May 31 – June 2, 2013: Santa Barbara, California: Poverty & Prayer Retreat at Old Mission Santa Barbara Renewal Center
News in “Catholic Courier” about Pax et Bonum !
A new article has been written about Gerry’s presentations in Elmira, New York during November, 2012! Here’s a link to the writeup! Please let us know what you think of it!
http://www.catholiccourier.com/regional-life/
chemungschuyler/news/filmmaker-focuses-on-worlds-poorest/
Who We Are, What We Do
This short, fast-paced, visually compelling video shows how we can help create a more compassionate world!
click HERE to order your DVD copy of ‘Mud Pies & Kites’ !
To schedule a “Poverty and Prayer” presentation at your school or church, please contact Gerry Straub using this website’s SCHEDULE A PRESENTATION page found HERE.
Original Artwork For Sale!
The original paintingby Ecarlatte Straub
which graces the cover
of our “Mud Pies & Kites”
DVD jacket is available
for collectors!
Pax et Bonum
Mission Statement: Our mission is to produce compelling films that foster compassion for the homeless, hungry and oppressed while inspiring a genuine and respectful fraternity among all people.
Vision Statement: Our vision is of a world where children no longer hunger, families enjoy safe shelter, wealthy countries and people share their bounties with those in need, and all live in peace.
To make a safe and secure online DONATION by credit card ===>CLICK HERE<===
We offer free print and electronic media to charitable organizations striving to feed the hungry and relieve the suffering of chronic poverty. These materials will help those organizations develop funding for their work. We offer free educational presentations to churches and schools to create awareness of the bitter plight of the poor and marginalized and offer suggestions on how to effect systemic change.
Rooted in Franciscan spirituality, along with the mystical traditions of all faiths, Pax et Bonum Communications champions the importance of contemplation and action. We believe the best way to love God is through acts of love, mercy, compassion and kindness, especially for those living in acute poverty. We believe that care for the chronically poor is an essential component of the spiritual life, especially for the followers of Christ. We believe everyone is called to a life of sharing, caring and giving. We believe in the importance of genuine inter-faith dialogue. We believe violence is always wrong, that war is never a solution. Our goal is to stress the necessity of prayer, peace, harmony, humility and social justice. In the ecumenical spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, we hope to show the connectedness of all of creation, which will promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of the common good and our essential need to become nurturers, healers and consolers.
Pax et Bonum Communications hopes to become a humble agent of transformation, helping people strip away the illusions of our consumer-crazed society, which plays at least a secondary role in contributing to the causes of disenfranchisement here at home and in developing nations around the world where millions are living hand-to-mouth. We will not shy away from confronting the injustice of global poverty where more than 10,000 children a day die of starvation; we will be a strong, consistent and prophetic voice speaking out on behalf of the poor and encouraging people to enter more deeply into prayer and to be more compassionate to those in dire need.
In all that we do, Pax et Bonum Communications will communicate the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi. Our name comes from a salutation always used by St. Francis: Peace and good. Pax et Bonum is the Latin translation of the saint’s wish for everyone he encountered. In his native Italian, Francis would have said, “Pace e bene”…which we prefer to translate as “Peace and blessing,” which is what we hope and pray Pax et Bonum Communications offers to a world sorely in need of peace and blessing.
A 501(c)3 Public Charity – Federal Tax ID: 90-0654928
To make a safe and secure online DONATION by credit card ===>CLICK HERE<===
Our address is:
Pax et Bonum Communications, Inc.
827 N. Hollywood Way # 555
Burbank, CA 91505Cell: 1-818-433-1816
E-mail: HELP@PaxEtBonumComm.org
A 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation
Pax et Bonum Communications is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. All monetary donations and grants are fully tax-deductible by law!
To make a safe and secure online DONATION by credit card ===>CLICK HERE<===
We offer free print and electronic media to charitable organizations striving to feed the hungry and relieve the suffering of chronic poverty. These materials will help those organizations develop funding for their work. We offer free educational presentations to churches and schools to create awareness of the bitter plight of the poor and marginalized and offer suggestions on how to effect systemic change.
Mission Statement: Our mission is to produce compelling films that foster compassion for the homeless, hungry and oppressed while inspiring a genuine and respectful fraternity among all people.
Vision Statement: Our vision is of a world where children no longer hunger, families enjoy safe shelter, wealthy countries and people share their bounties with those in need, and all live in peace.
You may want to write us a letter or SEND A DONATION check, and we’d love to hear from you! Please send all correspondence to:
Pax et Bonum Communications
827 N. Hollywood Way #555
Burbank, CA 91505
827 N. Hollywood Way #555
Burbank, CA 91505
To make a safe and secure online DONATION by credit card ===>CLICK HERE<===
You may want to contact the Founder and President of Pax et Bonum Communications, Gerry Straub, directly by email at straubgt@aol.com with specific requests.
Another option for your questions (and even praises!) is to E-MAIL us at HELP@PaxEtBonumComm.org
Thank you for your interest and support in what we do!
Gerard Thomas Straub – BIOGRAPHY
Gerard Thomas Straub is a documentary filmmaker and an award-winning author of six books, including a novel. Gerry’s critically acclaimed book The Sun and Moon Over Assisi, which offers inspirational reflections on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi, was named the best spirituality hardcover book of 2001 by the Catholic Press Association; an updated version of the book was released in the Fall of 2008. His photo/essay book on global poverty, When Did I See You Hungry?, features photographs taken in India, Kenya, Brazil, Jamaica, Italy, Canada, the Philippines and Mexico. Gerry’s striking black & white photography has been exhibited in the art gallery attached to the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, Kentucky, and also published in The New York Times, The National Catholic Reporter and Sojourners magazine. Thoughts of a Blind Beggar was published by Orbis Books in the fall of 2007; the book offers a series of poetic meditations on the importance of prayer and compassion. His latest book, Hidden in the Rubble, is based on his experience in Haiti during the aftermath of the horrific earthquake that killed over 300,000 people and left more than a million people homeless. Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter said, “Gerry Straub is a story-teller with a camera. In an era when news has become so atomized and fast-paced it is almost impossible to get a sense of the whole, Straub engages two great risks. He takes us to see what much of the world would rather ignore, and he does it slowly and reflectively. The risks pay off here in a kind of meditation on Haiti that is simultaneously brutally frank and filled with the hope of religious imagination.” The book inspired Gerry’s most powerful film to date, Mud Pies & Kites, which was released by his new ministry, Pax et Bonum Communications, in July of 2012. One viewer wrote: “This film is more than just a documentary, it is a journey to the soul of each of us.”
Mr. Straub also had a long and distinguished career as a network television producer in New York and Hollywood; he produced dramatic television series that have aired on CBS, NBC and ABC, including the wildly popular General Hospital. He was the executive producer of The Doctors, a long-running soap opera on NBC which was taped at Rockefeller Center in New York. Gerry has written and directed eighteen documentary films, three of which have aired on many PBS television stations, including We Have a Table for Four Ready, which tells the poignant story of a soup kitchen run by Franciscan friars in Philadelphia.
Gerry also taught a course on television writing and directing at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He has lectured and shown his films at the University of Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure University, the University of Dayton, Loyola Marymount University, Canisius College, Mount Mercy College, Siena College, Wheaton College, Calvin College, Chestnut Hill College, Alvernia University, Gonzaga University, the Catholic Theological Union, and the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy. He received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from St. Bonaventure University in May of 2003. In May of 2006, Mr. Straub delivered the commencement address and received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. In May of 2009, Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law degree in recognition of his work on behalf of the poor. In addition, he has spoken at more than 100 Catholic churches and high schools across the nation. He has led retreats in California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and Minnesota.
Gerry, a Secular Franciscan, is the founder and former president of The San Damiano Foundation. Gerry has written and directed eighteen documentary films, including: When Did I See You Hungry?, which explores the Christian response to global poverty and is narrated by Martin Sheen; Embracing the Leper, which describes the heroic work of a Secular Franciscan who brings aid to the lepers and the poor of the Amazon region of Brazil; Holy Pictures, a meditation on the importance of stillness and silence in the spiritual life; Rescue Me, on the plight of the homeless in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles and featuring a song performed by Bono and the Irish rock band U2; Endless Exodus, on the plight of the undocumented migrants from Central America and Mexico; The Patients of a Saint, which tells the inspirational story of an American doctor who abandoned his career and opened a home and clinic for chronically ill and impoverished children of Lima, Peru; Room at the Inn, which revisits the St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia; Where Love Is, which focuses on the heroic work of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit; The Narrow Path, a film on peace and nonviolence featuring the Jesuit priest, author and peace activist Fr. John Dear; and The Fragrant Spirit, an epic, gut-wrenching film set in the horrific poverty and intense suffering of the war-torn East African country of Uganda.
His books and films have been written about in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, St. Petersburg Times, National Catholic Reporter (cover story), U.S. Catholic and Sojourners magazine, and has been featured in stories which have aired on Religion and Ethics Newsweekly (PBS), Life & Times (KCET-TV, the PBS station in Los Angeles), News Conference (KNBC-TV News in Los Angeles), Take Five (WZZM-TV [ABC], Grand Rapids, Michigan) and Inner Compass (WGVU-TV [PBS], Grand Rapids, Michigan). In addition, stories about Gerry have also been published by diocesan newspapers in Buffalo, Phoenix, Peoria, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Providence, Brooklyn and Glasgow, Scotland.
Gerry is a former member of the Board of Regents of the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, California. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of Bread for the World, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit organization that lobbies Congress for the rights of the poor. In April of 2012, the School of Communications at Illinois State University named Gerry as the recipient of their annual Documentary Voice of Conscience Award. During the award ceremony, the school screened Gerry’s film Mud Pies & Kites. In September of 2003, The University of Dayton presented Mr. Straub with the Daniel J. Kane Religious Communications Award, an annual award given to a person who has made “an outstanding lifetime dedication to gospel values through various forms of Media.” Gerry lives in Burbank, California, with his wife, Ecarlatte.
