Tutu nominates John Dear for Peace Prize
The deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize is this month. Only certain eminent persons may forward names to the selection Committee. Exactly who is nominated is kept secret for 50 years.
As 1984 winner of the Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is qualified to nominate others. Along with Drs Leo Rebello and Charles Mercieca, Tutu has sent a nomination to Oslo and has chosen to make it public. Their nominee for this year’s prize is John Dear, SJ. Writes Tutu to the Nobel Committee:
Fr John Dear is a Jesuit priest who has been in the forefront of the religious peace movement in the United States. He is the embodiment of a peacemaker. He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these.
He is a man who has the courage of his convictions and who speaks out and acts against war, the manufacture of weapons and any situation where a human being might be at risk through violence. Fr John Dear has studied and follows the teachings of non-violence as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., he serves the homeless and the marginalized and sees each person as being of infinite worth. I would hope that were he to receive this honor his teachings and activities might become more widely accepted and adopted. The world would undoubtedly become a better and more peaceful place if this were to happen.
For evil to prevail requires only that good people sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Fr John Dear is compelling all of us to stand up and take responsibility for the suffering of humanity so often caused through selfishness and greed. I hope you will consider his nomination favorably.
John Dear also appears in a powerful feature documentary by Gerard Thomas Straub called The Narrow Path.
Dear’s packed speaking schedule suggests he might in fact be available to go to Oslo in December. Good luck, John.
[…] Writes Nobel Peace Prize nominee, John Dear, SJ: […]