William J. Bichsel - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from William J. Bichsel, S.J.) American Jesuit priest (1928–2015)

William Jerome Bichsel, S.J. (May 26, 1928 – February 28, 2015), nicknamed "Bix", was a Jesuit priest in Tacoma, Washington, United States. He is notable for his actions as a non-violent protester, spending time in federal prison for actions to promote social justice and nuclear disarmament and was deeply engaged in the effort to close the School of the Americas. He died February 28, 2015, of heart disease in Tacoma, Washington.

Biography

Fr. Bill Bichsel (Bix) was born in Tacoma in 1928 and ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1959. Bix's parents were George and Sarah Bichsel, and he had 6 siblings, including Tom Bichsel of Alaska. He was assigned to St. Leo Parish in Tacoma, Washington. After completing his assignment there, Bichsel hitchhiked around the nation for 6 months and then worked as a community organizer in Seattle. In 1979, he returned to Tacoma where remained until his death. Bix lived a life of community building, civil resistance, and peacemaking. His "parish" was the streets of the Hilltop neighborhood in Tacoma.

Civil resistance and peacemaking

Bichsel was a non-violent activist who served prison time for his actions of criminal trespassing, destruction of government property, and criminal resistance. He was arrested more than 40 times and spent nearly two and a half years in prison. He was arrested for an action at the Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor, Washington while serving at Saint Leo's in the 1970s. He served various sentences in King County and Lompoc, California. In 1996, Bichsel served a year in federal prison for protesting at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Bix, Susan Crane, Lynne Greenwald, Steve Kelly, S.J., and Anne Montgomery RSCJ, were arrested on Naval Base Kitsap- Bangor at the largest nuclear weapon storage area in the US.

He was sentenced, along with four other protesters, to two months in federal prison for breaking through two levels of security at the Naval Base Kitsap to protest. The protesters attempted to break through to a bunker where nuclear weapons were stored, to spill blood, pray, plant sunflowers, and hang posters in opposition to the weapons, but were stopped. In 2011, he was arrested again for trespassing on the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He was sentenced to three months in a federal jail near Seattle, Washington. He was held in solitary confinement for at least part of his sentence. Bichsel was released on February 9, 2012.

Bix and Kevin Glackin-Coley established The Tacoma Catholic Worker community at Guadalupe House in 1990.

External links

Interview discussing Nov. 2, 2009, Bangor action.

References

^ "Error Page -". nwjesuits.org.
"Local News - The News Tribune". thenewstribune.com.
Mark Jensen. "LOCAL NEWS: Tacoma paper celebrates 'civil resistance' of Father Bill Bichsel". ufppc.org.
"Local News - The Olympian". theolympian.com.
"Google News". google.com.
Jamie Satterfield. "Priest recommits self to injustice ... then sent to prison". KNS.
Activists express concern for imprisoned priest, Jan. 23, 2012, by Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
William Jerome Bichsel, inmate # 86275-020, Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Dep't of Justice, at .

v t e 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 reactors 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 Ploughshares Fund Public Citizen Shad Alliance Sierra Club Three Mile Island Alert Women Strike for Peace Kings Bay Plowshares
People	Daniel Berrigan William J. Bichsel Bruce G. Blair Larry Bogart Helen Caldicott Barry Commoner Norman Cousins Frances Crowe Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Paul M. Doty Bernard T. Feld Randall Forsberg John Gofman Paul Gunter John Hall Jackie Hudson Sam Lovejoy Amory Lovins Bernard Lown Arjun Makhijani Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Ralph Nader Graham Nash Linus Pauling Eugene Rabinowitch Phil Radford Bonnie Raitt Carl Sagan Martin Sheen Karen Silkwood Thomas Louis 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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