Welcome to Pax Christi in Scotland
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New Blog 20th October
Oliver McTernan is director and co-founder of Forward Thinking. a UK based organisation that works to resolve conflict through an inclusive dialogue. Born in County Leitrim in 1947, his family emigrated to London in 1957, where he lives today. He worked as a priest in inner London between 1972 and 2000. He was a Visiting Fellow of the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, 2000-2003, where he researched the failure of peace processes and the relationship between religion and conflict. His book Violence in God’s Name explores the roots of violence within each of the major faith traditions and the role of religion in today’s conflicts. Here he reflects on today’s situation in Palestine.
Listen to our Latest Podcast
Marian Pallister on Radio Alba, 28th September 2025
The Season of Creation reminds us that there can be no peace unless we recognise and act on the interdependency of all creation. Marian Pallister reflects on the need to work together for a nonviolent world (first heard on Radio Alba).
The Peace of Christ
Pax Christi Scotland became one of the member organisations of Pax Christi International in 2019. This Catholic peace movement, with its 120 member organisations worldwide, promotes peace, respect of human rights, justice and reconciliation throughout the world.
The global network, founded in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, believes that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken. Pax Christi Scotland seeks to address the root causes & destructive consequences of violence within our own society, as well as campaigning to end violent conflict and war around the world.
Pax Christi Scotland supports Pax Christi International’s role as an influential advocate at intergovernmental levels, influencing global peace policy in the UN and UNESCO, the African Union, and the European Union. We are represented on Pax Christi International’s anti nuclear group.
Striving for a nonviolent society in Scotland is our top priority, working through the home, the school, the parish and wider society. With our members, scattered across the length and breadth of Scotland, we will address:
- Discrimination in all its forms
- The language of violence
- The need for a peace-filled welcome for refugees & migrants
- The need for divestment from nuclear & conventional weapons
- The need to remove Trident from Scotland & persuade the UK government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Our aim is to produce resources, to provide an online space for reflection, discussion and training, to be advocates for change in all arenas concerned with nonviolence, and to raise awareness injustice and disregard for human rights.
These are not easy times, but the fact that so many of us here in Scotland and around the world work and pray for peace is encouragement that – as Pax Christi International asserts – ‘vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken’. Lets break them together.
Pax Christi Scotland chair Marian Pallister participating in the August 2024 vigil at Faslane nuclear base.
Pax Christi Scotland members joined with members of Justice and Peace Scotland at the Faslane August 2024 vigil.
We continue to work for a world free from weapons of mass destruction.