Deacon Tom Cornell
A veteran of civil rights struggles, peace movements, military draft resistance and community-building, Deacon Tom Cornell offers too much to put into words. He is a veteran of the Catholic Worker Movement, former national secretary of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, a founder of Pax Christi, U.S.A., and the only Catholic living or dead who served as lieutenant to both A.J. Muste and Dorothy Day. He worked closely also with Barbara Deming, Thich Nhat Hahn, and, through Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cornell has an extensive background in war resistance as organizer and vanguard participant; in 1963, he organized the first demonstration against the Viet Nam war 1963 and the first corporate act of draft resistance to the Viet Nam draft, the burning of draft cards, 1965. He served prison time for his acts of nonviolent resistance and was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter.
Cornell and his family live at Peter Maurin Farm in Marlboro, New York; he lectures throughout the U.S. and abroad. Cornell has spent considerable time in Iraq both before and after the most recent U.S. invasion.