Sisters urge moral leadership from U.S. Bishops
The Nuns Against Gun Violence Steering Committee is sending letters to every active and auxiliary bishop in the United States asking them to take the following steps:
- Reissue and amplify the 2020 USCCB document “A Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence,” including encouraging clergy to preach about gun violence as a life issue.
- Prioritize approaches that build community and foster peace. Reject ineffective measures that can actually increase the risk of harm, such as arming staff and holding active shooter drills that traumatize our children, normalize violence, and may inadvertently train future shooters.
- Encourage clergy, diocesan offices, and Catholic school leadership to engage with national gun violence prevention organizations and evidence-based research on gun violence prevention when considering the best ways to speak about gun violence and ensure the safety of communities.
- Include gun violence prevention on the agenda for the November 2025 Plenary Assembly.
We encourage all Catholics to personalize your own letter to send to your bishop and/or any bishops you personally know.
Full text of our letter:
Dear Bishops,
As Catholic sisters, their allies, and Steering Committee members of Nuns Against Gun Violence, we resonate deeply with Pope Leo XIV’s call for an unarmed and disarming peace and feel called to peacebuilding in our personal relationships, church, and society. Consequently, we are deeply saddened and troubled by violence in our society, including the epidemic of gun violence.
Nuns Against Gun Violence is a coalition of Catholic Sisters and their allies that affirms the value of human life through prayer, education, and advocacy for common sense, evidence-based gun violence prevention. Responding to a need for a unified Catholic voice for gun violence prevention, NAGV formed in May 2023. The growing coalition includes 53 congregations of women religious and allied organizations, with motherhouses in 16 states, and sisters and associates in 45 states and the District of Columbia, representing thousands of Catholics across our country.
As we reflect on the epidemic of gun violence in our country and the recent shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School, we take hope in our Church’s commitment to the dignity of each human life, the value of peace, and the way of nonviolence. Grounded in this hope, we ask the USCCB to take the following steps:
- Reissue and amplify “A Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence,” including encouraging clergy to preach about gun violence as a life issue.
- Prioritize approaches that build community and foster peace. Reject ineffective measures that can actually increase the risk of harm, such as arming staff and holding active shooter drills that traumatize our children, normalize violence, and may inadvertently train future shooters.[1]
- Encourage clergy, diocesan offices, and Catholic school leadership to engage with national gun violence prevention organizations and evidence-based research on gun violence prevention when considering the best ways to speak about gun violence and ensure the safety of communities.[2]
- Include gun violence prevention on the agenda for the November 2025 Plenary Assembly.
In January 2020, the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development within the USCCB published “A Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence.” The bishops note, “The Church has been a consistent voice for the promotion of peace at home and around the world, and a strong advocate for the reasonable regulation of firearms.” In particular, they recounted eight measures that the USCCB has supported to address gun violence, including an assault weapons ban, measures to control firearm sales and use, the criminalization of gun trafficking, access to mental health care and interventions, and gun safety measures.
Nuns Against Gun Violence applauds the USCCB’s commitment to these common sense, evidence-based gun violence prevention measures, especially evidenced in bishops’ testimony before Congress and public statements about gun violence prevention and promoting peacemaking.
As “A Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence” concludes, “Catholics and all people of good will are urged to contact their Senators and Representative to support policy and legislative measures that uphold the safety and wellbeing of all persons in our communities.” The overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens favor gun violence prevention legislation, including those measures supported by the USCCB,[3] but for the laity to recognize gun violence as a life issue and engage their elected officials, they need to be empowered to do so from those who lead. To more fully promote a culture of peacemaking and nonviolence, we need more from the leadership of our Church. We need our bishops and priests to be an outspoken moral authority calling for solutions to gun violence.
As we ask the USCCB to take these steps, Nuns Against Gun Violence in turn commits to working in partnership with our bishops and clergy and extend the assistance of our coalition to the above efforts. Together we can further a peacebuilding approach to gun violence, an approach that is unarmed and disarming.
In the Peace of Christ,
Nuns Against Gun Violence Steering Committee
Josie Chrosniak, HM
Justice Promoter
Office of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
Sisters of the Humility of Mary
Lisa Demler
Shalom Office, JPIC Director
School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province
Mackenzie Doyle
Justice Promoter
Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation
Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati
Dr. Jennifer Kryszak
Director of Strategic Planning
Franciscan Peace Center
Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa
John Charles McAllister-Ashley
Program Coordinator
Institute Office of Anti-Racism & Racial Equity
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Annette McDermott, SSJ
Justice Promoter
Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation
Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield
Angela Howard McParland
Justice Resource Manager
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Pat Millen, OSF
Common Spirit Violence Prevention Manager
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
Jen Morin-Williamson
Peace, Justice, and Ecology Coordinator
Sisters of the Precious Blood
Maria Orlandini, OSF
Director of Advocacy
Franciscan Action Network
Dorothy Scesny, PBVM
Leadership Team
Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Kim Westerman
Congregational Communications Director
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
[1] “NEA School Gun Violence Prevention and Response Guide,” National Education Association and Everytown for Gun Safety, August 26, 2024. everytownresearch.org/report/school-gun-violence-prevention-response-guide
[2] Prominent national organizations include Brady United, Everytown for Gun Safety, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Newtown Action Alliance, and many more.
[3] “Key Facts about Americans and Guns,” Pew Research Center, July 24, 2024 pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns
