International Author and Peace Activist to Lecture at Chestnut Hill College

John Dear, S.J. to Speak at Inaugural Lecture for Institute for Forgiveness and Reconciliation

PHILADELPHIA, PA – John Dear, S.J., peace activist, lecturer, and author will present the inaugural lecture of the Institute for Forgiveness and Reconciliation at Chestnut Hill College on March 25, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Social Room, Fournier Hall. The topic of John Dear’s lecture will be “To Change the World, We Must Change Ourselves.”

Based on John Dear’s recently published memoir, “A Persistent Peace: One Man’s Struggle for a Non Violent World,” he will speak about his own struggles and experiences to live a nonviolent life, and how others can begin their own journey for peace.
John Dear, S.J. is a noted international author and editor of 25 books on peace and nonviolence, including Living Peace, published by Doubleday Books. Some of his peace-making efforts have taken him to El Salvador to work in refugee camps as well as to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Middle East, Colombia, and the Philippines.

In his lifetime, John Dear, S.J. has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience for peace, and has organized demonstrations against war and nuclear weapons at military bases nationwide. He has worked with Mother Teresa to stop the death penalty, and in 2008 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

John Dear’s lecture serves as the inaugural lecture for the College’s Institute for Forgiveness and Reconciliation, designed to be a learning laboratory for research and scholarship where forgiveness and reconciliation will be explored as alternatives to violence and conflict in our culture.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Catherine Nerney, SSJ, Ph.D. at 215.248.7099 or e-mail nerneyc@chc.edu.