The following Letter to US Archbishop John Wester to Appeal to Pope Leo XIV to Call for a Peace Conference was sent on July 24, 2026. The Letter was initiated by Jack Gilroy in the International Peace Coalition meeting # 162, July 10, and has been endorsed by many individuals and organizations, expressing great urgent concern about the growing danger of nuclear war. Circulation of the Letter will continue over the coming days to galvanize increasing support for this Appeal.

July 24, 2026

Most Reverend John C. Wester, D.D.

Archdiocese of Santa Fe

Dear Archbishop Wester:

Congratulations on being named Pax Christi USA’s Teacher of Peace for 2026! It is such a well-deserved honor. Ever since your first trip to Japan and your pastoral letter, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation toward Nuclear Disarmament,” you have become a leading voice for the abolition of nuclear weapons in the Catholic Church and throughout the U.S. Establishing the “Partnership for a World without Nuclear Weapons” has extended that reach even farther. We are so pleased that you will be receiving this award in the coming months.

As you know, the threat of nuclear war seems to be increasing daily despite the 100 nations that have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), 75 of whom have also ratified it. This year’s NPT Review Conference was a disappointment once again. New START was allowed to expire. Russia, the U.S., and Israel, all nuclear states, are at war. Finland’s president recently signed legislation to allow the import and transit of nuclear weapons. And Lithuanian leaders are said to have agreed to amend the constitution to allow Lithuania to host nuclear weapons in the future.

In short, we are getting as close to nuclear war as we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. That crisis ended with diplomacy that saved the planet, and Pope John XXIII was a key figure in making that happen. His influential role is not well known, but it was he who spoke out to set the needed moral tone that helped each side to act for peace.

This is how it developed: In fall 1962, Journalist Norman Cousins convened in Andover, MA, an informal discussion group of Soviet and American academicians. Providentially, they met on October 22, the evening Kennedy addressed the nation on the Soviet nuclear missile threat in Cuba and ordered the Navy to intercept any additional shipments.

Included among those invited by Cousins was a Vatican adviser to Pope John XXIII, Rev. Felix Morlion. He asked if a papal intervention might help defuse the situation. Cousins phoned the White House; a Soviet member of the informal group phoned Moscow. Both got a nihil obstat. Fr. Morlion notified the Vatican.

On October 25, Vatican Radio broadcast a strong appeal by Pope John for peace to world leaders, in particular Kennedy and Khrushchev. It stated in part: “With your hand on your conscience may each one hear the anguished cry which is raised to the skies from all parts of the earth: Peace, peace! We renew this solemn plea today.”

Pravda immediately printed the Pope’s message with a banner headline. And on October 28, when Khrushchev announced the pull-out of the missiles from Cuba, Pravda reprinted the Pope’s message, praising the Pope’s “realism on the question of peace.” In turn, the United States withdrew missiles from Turkey. Hundreds of millions gave a sigh of relief, and negotiations between the US and the USSR led to the first nuclear test ban in 1963.

Weeks later, Khrushchev told Cousins how much he admired Pope John, saying: “During that week of the Cuban missile crisis the Pope’s appeal was a real ray of light. I was grateful for it.”

Several years after that, Khrushchev’s son Sergey said that the words of Pope John XXIII were strongly persuasive on the consciences of people, especially those of his father and Kennedy.

With this in mind, we were thinking it might be time for something similar to happen today. Might Pope Leo XIV call for a Peace Conference to withdraw nuclear weapons from the Russian border and call for the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide? He already suggested something along these lines at the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when he prayed that the bombings would „serve as a call to the international community to renew its commitment to pursuing lasting peace for our whole human family — ‚a peace that is unarmed and disarming,‘ “ Perhaps the Vatican or another neutral location such as Vienna or Geneva could be the venue.

Would you be able to help bring this recommendation to Pope Leo? We believe you, as a strong and highly-respected advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons, would be the ideal diplomat to encourage Pope Leo to bring Putin, Trump, and Xi Jinping together to plan an end to nuclear weapons and to pave a new road of economic conversion from a war economy to economic development for all people everywhere. Your intercession and the strong leadership of Pope Leo could move us away from the sheer madness we are now experiencing.

Sincerely,

Jack Gilroy, Pax Christi New York State Council; Veterans For Peace;
Ban Killer Drones; International Peace Coalition of the Schiller Institute

In collaboration with The Pax Christi New York State Council

• Rosemarie Pace, Ed.D., PCNYS Coordinator; Pax Christi USA Palestine SolidarityWorking Group; Pax Christi International Sudan Working Group
• John Amidon, Ben Salmon Chapter Pax Christi Upstate New York; Veteran For Peace; Co-Founder Kateri Peace Conference
• Tom Casey, Pax Christi Western New York
• Pierre Fidelia, Pax Christi Metro New York Board President
• Bob Keeler, Pax Christi Long Island
• Ed Kubik, Pax Christi Long Island
• Mary Beth Moore, SC, Pax Christi Long Island
• Mark Scibilia-Carver, Ben Salmon Chapter Pax Christi Upstate New York

with contributions from:

• Marie Dennis, PCUSA Teacher of Peace 2022, Ambassador of Peace, & Senior Program Director of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
• Jim Douglass, PCUSA Teacher of Peace 1994, author
• Raymond McGovern, Former CIA Analyst, Current Peace Activist

And endorsed by the following:

• Muhammad Salim Akhtar  National Director American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections
• Jim Albertini, PCUSA Teacher of Peace, 2010
• All Saints Parish, Syracuse, New York
  –> Fr. Fred Daley, Pastor
  –> Meg Ksander, Pastoral Associat
• Missy Androu, St Anthony Church Solidarity Community
• Syed Azhar, National Director Pakistani American Democratic Forum
• Karen Ball, Board Member Pax Christi Texas, San Antonio Chapter
• Roger C. Barnes, Professor Emeritus, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX
• Carolyn Bentley, Pax Christi Dallas, TX & Dallas, TX Peace and Justice Center
• Fr. Roy Bourgeois, PCUSA Teacher of Peace 1997
• Kathy Boylan, Catholic Worker, Washington D.C.
• Right Reverend John Bryson Chane D.D., 8th Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C.
• Fr. Harry Bury, Twin Cities Nonviolent, Author. Member of U.S. Catholic Priests Association
• Fr. Daniel Clayton, Priest of the Diocese of Dallas, TX
• Catherine Clubb Foley, Pax Christi Houston, TX Member
• James C. Cobey, Founder Health Volunteers Overseas;Steering Committee Voices From the Holy Land; Shared 1997 Nobel Peace Prize as part of work with Physicians for Humanity
• Jay Coghlan, Executive Director Nuclear Watch New Mexico
• M. Phyllis Cunningham, Pax Christi Metro New York
• Bob Cushing, A Founding Father of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests
• Dr. Thomas Clough Daffern,  Director, International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy
• Arthur Dawes, Pax Christi Texas Board President & Pax Christi San Antonio Member
• Fr. John Dear, „Beatitude Center for the Nonviolent Jesus“& „The Nonviolent Jesus Podcas
• Pat Delgado, Pax Christi El Paso Coordinator & Pax Christi Texas Board Member
• Sylvia Demarest, Retired Lawyer and Substack writer
• Joan Dolan, Pax Christi  Texas
• Rev. David Gerlich, Honolulu, Hawaii, author of Jesus Christ He Still Matters
• Joseph Fahey, Co-founder & Former General Secretary of PCUSA
• Professor Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University; Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestinian Territories; Vice President Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
• Mike Ferner, Former national president, Veterans For Peace
• Jill Frasier, Pax Christi Metro New York Board Member
• Sr. Carol Gilbert, Dominican Sister and Plow Shares activist
• Clare Grady, Plowshares Activist
• Joyce Hall, Pax Christi Dallas, TX Coordinator & Member of the Pax Christi TX Board
• Rick Halperin, Director, Southern Methodist University Human Rights program Jovita, Harrah, Pax Christi Northern California
• Leslie Harris, CODEPINK; Veterans For Peace; Dallas Peace and Justice Center  
• Fr John Heagle, Director of Priests Against Genocide
• Ira Helfand, Former President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War“; Co-founder Back from the Brink
• Vic Hummert, Former Maryknoll Priest and Author
• Wally Ingle, Pax Christi Hawaii
• Hadi Jawad, Human Rights Dallas, TX
• Frank Karthauser, Catholic Workers Movement
• Tarak Kauff, New York Member of Veterans For Peace; Editor: Peace & Planet News
• Jonathan Kuttab, Executive Director Friends of Sabeel North America
• Kateri Tekakwitha Interfaith Peace Conference
• Kathy Kelly, PCUSA Teacher of Peace 1998
• Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, Th.D., University of the Incarnate Word
• Dennis Kucinich, Former Mayor of Cleveland and U.S. Representative from Ohio
• Peter Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, Washington, D.C.
• Nydia Leaf, Pax Christi Metro New York Member
• Claudia Morgan, Pax Christi Texas Board
• Nick Mottern, Coordinator-Ban Killer Drones and the Weaponized Drone Ban Treaty Campaign
• Muslim Democratic Caucus c/o President Amir Rahmam
• Dr. Ivana Nikolic Hughes, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Chemistry at Columbia University
• Nancy Oetter, Regional Coordinator, Pax Christi Illinois
• Johanna Parkinson, Dallas Area Interfaith, Ret. Marketing Exec.
• Pax Christi Little Rock, AR
• Pax Christi Metro New York Board
• Lorin Peters, Pax Christi Moderator of the Northern California Chapter, Pax Christi U.S. Disarmament Working Group
• Bill Quigley,  Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace; Emeritus Professor of Law Loyola University New Orleans Louisiana
• Judith Robinson, Retired Russian Desk Officer for USAID, Dept of Commerce BISNIS Unit, & State Department Education & Transportation USA
• Jean Ross, Vote Climate Board Chair
• E. Martin Schotz, MD, author and active advocate for peace and nuclear disarmament
• Martin Sheen, Actor & PCUSA Teacher of Peace 1999
• Aftab Siddiqui, President, Dallas, TX Peace and Justice Center
• Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — Province of Venezuela Provincial,
  –> Sister Fernanda Vacas Navarro, RSCJ
  –> Sister Emilia M. Martinez  Rivas, RSCJ
• Rev  Robert Smith,  Pastor, New Bethel  Baptist Church, Detroit, MI; and Founder Haiti Mission Alliance  
• John Steinbach, Coordinator, Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee-North Capitol Area
• Elaine Sullivan, M.Ed., LPC; LMFT, Counselor; former Benedictine Nun, Dallas, TX   
• Fr. Bernard Survil, U.S. Catholic Priests Association
• Alice Sutter, Raging Grannies NYC
• Diane Swords, Syracuse Peace Council
• Br. Terence J Taffe,  Cap., MA, LMSW. Province of St Mary, Capuchin Order
• Fr. Tim Taugher, Pastor, St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Binghamton, NY
• Dr. Mohammad A. Toor, Chairman of Board of Trustees Pakistani American Congress;
  President – American Pakistani Physicians for Justice & Democracy;
  Chairman of American Muslim Alliance
• Regis Tremblay, Crimea, Director „Thirty Seconds to Midnight“
• Patricia Tweedy, Pax Christi Metro New York Board
• Veterans for Peace Chapter 10, Albany
• Jim Wohlgemuth, Veterans For Peace Coordinator of the Hector Black Chapter – Nashville, TN
• Ann Wright, Dissent: Voices of Conscience
• Zool Zulkowitz, New York Directors Guild of America; Artistic Director, The Rising Together
  Theater Company; Jewish Voice for Peace; Veterans For Peace