In 2019, John Dear and Ken Butigan led forty people on an inspiring, powerful Pace e Bene pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy to study and pray in the footsteps of St. Francis and St. Claire. It was one of the highlights of our lives.

John considers Ken one of the world’s experts on active nonviolence, as well as one of the world’s experts on the nonviolence of St. Francis and St. Claire.

For many years, Ken has been teaching thousands of college students about nonviolence, as well as about St. Francis and St. Claire, at DePaul University in Chicago, and elsewhere. He has led many delegations to Assisi over the years.

Dr. Ken Butigan is a longtime staff person at www.paceebene.org, the “Franciscan nonviolence service.” He is the co-founder and strategist for the annual Campaign Nonviolence program, as well one of the coordinators of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, which coordinated the historic 2016 Vatican Conference on Nonviolence.

Since the early 1980s, Ken has worked with numerous social movements, including movements for a nuclear-free future, an end to homelessness, and freedom for East Timor. He was the national coordinator of the Pledge of Resistance in the 1980s, joined the staff of Pace e Bene in 1990, and was the national organizer for the Declaration of Peace in the 2000s. He developed and for several years directed Pace e Bene’s “From Violence To Wholeness” program, and was actively involved in creating Pace e Bene’s “Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living” program.

Ken earned his Ph.D. in the Historical and Cultural Studies of Religions at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in 2000. He has been a lecturer in the spirituality and practice of nonviolence at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, and directed the Spiritual Life Institute at Saint Martin’s College in Washington State for three years. Ken has published six books, including Nonviolent Lives: People and Movements Changing the World Through the Power of Active Nonviolence and Pilgrimage through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site. He lives in Chicago with his spouse Cynthia Okayama Dopke and their daughter Leah. See: www.paceebene.org

The session will last one and a half hours; cost: $30.

Registration is limited

Deadline to register to be sure of receiving the link is March 8th.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.