Peace and Conscientious Objection

Records of a membership organization (administered as an independent branch of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference) concerned with "educating all Catholics as to their obligations of justice and charity in the cause of international peace." Included are correspondence, minutes, publications, reports, speeches, and other records documenting the annual conferences and other activities of the Association's committees, subcommittees, officers, and secretariat. Notable correspondents include Patrick H. Callahan, John Tracy Ellis, Charles Fahy, Anna Dill Gamble, Carlton J.H. Hayes, John LaFarge, Elizabeth M. Lynskey, Raymond A. McGowan, Francis E. McMahon, Parker T. Moon, and Elizabeth M. Sweeney. [Connect to Inventory]

CULLEN, MICHAEL D., PAPERS, 1942, 1953-present, 5.0 feet.

Papers of a religious educator who co-founded Milwaukee's Casa Maria Catholic Worker House of Hospitality (1966) and destroyed draft records in the "Milwaukee Fourteen" anti-war action in 1968, for which he served 9 months in federal prison
before being deported to Ireland. (He was readmitted to the United States in 1991.) Included are correspondence, legal records (including case files from the office of his attorney, James Shellow), manuscripts, photographs, press clippings, publications, and audiotape recordings, largely relating to Cullen's social ministry, anti-war activism, and imprisonment. Correspondents include
Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Dorothy Day, James Groppi, and Albion Ross. [Connect to Inventory]

Records of a faith-based, grassroots movement for peace and social justice through nonviolent direct action, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in New York City in 1933 and represented today by more than one hundred loosely affiliated "houses of hospitality" (including several in Australia, Canada, Europe, and Mexico) in which the poor and homeless are welcomed as guests. The records document the efforts of Catholic Worker volunteers to "live out" the Gospel message, interpreted as pacifist, personalist, and profoundly radical. The collection includes the personal papers of Day, Maurin, and others involved in the movement; records of the New York City and other Catholic Worker communities; photographs; audio and video tapes of interviews, talks, television programs, and peace demonstrations; and a wide variety of publications. [Connect to Inventory]

JUSTICE AND PEACE CENTER (MILWAUKEE) RECORDS, 1970-1982, 4.0 feet (unprocessed).

Records of an advocacy and research organization, founded by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in 1971 and later supported by nine religious communities, including general administrative records, minutes of staff and board meetings, newsletters and other publications, and subject files. The center closed in 1982.

Records of a peace organization (originally part of a national network) formed in opposition to the United States government's support of the "Contras" in Nicaragua. Included are correspondence, minutes, publications, reports, press releases and other records documenting the group's nonviolent resistance to US military intervention in Latin America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. James M. Barrett, formerly professor of Biology at Marquette University, served for many years as coordinator and editor of its newsletter. [Connect to Inventory]

Documentaries on faith-based peace activism, selected to complement holdings in the Dorothy Day-Catholic Worker Collection
and other collections. [Connect to Inventory]

SOCIAL ACTION VERTICAL FILES, ca. 1930-present, 18.0 feet (unprocessed).

Published information by and about spiritually-motivated organizations and individuals active in peace and social justice
movements.

VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS RECORDS AND KATHY KELLY PAPERS, ca. 1985-2005, 21.0 feet (unprocessed).

Voices in the Wilderness (VITW, 1996-2005) utilized the means of nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience and fasting, to oppose economic sanctions and war against Iraq. From its base in Chicago, the group organized over seventy delegations to Iraq which brought donations of medicine and toys to children in hospitals in open violation of the U.N. sanctions and U.S. law. The Treasury Department responded by imposing a $20,000 fine. Refusing to pay the penalty as a matter of principle, VITW closed its doors in the summer of 2005, reorganizing under the name Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Included in the records are correspondence, subject files, photographs, and video recordings.

Closely related are the papers of Kathy Kelly, a co-founder of VITW/VCN who has anchored its leadership team from the beginning. Her peacemaking efforts in Bosnia, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as Iraq, led to her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions.

WINCHESTER, HAROLD P., PAPERS, 1940-1997, 1.0 feet (unprocessed).

Papers of a conscientious objector during World War II, concerning his experiences in a Civilian Public Service camp in New Hampshire, including correspondence, diary entries, and his subsequent thesis.