Louis Vitale was born on June 1, 1932, inSan Gabriel, California.[6] His family operated a lucrativefish processing business.[7] After graduating in 1954 from Loyola University, nowLoyola Marymount University,[5] Vitale enlisted in the US Air Force. Vitale's main role in the Air Force was that of an intercept officer, in charge of radio communications.[3] Vitale took his vows as aFranciscan friar in 1960 when he was 28 years old.[5] He was awarded a PhD for original research insociology in September 1972, fromUniversity of California, Los Angeles.[2] From 1979 to 1988, Vitale served as theprovincial superior of the Franciscan Friars of the province of St. Barbara. He served as the pastor at St. Boniface Catholic Church for 12 years in theTenderloin ofSan Francisco, California.[8]
Louis Vitale was one of the founders of Pace e Bene, a nonviolence service, in 1989.[9] The name meansPeace and all good. Other founders included: Sr.Rosemary Lynch,Alain Richard, Peter Ediger and Julia Occhiogrosso[[10]], who were all experienced peace activists.[3][8] Pace e Bene developed educational programs for nonviolent living with an emphasis on spirituality.[11][9][12] In 2005, Pace e Bene published a book,Engage,[9] which described Pace e Bene's programs. The programs, as described in the book, were designed to encourage "the discovery, internalization and use of the power of nonviolence for personal and social change".[9][11] Hundreds of nonviolence study groups were organized by Pace e Bene between 1989 and 2010.[8][13]
In 1981, Vitale received a letter from Rome asking Franciscans to do something creative in 1982 to honor the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis. Vitale took this to heart.[14] The First Nevada Lenten Experience was held at theNevada test site,[14] a series of witness and protest actions held at the atomic bomb test site near Las Vegas, Nevada.[15] This was the precursor to theNevada Desert Experience.[14] Louis Vitale with Anne Bucher, Michael Affleck, Duncan MacMurdy, and two Franciscan friars, Ed Dunn and Terry Symens, founded the Nevada Desert Experience in 1984.[14][16] Over the years,Corbin Harney and the Shundahai Network[17] worked with NDE, holding many protests of the government's continued nuclear weapons work. NDE worked with Corbin Harney[14] in protests against establishing a repository for radioactive waste atYucca Mountain, 100 mi (160 km) from Las Vegas.[18]
Louis Vitale, Megan Rice, Jim Haber at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, 2008.
Vitale participated in numerous protests and was arrested hundreds of times. Examples include:
April, 2005, Vitale was arrested at theNevada National Security Site and sent to Beatty Jail to say farewell to the "Justice of the Peace" while simultaneously theNavajo Nation banned uranium mining andPope Benedict XVI was elected. He and his accomplice were stopping NNSS busses from getting workers to their job sites.[19]
On November 19, 2006, Vitale was arrested atFort Huachuca inArizona[20] with Jesuit Fr. Steve Kelly. They were protesting at the military compound responsible for training the US military in interrogation methods. The protest was against the US policy of using torture atAbu Gharib and theGuantanamo Bay Detention Camp.[20]
August 2009,Megan Rice and Louis Vitale were arrested at Vandenberg Air Force Base protesting a test of aMinuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic missile (ICBM) launched approximately 4,000 miles to theKwajalein Atoll in theMarshall Islands.[26]
On December 31, 2009, Vitale planned to join theGaza Freedom March, but after being stopped by the Egyptian government from making the trek, Vitale joined 22 others in a fast and protest.[23][27]
In November 2010, Vitale crossed the line (deliberately trespassing) at Ft Benning to protest the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. He served six months atFederal Correctional Institution Lompoc for that action.[5][28]
On January 27, 2011, Rice, withKathy Kelly, John Dear, and Louis Vitale, were convicted of trespassing following a protest against weaponized drones atCreech Air Force Base.[29]
At the 2012 August Drone convention in Las Vegas, Vitale registered and paid to attend and was threatened with arrest.[30]
^abWittner, Lawrence S. (2009-05-12).Confronting the bomb : a short history of the world nuclear disarmament movement. Stanford, Calif.ISBN9780804771245.OCLC469186910.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Parish Newsletter, June 5, 2022"(PDF).St. Joachim and St. John the Evangelist's Church, Beacon, New York. June 5, 2022. Retrieved9 September 2023.Social Justice Corner -- Father Louis Vitale OFM, was born 90 years ago this week (June 1, 1932) in San Gabriel, California. He is a Franciscan priest, activist, and a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience....
^abcdDear, John (2013-09-15).The nonviolent life. Pace e Bene Franciscan Nonviolence Center (Las Vegas, Nev.). Long Beach, CA.ISBN978-0966978322.OCLC868026801.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^abcdSlattery, Laura (2005).Engage : exploring nonviolent living. Oakland: Pace e Bene Press.ISBN0966978315.OCLC64179247.
^Preston-Pile, Cindy (2006).Traveling with the turtle : a small group process in women's spirituality and peacemaking. Woodward, Irene. Oakland, CA: Pace e Bene Press.ISBN9780966978377.OCLC84622237.
^abcdeButigan, Ken (2003).Pilgrimage through a burning world : spiritual practice and nonviolent protest at the Nevada Test Site. Nevada Desert Experience (Organization). Albany: State University of New York Press.ISBN1417506695.OCLC55205572.
^Sargent, Carole (2022).Transform Now Plowshares: Megan Rice, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli. People of God Series. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press. p. 28.ISBN978-0-8146-3722-7.
^Epstein, Barbara (1991).Political protest and cultural revolution : nonviolent direct action in the 1970s and 1980s. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN9780520914469.OCLC44965693.
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