MILWAUKEE – Marquette University bestowed an honorary doctorate of laws degree on Lech Walesa (below), Nobel laureate, labor leader, and former president of Poland.

LECH WALESA, NOBEL LAUREATE

“This is special because we are in the presence of a very extraordinary human being. His name is synonymous with courage and conviction,” said Marquette President Fr. Robert Wild, SJ at the March ceremony.

Walesa said Poland’s break from communism and rise to freedom in the 1980s was aided tremendously when Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) visited Poland a few years after his election, giving hope and strength to continue the fight for freedom that began with the Solidarity labor movement.

“The Holy Father said something significant: ‘Don't be scared – transform the face of the world.’ This very sentence caused millions of people to reflect and say they are fed up with the hypocrisy.”

Walesa is the fourth Nobel Laureate to visit the university within the last two years. The others are: Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, and Máiread Corrigan Maguire, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement.