Remembering Sister Ardeth Platte, a prophet of peace in a culture of aggression
William Critchley-Menor, S.J. October 07, 2020
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/10/07/remembering-sister-ardeth-platte-prophet-peace-culture-aggression
Some devout Catholic girls grow up to be handmaids, others proud ex-cons by Diane Carmen
The Colorado Sun, October 18, 2020 https://coloradosun.com/2020/10/18/nuclear-weapons-catholic-politics-opinion/
When Ardeth Platte was released in 2005 after more than two years in federal prison in Danbury, Conn., she made a confession. Smiling, her eyes crinkling, she admitted to me that the nice soft sheets on the beds on the outside felt truly wonderful.
The then-69-year-old Dominican nun was happy to be free, but wholly unrepentant. As Sen. Dianne Feinstein might say, the dogma lived loudly within her, and if going to prison periodically was the price of living her faith, so be it.
Sister Ardeth Platte resisted war through prayer, action for four decades
The Crux, Oct. 5, 2020 Dennis Sadowski for Catholic News Service https://coloradosun.com/2020/10/18/nuclear-weapons-catholic-politics-opinion/
CLEVELAND — Dominican Sister Ardeth Platte long considered herself a peacemaker and devoted nearly 40 years of her life to praying and witnessing to end war and rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Her actions led to imprisonment multiple times, including for the 2002 defacement of a missile silo in Colorado in collaboration with her best friend, Dominican Sister Carol Gilbert, and fellow Dominican Sister Jackie Hudson.
Platte, 84, died in her sleep at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington early Sept. 30. Funeral arrangements were pending Oct. 5 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ardeth Platte, Dominican Nun and Antinuclear Activist, Dies at 84
The New York Times, October 8, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/ardeth-platte-dead.html
Like many Catholics, the nuns were compelled to activism by Vatican II, the early-1960s church council that encouraged its members to be more engaged with the world.
By the early ’80s, inspired by the Australian doctor and antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott, they turned their focus to the nuclear weapons and bombers located in bases in their home state. For more than a decade, through hundreds of protests, legal challenges and sheer doggedness, they were among those who were instrumental in Michigan’s decision to close its nuclear bases in 1995.
“Ardeth was very keen on the law,” Anabel Dwyer, a Michigan-based lawyer who worked for decades on the nuns’ behalf, said in a phone interview. “She stood for the Nuremberg principles, the universal prohibitions against war crimes. Her resistance was based on the fact that nuclear weapons unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation and thus violate intransgressible rules of law.
“Obviously it was a moral question for her as well,” Ms. Dwyer continued, “but when she was in court she wanted to argue in terms of the law itself. She had a real instinct for justice on a large scale, for democracy as an act.”
More News
In Thanksgiving: Remembering Sr. Ardeth Platte in this season of peace
Dec 5, 2020, Mary T. Yelenick, Pax Christi UN Team, New York City
https://paxchristiusa.org/2020/12/05/in-thanksgiving-remembering-sr-ardeth-platte-in-this-season-of-peace/
Celebrating Sister Ardeth Platte, anti-nuclear activist and ‘peacemaker in a hostile world’,
https://paxchristiusa.org/2020/12/05/in-thanksgiving-remembering-sr-ardeth-platte-in-this-season-of-peace/
October 8, 2020 8.32am EDT
https://theconversation.com/celebrating-sister-ardeth-platte-anti-nuclear-activist-and-peacemaker-in-a-hostile-world
Former Saginaw City council member and anti-nuke activist Sister Ardeth Platte dies at 84
Updated Oct 01, 2020; Posted Oct 01, 2020
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/10/former-saginaw-city-council-member-and-anti-nuke-activist-sister-ardeth-platte-dies-at-84.html
Pax Christi USA gives thanks for the life and witness of Sr. Ardeth Platte: Rest in power!
https://paxchristiusa.org/2020/10/01/pax-christi-usa-gives-thanks-for-the-life-and-witness-of-sr-ardeth-platte-rest-in-power/
Ardeth Platte, Dominican nun dedicated to no-nukes cause, dies at 84
by Patrick O’Neill, Religion News Service
https://religionnews.com/2020/09/30/ardeth-platte-dominican-nun-dedicated-to-no-nukes-cause-dies-at-84/?fbclid=IwAR02M-pNlbi3d_jC5emxjXVAn1oB6hODd6x2uFTd2IoDSANDJ5FzBMleeD8
Sister Ardeth Platte resisted war through prayer, action for four decades
https://www.catholicnews.com/sister-ardeth-platte-resisted-war-through-prayer-action-for-four-decades/
Ardeth Platte, Dominican nun and antinuclear activist, dies at 84
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ardeth-platte-dominican-nun-and-antinuclear-activist-dies-at-84/2020/09/30/a8c5b702-0360-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html
Nun And Activist Sister Ardeth Platte Dead At 84
WSGW Radio https://www.wsgw.com/nun-and-activist-sister-ardeth-platte-dead-at-84/
Sister Ardeth Platte, anti-nuclear activist, passes away at 84
WNEM Westphalia https://www.wnem.com/news/sister-ardeth-platte-anti-nuclear-activist-passes-away-at-84/article_3e68ee0a-03e8-11eb-95a3-7f2fdcf97baf.html
Note: The challenges of traveling at this time means the funeral and burial will be held at a later date in Grand Rapids. Her obituary is pending.
Memorials to the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids in Sr. Ardeth Platte’s name are appreciated.
https://www.grdominicans.org/give-a-gift/
More information about the life of Ardeth Platte OP can be found at https://www.grdominicans.org/sisters/sister-ardeth-platte/.
