Retreat 2025 recap, survey wrap-up and Stations of the Cross at the Statehouse
Spring Retreat 2025
Pax Christi Massachusetts held its Spring Retreat on April 12, 2025, at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Palmer, MA. Presenter Brad Wolf, editor of Philip Berrigan’s work in Ministry of Risk: Writings on Peace and Nonviolence, guided us through Berrigan’s life and work, focusing on hope. For complete coverage, please visit our Past Events Page.
PCAN survey closes April 30
Thanks to all who responded. Keep watching the PCAN Survey Page for more information and for results when they are compiled!
Stations of the Cross at the Statehouse 2025
On April 18, 2025, Good Friday, a few dozen peacemakers gathered at the State House steps to commemorate the Lord’s Passion and Death, and our part in it. We repented not only our personal sins but also the sins of our society.
As the organizers stated, “We gather as Christians and people of faith of all traditions to mourn our participation in the daily crucifixion of Jesus in our midst: reliance on war, weapons of war, human and ecological disasters in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and on. We repent the revenge mentality of the current government, the trampling on rights of immigrants, the revenge doctrine …. We repent the genocide in Gaza. We repent the cruel deportation of undocumented and documented sisters and brothers, who are not “aliens” but the beloved of Jesus, the Comforter.”
With times for prayer, song, silence, and reflections, we performed public theology in the form of the traditional 14 Stations. From Pilate to burial each Station addressed an aspect of Jesus’ suffering today in the homeless, hungry, refugees, militarism, war, damage to the earth, Gaza. We stood in solidarity with all the oppressed, domestic and international, who matter because they are human beings, made in God’s likeness. We also lifted up the brave women who consoled Jesus as he trod the road to Calvary, and those who continue in brave resistance today. We considered the role of Simon of Cyrene—did he help Jesus out of compassion, collaboration with the Empire, or out of fear and his own oppression? As we reflected on the times Jesus fell on his trek up Golgotha, we were shown they we too, can fall, get up and continue on our paths.
We remembered Jesus’ unbearable suffering as he was nailed to the cross and then hoisted up, calling to His Abba. Yet, Jesus forgave them, “They know not what they do.” Today, many leaders DO know what they are doing, and DO IT ANYWAY. We lament and we repent.
Recalling Station 13, “Jesus is taken down from the Cross,” we were shown images of that moment in traditional art and in contemporary life, in a photograph of a Palestinian woman wailing over her shrouded dead child. We were reminded to give over our powerless rage to the loving and merciful God of all, and urged to respond instead with nonviolent love. We have agency in resurrecting of the spirit of Jesus, peace and dignity.
This 34th Stations at the State House was sponsored by Agape Community, House of Peace in Ipswich, Pax Christi Massachusetts, and Just Faith, Springfield, MA. It was attended by Catholics, former Catholics, Quakers, other Christians, non-affiliated people. A retired Baptist minister who struck up a conversation with Pat Ferrone about the sign she was carrying on the T found her way. God reaches out in many ways to shed the light of nonviolent love and inspire us to repent and resist. We repent the evil we do in the world; we resist the call to participate in it.
—Jeanne Allen