Pax Christi of Springfield will observe the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Catholic bishops' peace pastoral letter at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in the rose garden in Washington Park in Springfield. Pax Christi members will conduct a prayer service and raise the Peace Flag to mark the anniversary.

On May 3, 1983, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response. To observe the anniversary, Pax Christi is sponsoring "Ten Days In May."

Beginning Friday, May 2, the eve of the anniversary and continuing through Sunday, May 11, Pax Christi invites individuals, parishes and schools to pray individually and communally, in Mass and in small prayer circles, both for peace in the world and for a stronger commitment to build and proclaim peace from the church.

"Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. bishops issued the document which came to be known as ‘the peace pastoral' and forever enshrined peacemaking as an imperative of our faith," said Pax Christi member Diane Lopez Hughes.

"It was a strong, prophetic statement during a time when our own country was enthralled with its military power and engaged in an arms race spurred on by the Cold War with the Soviet Union," Hughes said. "The peace pastoral both affirmed the work that Pax Christi USA had undertaken and worked for since 1972 and encouraged us to move even more boldly into the future with our aim of making peacemaking an imperative of our church."

All are welcome. For more information, visit the Pax Christi Web site at www.paxchristiusa.org/news_Events_more.asp?id=1360 or call Sister Maureen Irvin, OSF, coordinator of Pax Christi, at (217) 698-9045.