They are laughing at me (in the nicest possible way) here at the Justice and Peace office in Glasgow because during the past year of helping to set up Pax Christi Scotland, I have been referring to the Commission as ‘the mother ship’.
I make no apologies, because while Pax Christi International is a rather older Catholic organisation, founded in 1945 as a reconciliation movement, Pax Christi Scotland is just finding its feet. We need the Justice and Peace Commission’s approval and guidance to achieve status as one of the 120 member organisations of Pax Christi International. Approaching 40, and with the wisdom and experience that goes with those four decades, Justice and Peace Scotland fits the ‘mother ship’ description perfectly.
There are Pax Christi movements in more than 50 countries, and within the next year, Pax Christi Scotland hopes to cut loose and become a member of that global family working with a particularly Scottish ethos alongside our sibling organisations.
Like those older siblings, we will be working for peace, respect for human rights, and justice and reconciliation. And yes, as the members of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference commented when Justice and Peace Scotland chair Honor Hania laid our case before them a few weeks ago, that does sound very similar to the work of the Commission.
Similar – but different.
And that is why for some years, supporters of the peace movement in Scotland have felt that we should be one of those Pax Christi member countries. Pat Gaffney, general secretary of Pax Christi in the UK – a body with its main support in England and Wales – has encouraged us to become Pax Christi Scotland.
As a member of the steering group set up in February 2018 after Pat Gaffney called a meeting to move things forward, I’ve found it challenging but rewarding to discover so much support for the model we hope to develop. Our little team – Grace Buckley and I from Justice and Peace Scotland, Dr Rosalyn Mauchline from the diocese of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh, and Hugh Foy, director of programmes and partnerships for the Xaverian Missionaries, UK Province – has been working on a route map to becoming a fully fledged Pax Christi member organisation.
As you know, Pax Christi International’s core principles echo Pope Francis’ insistence that it is not only immoral to use weapons of mass destruction but also to own them and trade in them. It is a given that Pax Christi Scotland will play a supporting role in that campaign, but we intend to concentrate on the more general nonviolence aspects of Pope Francis’ 2016 Day of Peace address, which stressed that peace starts in the family, the school and the parish. Pax Christi Scotland’s mission is to develop programmes enabling nonviolence to become the cornerstone of Scottish family and parish life.
Our children shouldn’t grow up thinking that the angry language and hostile environment we experience today is the norm. Pax Christi Scotland’s mission is to help create a kinder country, while our mother ship campaigns for the justice that leads to peace.