By Joyce Rothermel

A wonderful opportunity is afforded to people in the Pittsburgh area June 1-3, 2018. That weekend, Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi, Veterans for Peace and the Thomas Merton Center are hosting the screening of the 2017 documentary, “The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs.”

The film documents two Plowshares actions at two nuclear weapons facilities in the recent past. Nuclear disarmament activists, including Catholic nuns and priests, challenged the security and legality of nuclear weapons when they broke  into two top-secret facilities: one known as the “Fort Knox” of uranium and the other a Trident nuclear submarine base.

Sr. Megan Rice, an 88-year-old nun, participated in the first of the witnesses and will be with us for the Pittsburgh area screenings. The filmmaker is Emmy award-winning producer Helen Young.

It is now more than 25 years after the end of the Cold War and nuclear weapons are once again center stage. The North Korean crisis together with the uncertain future of the Iran nuclear deal and the strained relationship  with Russia in Syria have increased tension  surrounding the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons. The documentary profiles people on the frontlines of global efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons and follows diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to prohibit the use and threat of use of these weapons.

The public is welcome to any of the following screenings:

Friday, June 1, 7 PM at St. Winifred’s Catholic Church Hall, 550 Sleepy Hollow Road in Mt. Lebanon.

Sat., June 2:  2PM at Stone House at the Connare Center, 2900 Seminary Drive, Greensburg

Sunday, June 3, at 2 PM at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Divine Providence, 9000 Babcock Blvd. in Allison Park.

Sunday, June 3 at 6:30 PM at Carlow University, 3333 Fifth Avenue, Oakland (yet to be confirmed).

A free-will offering will be taken up at each of the performances to help with regional campaigns working for the abolition of nuclear weapons and to help with the continued distribution of the film.

(TMC co-founder and current board member Molly Rush was a member of the Plowshares Eight, the first plowshares witness in 1980 at the GE plant in King of Prussia, PA.)

For more information, call the planning team at 412-780-5118.

Joyce Rothermel is a member of the Anti-War Committee of the Thomas Merton Center.