While serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Jim began advocating for nuclear disarmament as a member of the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage (1982-1983), a 6700-mile walk across the United States and nine other countries. He spent the next quarter century investigating radioactive pollution from the production and testing of nuclear weapons, mostly focused on the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State.

 

Throughout his Hanford involvement, Jim advocated for the downwinders, people exposed to harmful radiation releases. He organized a national coalition that forced the federal government to close Hanford’s plutonium operations in 1990, served on several federal advisory committees concerning radiation health effects, and worked for ten years as a paralegal for the plaintiffs in the Hanford downwinders litigation.

 

Jim directed life, justice and peace ministry for the Diocese of Spokane (1984-1987), the Archdiocese of Seattle (2007-2015), and the Washington State Catholic Conference (2015-2020). He has a master’s in theology from Gonzaga University. His thesis examined the immorality of nuclear deterrence. He has visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki twice – in 1993 he spoke at an international conference on plutonium processing and in 2023 he accompanied Archbishops Paul Etienne and John Wester on their Pilgrimage of Peace.

 

Jim is the author of Atomic Pilgrim (forthcoming July 2025), a memoir of the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage and his involvement on Hanford issues. He currently serves on Pax Christi USA’s Disarmament Working Group and facilitates the Pax Christi chapter at St. Joseph Parish. He lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter.

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www.jamespatrickthomas.com

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