Dominique Pire

Dialogue & Action

for Peace

Formation of a Peacemaker

• Born 1910• Seminary at Leffe• Doctorate at

Angelicum & Louvain• Scout movement• Nobel Peace Prize

1958

Fraternal Dialogue• Entering into relationship• “If I differ from you, I do you no wrong; I expand you”

(Saint-Exupéry)• Msgr Cardijn “see, judge, act” to which Pire adds,

“unite”“profoundly peaceful coexistence, the coexistence of hearts, consists in mutual respect of the values of that other as other… which finally comes together in a finished job, completed in adisinterested way, by people living on the two opposite sides.”

European Villages

• Encounter with Edward Squadrille 1949• IOR: the ‘useful’ & the ‘hard core’• To gather and strengthen families of DPs• 7 villages: Germany, Austria and Belgium

– Aix-la-Chapelle 1956– Wuppertal 1959 in honour of Anne Frank

– Berchem-Saint Agathe 1962

• Awarded Nobel 1958, his vision expanded to world-wide dimensions

“What is really shocking, from Linz to Salzburg, from Villach to Innsbruck, is the nearly complete absence of unconditional kindness in a Christian sense. Some only help Protestants, others only Catholics, and still others will only help Hungarian Catholics. All this, despite the fact that misery has overtaken all of these unfortunate people and has rendered them all equally worthy of our interest. One suffers in a real sense, physically so to speak, on account of this conditional goodness and from the absence of the real face of Christ. Would He have asked upon entering the camp, ‘Are you a Catholic?’ The entire Gospel contradicts this.”

University of Peace

• In Tihange, near Huy

• focus on going beyond outbreaks of injustice and violence by engaging in deeper reflection

• For young people to receive formation in dialogue over several weeks

Islands of Peace

• Building the World of the Heart through these ‘Islands’ of development projects

• Help to self-help

• saw real hunger in East Pakistan 1962 – founded Gohira Island first

• Madras, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Ecuador

Refugee Services

• Service d’Entraide Familiale for Huy region

• L’Aide aux Personnes Déplaceés

• L’Acceuil de Refugés Politiques

• Global Sponsorships in refugee camps – Eastern Europe to Latin America, Africa

Respect for all God’s People

“I have rarely known anyone so profoundly and,

I would even dare say, so religiously respectful of

people and the convictions of others.” (Professor Van der Elst, a non-believer)

• shy and emotional, dialogue not easy for him• acted from an acute sense of the heart and the

loving gaze of God:

“I feel at certain moments the urgent need for

solitude, prayer and meditation on the Gospels”

“It is up to us to plant a little apple tree and not an orchard of dreams. Love is concrete and is on a human scale. It is not possible to love in the abstract. Love is for beings of flesh and blood. No matter how small these villages, they are inhabited by the real men, real women and real children that we have rescued.”