OBITUARY: Joshua Casteel – Presente!

(39 min) Joshua Casteel acceptance speech of Bishop Dingman Peace


Award - March 31, 2012

http://vimeo.com/39739113

Joshua Casteel, is the 2012 Catholic Peace Ministry's Bishop Dingman
Peace Award Recipient. Listen to Joshua's inspiring journey to "love
of enemy."

A six min video excerpt from the movie, Soldiers of Conscience, in
which Josh featured prominently. The excerpt is from Josh’s story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM98TuV-RB0&feature=player_embedded#!

OBITUARY: Joshua Casteel – Presente!

Posted on August 25, 2012 - Pax Christi USA



http://paxchristiusa.org/2012/08/25/obituary-joshua-casteel-presente/







Jean Stokan reported that Joshua Casteel had passed away from the cancer he has been fighting for some time



now. Josh was a good friend to Pax Christi USA, serving as a speaker



at a number of our national and regional conferences and other events,



authoring our 2009 Lenten reflection booklet, and inspiring us through



his words and witness. Many of you know Josh’s story: he enlisted in



the U.S. Army Reserves at age 17 and received an appointment to the



U.S. Military Academy at West Point at 18; after training as an



interrogator and studying Arabic, he served at the Joint Interrogation



and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, from June 2004 to January



2005, as a member of the interrogation units sent to overhaul the



prison after the prisoner abuse scandal; during his time at Abu



Ghraib, hecame to realize he was a conscientious objector and was



honorably discharged from Active Duty as a conscientious objector.



Josh wrote and spoke on his experiences during war, served on the



board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and published Letters From Abu Ghraib in 2008.







All of us at Pax Christi USA have a heavy heart tonight. We mourn
with those who were closest to Josh, and we celebrate all that Josh
was and is and will forever be. He was a man of depth, compassion,
clarity and humor, and it was a joy to all of us who got to meet and
know him. His spirit and his story inspired us and called us to
reflect more deeply on who God is and who we are. We are so grateful
to him for everything he gave us.

You can read one of Josh’s Lenten reflections, published in our
newsletter in 2009, by clicking here:

http://paxchristiusa1.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/february2009newsletterweb.pdf

Josh also had a CaringBridge site to help share with family and
friends his story as he went through treatment for cancer. You can
read more by clicking here:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshuacasteel/createorsignin