Statewide Pax Christi Florida General Membership Meeting
May 17 2023 – Summary
On May 17th 18 members of Pax Christi Florida met via zoom. We were happy to have Johnny Zokovitch, PCUSA Executive Director join us for our discussion.
Part One Discussion on Issues:
We came together to gather, regroup and identify what our current priority issues are.
Responses include various areas, such as:
- There is much hatred directed to those marginalized, such as the migrants. Hospitals are not required to request citizenship documents of patients.
- We need a consistent ethic of life.
- Much of the legislation is fostering a philosophy of hate. There is a reactionary focus, it is dictatorial, teachers are affected, they are fearful of saying the wrong thing.
- We need affordable maternity leave, use our money better.
- We should apply the UN Declaration of Human Rights to our issues (www.ohchr.org)
- Florida is not alone in this. Many others are dealing with these issues, e.g. gender issues. We need a voice for good, some inroads with our bishops. What is the motivating vision?
- Nonviolence is not being promoted by the church.
- Gun violence is rampant.
It was decided that we need a committee to work on an approach to these issues and to prioritize our efforts.
The committee:
Barbara Richardson, Phyllis Jepson, Patrick Finn Schultz, Jeanette Reilly and Art Kane.
Part Two on Legislation:
This discussion, led by John Frank, on a possible PCF Legislative Event in Tallahassee. The FL Catholic Conference has Catholic Days at the Capital. We are looking for the alternative Catholic voice. We talked about networking with other like-minded groups to amplify our voice.
There was a consensus to pursue a legislative approach.
The Committee for this work:
John Frank, Art Kane, Nancy OByrne, Sandy Baran and Anne Richter. If you are interested in helping with our work on legislation, and helping us network with other Florida Peace and Justice groups that do legislative work, please e-mail us at paxchristiflorida@gmail.com
Everyone was in agreement to provide financial support for a young FL adult to attend the PCUSA retreat for young adults.