Detroit, April 5 (RHC)-- Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a longtime leader in the U.S. Catholic peace and justice movement, has died at the age of 94 in Detroit.  He helped found Pax Christi and Bread for the World and was a war tax resister. 

Bishop Gumbleton was also a survivor of sexual abuse in the church who was forced to resign in 2007 after he spoke out publicly in favor of an Ohio bill to extend the statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse by clergy. 

Thomas Gumbleton was an activist who put his life on the line many times over the years.  On May 6, 1987, the Catholic bishop was one of eight protestors arrested at the U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Test Site in Mercury, Nevada.  Those arrested were protesting the testing of nuclear weapons at the site.

In June 1999, Bishop Gumbleton was among 26 protestors arrested for blocking an entrance to the White House in Washington, D.C.  They were protesting the NATO bombing campaign in Serbia during the Kosovo War.

In March 2003, the Catholic activist was arrested along with other protestors for violating a ban on large demonstrations in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.  The protest was about the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003.

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton passed away Thursday at the age of 94.