In Aotearoa there are Catholic Worker hospitality houses in Christchurch and a Catholic Worker farm up north, Catholic Workers are presently awaiting trial for a plowshares action www.plowsharesactions.org
at Wahopi
www.jonahhouse.org

Brisbane membership were fashioned in resistance under Joh (born in New Zealand, so we're blaming you guys!), with anarchist pacifist politics they opened a hospitality house for homeless aboriginal youth & released prisoners. They played a significant role in resisting Joh, closing Bogo Rd Jail, resisting war preparations, military training at Cunungara of Indonesian troops killing in East Timor & West Papua etc etc. Most recently resistance to Pine Gap www.pinegap6.org Raytheon Brisbane, Enoggera Base where Oz troopsleave for Iraq & Afghanistan and working an organic farm at Daybora. Members were also imprisoned in the United Sates, Aotearoa & Europe for anti-war resistance.

Related Link for CW gathering (Worcester, Mass, USA) photos, speechs (MP3's) etc: www.pieandcoffee.org/cw2008 THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT CONTINUES TO OPPOSE WAR; STATEMENT URGES U.S. CATHOLIC BISHOPS TO ACT

At the conclusion of the 75th Anniversary Gathering of the Catholic
Worker movement, held in Worcester, Massachusetts from July 9 – 12
www.pieandcoffee.org/cw2008/ , Catholic Workers from across the
United States and from Germany issued a statement responding to
unending war, ecological destruction and economic collapse; calling
the leadership of the church to speak out now; and urging their church
and nation to join them in personal, political and spiritual actions.

Over 500 Catholic Workers attended the gathering, the largest in these
times, hosted by Ss. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker and the Mustard
Seed Catholic Worker communities. The Catholic Worker was founded by
Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, in the depths of the Great
Depression, as a Gospel-based response to the needs of those times.
The Catholic Worker vision lives on in over 200 communities worldwide.

The statement urges the leadership of the church, "now and without
evasion, to break its silence and to wield the authority provided by
the nonviolent gospel of Jesus Christ, by calling the entire nation to
repent for the war crimes we have committed in the so-called War on
Terror."

CATHOLIC WORKER 75th ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT
[Full text version]

We are Catholic Workers from communities throughout the U.S. and
Europe who have come to Worcester, Massachusetts to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of the Catholic Worker. At this critical point in history,
as we face unending war, including U.S. plans to attack Iran,
ecological destruction and economic collapse, we call on our church
and nation to join us in repenting our affronts to God.

The U.S. has become the wealthiest nation on earth at the price of the
collective loss of our souls through our acceptance of the sins of
war, torture, racism, discrimination, killing, nuclearism and
environmental destruction - - all in the name of profit. We live a
lifestyle that demands war and distracts from our true calling of
loving and caring for one another.

We urge our church to heed the nonviolent example of Dorothy Day and
the critique of modern war by Vatican II. Taking God's command "Thou
shalt not kill" and the Sermon on the Mount as our Christian
manifesto, we commit ourselves to upholding the sacredness of all life
wherever it is threatened. We recommit ourselves to the Catholic
Worker vision of creating a new society in the shell of the old.

Saint Paul tells us that when one member of our community is
suffering, the health of the whole body is affected. In our various
communities we have daily contact with the victims of our society,
including homeless veterans and our undocumented sisters and brothers.
Many of us have been arrested and jailed for nonviolent acts of
resistance to state-sanctioned injustice and killing. We strive to do
the works of mercy and to follow Jesus' command to be nonviolent
witnesses for peace and justice.

We once again implore the leadership of the Catholic Church in the
United States, now and without evasion, to break its silence and to
wield the authority provided by the nonviolent gospel of Jesus Christ,
by calling the entire nation to repent for the war crimes we have
committed in the so-called War on Terror.

We yearn to be part of a church that prays and works for peace, loves
our neighbors and enemies alike, and embraces the redemptive power of
forgiveness. We cry out for a church that speaks without fear of
consequences, including loss of revenue. We implore our church
leadership to follow the example of Jesus and unequivocally renounce
the sins of our empire's warmaking, the possession and use of weapons
of mass destruction, oppression, scapegoating and aspirations of
global domination.

When our body issued its last national plea in 2006, the response was
profoundly disappointing and no less than tragic. Rather than a clear
pronouncement condemning the illegal and immoral nature of our current
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the evil wrought by torture
and other crimes against humanity, the U.S. Catholic Bishops merely
stated that "our nation's military forces should remain in Iraq only
as long as their presence contributes to a responsible transition."

The insufficiency of this response has been demonstrated, not only by
the continuation of these wars in the face of a clear public desire to
end the war in Iraq, but also by the reality of US covert actions
aimed at destabilizing Iran and the apparently imminent military
attack on that nation.

Out of our shared and abiding love, we remind the Bishops that we
continue to wait for their clear call to our nation to end these
threats and provocations that carry no other outcome than an
ever-widening sea of agony and death. In this prayer we invoke the
spirit and witness of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter who exemplified
Christ's instruction to peacemakers that, as children of God, we may
be required to give up our lives rather than participate in evil.

In the name of God, who calls us to love and not to kill, we appeal to
the church and all people of good will to:

• Call for prayer, fasting, vigils and nonviolent civil resistance to
immediately end the U.S. military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Advise all soldiers to refuse to participate in these wars.

• Denounce and actively resist U.S. plans to attack Iran.

• Embrace the nonviolent witness of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter and
actively support and encourage all conscientious objectors.

• Urge Congress and the military to offer appropriate care and
support to returning soldiers.

• Call for an immediate end to the use of torture.

• Call for the closing of Guantanamo and other secret U.S. military prisons.

• Call for the redirection of our resources from war making and
exploitation to meeting human needs and preserving life on Earth.

• Call for an equitable redistribution of resources and
simplification of our materialistic lifestyle.

• Call for disarmament and the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction.

We call on our church to be a prophetic voice, a sanctuary, and a
source of encouragement to those who want to work in community toward
peace, justice and reconciliation.

Affirmed in assembly
Catholic Worker 75th Anniversary Gathering
Our Lady of Mount Carmel / Saint Anne Parish Center, Worcester,
Massachusetts USA
On the Feast of St. Benedict July 11, 2008

Link here