April 25, 2024

Dear friends, Blessings of Christ’s peace to you!

     One of the great needs of our dangerous time is the need for us to rise up together and speak out publicly for justice, disarmament, peace, and creation. We may not need to try individually to be a “prophet,” but together we can be part of a prophetic community, the growing grassroots movement of nonviolence.

     To gain new courage, strength and hope to speak out for justice, disarmament, and peace, I always turn to the great saints and prophets of history. On Saturday, May 11th, I’ll welcome my friend Judith Kelly to share with us from her biography, “Just Call Me Jerzy,” on a Beatitudes Center zoom session about one of the great prophets of our time—Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko of Poland. He was a beloved priest, bold political prophet, and a martyr of Gospel nonviolence.

     “It is not enough for a Christian to condemn evil, cowardice, lies, and use of force, hatred, and oppression,” he taught. “He [or she] must at all times be a witness to and defender of justice, goodness, truth, freedom, and love. He [or she] must never tire of claiming these values as a right both for themselves and others.”

     After he was brutally murdered in 1984 for his public support of the Solidarity movement in Poland, over a million people gathered at his funeral and pledged to carry on the movement. “An idea which needs rifles to survive dies of its own accord,” he taught. He was right. Come and join us and learn about Fr. Jerzy!