.icanw.org) was started in Melbourne by a group of friends who sat around a small kitchen table to discuss what they could do to abolish nuclear weapons,” she says. “Today, through the work of ICAN, the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has 101 nation signers. They are saying, ‘We do not accept that nuclear weapons are a legitimate security measure.’ We are working to stigmatize nuclear weapons until they are abolished.
“Most of the world’s problems today stem from humanity’s disconnection from nature and each other. We forget that we are all connected. What we do to each other and the planet we ultimately do to ourselves. Action is the antidote to a sense of helplessness. We all have a right to demand answers from our governments. We can each ask our local, city and state governments to join the Ban Treaty.” Listen in and be inspired!
November 2, 2026 – This Week’s Episode
Episode #97, John Dear Speaks with Ken Butigan on Pope Leo’s Call for an “Unarmed and Disarming Peace”
On today’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear reflects with organizer, activist, author and professor, Ken Butigan, who has been tracking every speech on peace and nonviolence under Pope Francis and now Pope Leo, and he met both of them. If you go to paceebene.org/pope-leo-statements, you’ll find a dozen more links that open up to hundreds of pages of messages by the last two popes on peace and nonviolence. If you look up just Pope Leo’s speeches over the last year and a half, since May 2025, you will be amazed at the hundreds of times he has called for peace, a message ignored by the mainstream US media. John invited Ken back to the podcast to tell us about it.Pope Leo has been calling us over and over and over again to be unarmed and disarming,” Ken says. “He calls us to create ‘a civilization of love by building houses of peace.’ He wants the church to take nonviolence seriously and put it into practice.”
“Just listen to his Easter Message: ‘The peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed. Easter is the victory of nonviolence and peacemakers. May every person make peace his or her life’s cause.’” Listen in and be inspired!
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October 26, 2026 – This Week’s Episode
Episode #96, John Dear with Melissa Parke, Exec. Dir. of the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
On today’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Melisssa Parke, executive director of the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.Melissa Parke is the former Minister for International Development for Australia, where she’s from, and was a member of the Australian Parliament from 2007 to 2016. Prior to being elected to Parliament, she worked as an international lawyer with the United Nations in Kosovo, Gaza, New York and Lebanon from 1999 to 2007.
“ICAN, the Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (www.icanw.org) was started in Melbourne by a group of friends who sat around a small kitchen table to discuss what they could do to abolish nuclear weapons,” she says. “Today, through the work of ICAN, the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has 101 nation signers. They are saying, ‘We do not accept that nuclear weapons are a legitimate security measure.’ We are working to stigmatize nuclear weapons until they are abolished.
“Most of the world’s problems today stem from humanity’s disconnection from nature and each other. We forget that we are all connected. What we do to each other and the planet we ultimately do to ourselves. Action is the antidote to a sense of helplessness. We all have a right to demand answers from our governments. We can each ask our local, city and state governments to join the Ban Treaty.” Listen in and be inspired!
November 2, 2026 – This Week’s Episode
Episode #97, John Dear Speaks with Ken Butigan on Pope Leo’s Call for an “Unarmed and Disarming Peace”
On today’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear reflects with organizer, activist, author and professor, Ken Butigan, who has been tracking every speech on peace and nonviolence under Pope Francis and now Pope Leo, and he met both of them. If you go to paceebene.org/pope-leo-statements, you’ll find a dozen more links that open up to hundreds of pages of messages by the last two popes on peace and nonviolence. If you look up just Pope Leo’s speeches over the last year and a half, since May 2025, you will be amazed at the hundreds of times he has called for peace, a message ignored by the mainstream US media. John invited Ken back to the podcast to tell us about it.Pope Leo has been calling us over and over and over again to be unarmed and disarming,” Ken says. “He calls us to create ‘a civilization of love by building houses of peace.’ He wants the church to take nonviolence seriously and put it into practice.”
“Just listen to his Easter Message: ‘The peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed. Easter is the victory of nonviolence and peacemakers. May every person make peace his or her life’s cause.’” Listen in and be inspired!
Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter
Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter