In 1973, Pax Christi was beginning in the United States, Memphis's Bishop Carroll Dozier was asked to join with Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit as Episcopal Moderators of the organization. When he had been a theology student in Rome in the 1930s, Bishop Dozier had seen the rise of fascism under Mussolini and Hitler. He became aware of the need for an active Catholic peace movement. None had existed in the Church since perhaps the Middle Ages. Now, as a bishop, he was able to help bring about such a movement in the United States. Bishop Dozier remained active in Pax Christi until his death.

Bishop Dozier + Beginnings…

Although he was unable to attend Pax Christi's founding assembly in Washington in 1973, he sent two professors at Christian Brothers College in his place --Dave Thomasma and Gerry Vanderhaar.

Because of Bishop Dozier's national involvement in Pax Christi, that organization became the vehicle for the peace movement in Memphis. Early members in Memphis included people of all faiths, not just Catholics. Their efforts for peace came from a sound spiritual basis.

To call attention to the need for nuclear disarmament, Memphis Pax Christi members began a yearly Hiroshima Day vigil. We have sponsored Memorial Day services to commemorate those who have died in war and to pray that such deaths will not happen again. Each year we try to have a Peace Retreat, a special day of prayer and reflection led by someone of national reputation.

—Gerry Vanderhaar

The first members in the United States were several dozen Catholics on the East Coast, inspired by Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement, led by Eileen Egan, who worked for Catholic Relief Services, and Gordon Zahn, who taught at the University of Massachusetts. The urgency, in the early 1970s, was ending the war in Vietnam. But their intention was broader—