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NOBEL WINNER URGES CHRISTIANS BE MORE PEACEFUL, CHRIST-LIKE
MILWAUKEE, WI – Quoting Gandhi and referencing Dorothy
Day, Máiread Corrigan Maguire (below) brought her passion
for promoting peace and justice to Marquette University, where
she urged students to join other Americans and people from
around the world in the “struggle to build a human family.”
A 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner,Maguire addressed an attentive
audience at the Varsity Theatre in late October, telling them
if progress toward peace could be achieved in her Northern
Ireland homeland, it is possible anywhere, even in Iraq and
the Middle East.
Her work for peace began after witnessing the death of her
young nephews and niece, struck by a car driven by an Irish
Republican Army member. Along with Betty Williams and Ciaran
McKeown,Maguire founded the “Community of the Peace People”
movement to end violence in Northern Ireland. She described
Northern Ireland’s problems as multidimensional and called
for a multi-dimensional approach to solving them. Expressing
hope for the future, she said, “Identities are changing, and
the people are beginning to recognize, after suffering 35
years of death and destruction, we have to learn to work as
a diverse people.”
Maguire, who visited Iraq in 1999, said what she saw there
led her to strongly oppose the United States' involvement
in Iraq, and she participated in a 30- day fast outside the
White House last March in protest of the war. She called on
Americans to pursue different means. “We need the U.S. to
help change the world,” Maguire said.
During her talk she also urged the Anglican and Catholic
churches to “stop being ambivalent about violence,” stating
that violence is “against Christian teaching.” She advocates
resurrecting “that Jesus spirit” of non-violence to “revive
and renew” the churches.
Maguire is the third Nobel Laureate to speak on the Marquette
Campus in the past 18 month. Oscar Arias, former President
of Costa Rica visited in fall 2002 and Anglican Archbishop
Desmond Tutu was on campus last spring.
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