Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is the 2015 Pacem in
Terris Peace and Freedom Award recipient.
Traditionally, the honoree of this peace prize —
based on the 1963 Pacem in Terris encyclical of Pope John XXIII -- journeys to
Davenport to receive the award. However, because Thay is recovering from a severe stroke, Bishop
Martin Amos traveled to Deer Park Buddhist Monastery in southern California
to present the award.
A designee of Thay and his visiting community
of 120 monastics accepted the award on their leader’s behalf on Oct. 31,
the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s selection for the same
award. The two religious leaders shared a peace and nonviolence bond that
influenced the political climate in the late 1960s.
Thay wrote to King in 1965 asking him to
publicly denounce the Vietnam War, which the American Civil Rights leader did
in his famous 1967 speech at the Riverside Church in New York City. Earlier
that year, King nominated Thay for the Nobel Peace Prize, referring to him as
“an apostle of peace and non-violence.”
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