Gerald W. Schlabach is professor of theology and former chair of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He holds a PhD in theology and ethics from the University of Notre Dame. During much of the 1980s he workd in Central America on church-related peace and justice assignments. Schlabach is co-founder of Bridgefolk, a movement for grassroots dialogue and unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics. He is active in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, which is engaged in a sustained conversation with the Vatican in favor of a "just peace" framework for Catholic teaching and practice. His books include Just Policing, Not War: An Alternative Response to World Violence, and Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation, both from Liturgical Press.