When sophomore Kristin Swanson entered the Pax Christi meeting on Jan. 31, she said that she was told it was to discuss the future of Pax Christi.

While true to some degree, members of the Saint Louis University branch of Pax Christi quickly discovered that the meeting was to discuss, more specifically, a future without sponsorship from Campus Ministry, she said.

Pax Christi, a group devoted to anti-violence and anti-war activism, has been chartered through Campus Ministry for more than six years, according to Director of Campus Ministry Lisa Reiter.

The nature of that relationship shifted this semester, when Reiter decided it would be best for Pax Christi to go its separate way, due to its “evolution in which Pax Christi began to think of themselves as their own organization,” she said. “They, in many ways, operate as a de facto chartered student organization.”

The problem with that, Reiter said, was that as long as the organization was under the oversight of Campus Ministry, it still needed approval from Campus Ministry before sponsoring events or participating in activities, something Reiter said wasn’t always happening.

“These students see this as their own group . and I have told them I think that’s a very positive characteristic,” she said. “The problem [occurs] when they start operating in ways outside our policies [while still being a Campus Ministry-sponsored organization].”

While it wasn’t the first time the possibility of ending the sponsorship had been mentioned, the final decision was unexpected to Swanson and to fellow Pax Christi member Rebecca Gorley.

“We were told last semester that it was our decision [on whether to remain under the oversight of Campus Ministry],” Swanson said. “It came as a huge surprise at the [Jan. 31] meeting that they had decided to let us go.”

Gorley also expressed surprise at Campus Ministry’s action.
“I feel that Pax Christi should not have to go under a [SGA] CSO to live out its values of peace, nonviolence and speaking, thinking and living out social justice,” she said.

“I think it is a shame that the peaceful activism and awareness that Pax Christi raised is too heavy for Campus Ministry, or seen as too heavily assertive.”

One point of contention between Campus Ministry and Pax Christi arose last April, after Pax Christi, in conjunction with other groups, held a “Die-in,” an Iraq War memorial where more than 100 students lay in the quad, each holding symbolic tombstones bearing the names of fallen soldiers. The action ended up being quite controversial, Swanson said, because of their use of the soldiers’ names. She said that this year, when they attempted to sponsor another event, Campus Ministry, which had been originally supportive, wasn’t quite as willing to get involved.

Reiter said that this issue was “one of the reasons I would highly encourage them to charter,” she said. “If they have really matured to a level where they can coordinate and organize themselves, then they really should charter because there are so many advantages to that.”

Reiter also stressed that Campus Ministry was not severing all ties with the group. Instead, she said, Campus Ministry would still be willing to provide them with a meeting space in the future.

“I think Pax Christi does great work,” she said. “I think chartering [through SGA] will strengthen Pax Christi as an organization and help them provide more services to the SLU community.”

As of its meeting Thursday, Feb. 7, Pax Christi was still weighing its options about what sort of action they will next pursue.