Often unnoticed amid noisier developments in Roman Catholicism has been a steady trend in official church teaching toward a commitment to normative nonviolence that could qualify the Catholic Church as a “peace church.” Drawing on his work as a Christian social ethicist specializing on issues of war and peace, as well as his experience as co-founder and long-time director of the Mennonite - Catholic dialogue group Bridgefolk, Schlabach will dedicate his sabbatical year to writing a major book on how Catholic social teaching will need to take shape if Catholics are to follow through on these developments. Specifically, he will complete the foundational first part of the book, and begin preparing to write later chapters of application to specific issues. Recovering ancient models by which Christians once understood themselves as diaspora communities, the Catholic peace ethic he proposes will offer a supple ethic that is neither sectarian nor culturally captive because it expects to be both culturally engaged and counter-cultural.