Louis Vitale

Louis Vitale, OFM, (born June 1, 1932) is a Franciscan priest, activist, and a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience. He has engaged in civil disobedience for nearly four decades in pursuit of peace and justice, and has been arrested more than 400 times. Vitale says that St. Francis, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., provide him with inspiration.^[1]

Vitale served as the provincial superior of the Franciscan Friars of the Province of St. Barbara, from 1979 to 1988. Then he served as the pastor at St. Boniface Catholic Church in the tenderloin of San Francisco, California. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.^[1]

Vitale has been involved in trying to raise awareness about issues of torture and the US involvement. To that end, he was arrested alongside Fr. Stephen Kelly, SJ, at Fort Huachuca in Arizona in November 2006.^[2] His legal defense team included William P. Quigley.

In 2003,. Vitale received the Domestic Human Rights Award from Global Exchange at the third annual ceremony.

Vitale, Kathy Kelly, Stephen Kelly, John Dear, Eve Tetaz, and others were also arrested at Creech Air Force Base on Wednesday April 9, 2009, while engaged in protesting UAV attacks in Pakistan.^[3]

Vitale registered to join the Gaza Freedom March – a political campaign to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip – at the end of December.^[4]

In November 2009, Vitale crossed the line at Ft Benning to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. He served six months in a federal prison for that action.

In December 2009, Vitale joined fellow pacifist and writer Father John Dear on a trip to Cairo, part of a journey through the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza. Their plan was to join over 1300 people from 42 nations who were in Cairo for a Gaza Freedom March on December 31, but after being stopped by the Egyptian government from making the trek, Vitale and Dear joined 22 others in a fast and protest, vowing to walk to Gaza. They were surrounded and detained by police. Vitale plans a presentation about his Gaza experience on January 22 at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco.

In November 2010, Vitale again crossed the line at Ft Benning to protest the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. He is currently serving six months at FCI Lompoc for that action.

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External links

Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

General	Anti-nuclear groups in the US California movement Great Peace March Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear power in the US Canceled nuclear plants in the US Nuclear weapons and the US Protests in the US Anti-nuclear advocates in the US

Organizations and groups	Abalone Alliance Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Clamshell Alliance Committee for Nuclear Responsibility Corporate Accountability International Critical Mass Energy Project Friends of the Earth Greenpeace USA Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Mothers for Peace Musicians United for Safe Energy Nevada Desert Experience Nuclear Control Institute Nuclear Information and Resource Service Physicians for Social Responsibility Plowshares Movement Public Citizen Shad Alliance Sierra Club Three Mile Island Alert Women Strike for Peace

People	Daniel Berrigan Larry Bogart Pierce Brosnan Helen Caldicott Barry Commoner Frances Crowe Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Paul M. Doty Jane Fonda Randall Forsberg John Gofman Paul Gunter John Hall Jackie Hudson Sam Lovejoy Amory Lovins Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Ralph Nader Graham Nash Linus Pauling Eugene Rabinowitch Phil Radford Bonnie Raitt Martin Sheen Karen Silkwood Thomas Louie Vitale Harvey Wasserman Victor Weisskopf

Main protest sites	Black Fox Bodega Bay Diablo Canyon Indian Point Lawrence Livermore Montague Naval Base Kitsap Nevada Test Site Rancho Seco Rocky Flats San Onofre Seabrook Shoreham Three Mile Island Trojan Vermont Yankee White House Peace Vigil Y-12 Weapons Plant Yankee Rowe

Books	Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978 The Cult of the Atom The Doomsday Machine (book) Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy Killing Our Own Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Politics in America We Almost Lost Detroit

Films	Atomic Ed and the Black Hole The China Syndrome Countdown to Zero Dark Circle Nuclear Tipping Point Silkwood

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