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Rose Marie Berger is a Catholic peace activist and poet. She has been on Sojourners staff since 1986, and worked for social justice movements for 40 years. Rose has rooted herself with Sojourners magazine and ministry. She has written hundreds of articles for Sojourners and other publications and is a sought after preacher and public speaker. After living in Washington, D.C., for 35 years, she moved to Oak View, Calif., in 2022.
Rose’s work in Christian nonviolence has taken her to conflict zones around the world. She is active in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International, and served as co-editor for Advancing Nonviolence and Just Peace in the Church and the World, the fruit of a multiyear, global, participatory process to deepen Catholic understanding of and commitment to Gospel nonviolence. Her poetry has appeared in the books Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting a Bioregional Faith and Practice and Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together. She is author of Bending the Arch: Poems (2019), Drawn By God: A History of the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries from 1967 to 1991 (with Janet Gottschalk, 2012), and Who Killed Donte Manning? The Story of an American Neighborhood. She has also been a religion reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a Huffington Post commentator. Her work has appeared in National Catholic Reporter, Publishers Weekly, Religion News Service, Radical Grace-Oneing, The Merton Seasonal, U.S. Catholic, and elsewhere. She serves on the board of The International Thomas Merton Society.
With Sojourners, Rose has worked as an organizer on peace and environmental issues, internship program director, liturgist, community pastor, poetry editor, and, currently, as a senior editor of Sojourners magazine, where she writes a regular column on spirituality and justice. She is responsible for the Living the Word biblical reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, poetry, Bible studies, and interviews – and oversees the production of study guides and the online Bible study Preaching the Word.
Rose has a veteran history in social justice activism, including: leading the first international, inter-religious peace witness into Kyiv, Ukraine, following the outbreak of war in 2022, organizing inter-religious witness against the Keystone XL pipeline; educating and training groups in nonviolence; leading retreats in spirituality and justice; writing on topics as diverse as the “Spiritual Vision of Van Gogh, O'Keeffe, and Warhol,” the war in the Balkans, interviews with Black activists Vincent Harding and Yvonne Delk, the Love Canal's Lois Gibbs, and Mexican archbishop Ruiz, cultural commentary on the Catholic church and the peace movement, reviews of movies, books, and music.
Rose Berger has taught writing and poetry workshops for children and adults. She’s completed her MFA in poetry through the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. Her poetry has been published in Sojourners, The Other Side, Radix and D.C. Poets Against the War.
Rose grew up in the Central Valley of California, located in the rich flood plains of the Sacramento and American rivers. Raised in radical Catholic communities heavily influenced by Franciscans and the Catholic Worker movement, she served for nine years on the pastoral team for Sojourners Community Church; five as its co-pastor. She directed Sojourners internship program from 1990-1999. She is currently a senior editor and poetry editor for Sojourners magazine. She has traveled throughout the United States, and also in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosova, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador visiting primarily with faith communities working for peace in situations of conflict.
Rose was born when atmospheric CO2 was at 319.08 ppm and now lives with her wife Heidi Thompson in Oak View, Calif., in the Ventura River watershed on traditional Chumash lands. Learn more at rosemarieberger.com.
Rose’s articles include:
- Pursuing the Secret of Joy: What is joy when it's not promiscuously tied to happiness, Hallmark, or hedonism?
- Why Our Faith Delegation went to Ukraine?: Our public message was simple: “We have come to Kyiv in solidarity to pray for a just peace.”
- Nonviolence in Najaf?: Will we recognize an Islamic peace movement when we see it?
- Of Love's Risen Body: The poetry of Denise Levertov, 1923-1997
- Glimpses of God Outside the Temple: The spiritual vision of Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe, and Andy Warhol.
- Damnation Will Not Be Televised: Almost everything I know about hell I learned from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Speaking Topics
- Christian nonviolence, peace, war
- Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
- Climate change, creation care, watershed discipleship
- Bible study, liturgical year
- Poetry
- Spirituality and social justice
- Any topic covered in Sojourners magazine
- Catholicism
Speaking Format
- Preference for virtual events, but willing to discuss in-person events on case-by-case basis
Posts By This Author
Green (and Not So Green) Evangelicals
In February, 86 evangelical leaders declared climate change a Christian priority and lent their support to political initiatives to fight global warming, saying “The earth’s natural s
Rebuilding Cajun Country
Rodell and Dale Scarabin and their children outside their makeshift house in Venice, Louisiana, in January, following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Picket And Pray
U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious leaders in front of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., in December while they knelt on the steps to pray and protest the planned federal budget cuts to social programs that aid the poor. The event was organized by Sojourners and Call to Renewal. “I have lived and worked among the poor for 12-plus years,” Denver-based participant Michelle Warren told Sojourners. “I am an evangelical Christian and we, as evangelicals, need to advocate for the poor. Today was just the beginning.”
News Bites
- Give a Hoot. Despite official U.S. opposition, nations that have signed the Kyoto Protocol were able to make progress on binding emission-reduction goals for industrialized countries at a Montreal meeting in December. Nearly 200 U.S. mayors attended in support of the Protocol, as well as many U.S. faith groups.
Come On Down!
Twenty-five Christian peacemakers, members of Witness Against Torture, walked 50 miles from Santiago, Cuba, to the gates of the controversial U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in December to protest the treatment of prisoners detained there.
News Bites
• Golden Deal. McDonald’s will sell fair trade coffee in more than 650 of its restaurants in the northeastern United States.
The Baghdad Four
More than 100 Palestinians from the village of At-Tuwani, including these children, attended a vigil in December for four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams.
Dead Man Talking
A dozen years after Ruben Cantu was executed by the state of Texas for capital murder, the only witness to Cantu’s alleged crime came forward in November to recant his testimony, saying Ca
Prayer: It Does a Body Good
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Photo via vipflash / Shutterstock
Prayer can literally change our brain.
Women's Work
Members of Women’s Will, an Iraqi human rights organization, demonstrate outside the Ministry of Human Rights in Baghdad for better treatment of prisoners.
News Bites
JPII Double. Actor Jon Voight plays the title role in the new CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II