Biography
John Dear is an American peace activist, Catholic priest (formerly a Jesuit; he was dismissed from the Society of Jesus in 2014 over his political activism, and has continued his ministry as a diocesan priest), author, and lecturer. He has been arrested approximately 80 times for civil-disobedience actions against war, nuclear weapons, the U.S. School of the Americas, and U.S. drone warfare since the 1980s.
His most significant federal sentence came after the December 7, 1993 Pax Christi-USA Plowshares action at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. With three other Catholic activists (Bruce Friedrich, Lynn Fredriksson, and Philip Berrigan), he cut through the base perimeter fence and hammered on an F-15E fighter-bomber loaded for deployment to Iraq, in symbolic disarmament. They were convicted of destruction of government property and conspiracy in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina; Dear was sentenced to one year in federal prison and served eight months at the federal jail in Edenton, NC. He was also sentenced to numerous shorter terms over the years for SOA Watch and similar actions.
He served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation USA from 1998 to 2003 and as a Red Cross coordinator at New York's Family Assistance Center after September 11, 2001.
