John Dear

He was ordained a Catholic priest in Baltimore, Maryland on June 12, 1993, and began serving as associate pastor of St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C. Dear founded Bay Area Pax Christi, a region of Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement, and began to arrange for Mother Teresa to intervene with various governors on behalf of people scheduled to be executed on death row.

[citation needed] From 1998 to 2001, Dear served as executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the United States, based in Nyack, New York.

[citation needed] Immediately after September 11, 2001, Dear served as a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at the Family Assistance Center in Manhattan, and personally counseled thousands of relatives and rescue workers.

[citation needed] In January 2014, Dear left the Jesuits and wrote about his leaving in the National Catholic Reporter, saying that the Society of Jesus has turned from its commitment to social justice, and that he would not be permitted to work for peace and disarmament.

Over the years, Dear has given thousands of lectures on peace, disarmament and nonviolence in churches, schools and groups across the United States, and around the world, including national speaking tours of Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and England.

[citation needed] He is featured in the DVD documentary film, The Narrow Path, and the subject of John Dear on Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009).