LINKS:

Read the Nobel acceptance speech by Betty Williams

Kroc Institute at Notre Dame

World Centers of Compassion for Children

Someone — it might even have been me — once said a person could get a first-rate education at Notre Dame if she skipped all her classes and just attended the various guest lectures, recitals and conferences that happen each day on campus. (Note to students: I am not recommending this. Go to all your classes all the time.) It is true, though, that Notre Dame is a magnet for extraordinary people. The great and near great have a habit of passing through town with fair regularity to share ideas about what is and ought to be. Often the messages are challenging and inspiring. Occasionally you’ll bump into an idea so fresh that its truth feels like a slap in the face. It is startling and demands attention.

I thought about that several weeks ago when I had lunch with the Nobel laureate Betty Williams, who was on campus to speak at the Kroc Institute. (Okay, I was one of 20 people at the lunch, but still . . .) Williams, you recall, is a Catholic who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 with Mairead Corrigan, a Protestant, for their work in founding the Peace People Organization, an ecumenical movement dedicated to ending sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. She now teaches at Florida Atlantic University and directs an organization called World Centers of Compassion for Children.

By her own admission she is a force to be reckoned with. "This is the force," she says, pointing to the tip of her tongue. "And it’s a mighty one too, I’ll tell ya." Indeed, within minutes of meeting the slight, blonde woman, the phrase used to describe an Irish mother, "she who must be obeyed," comes to mind.

At lunch, conversation meanders over the usual small talk until Notre Dame’s President emeritus Father Ted Hesburgh asks Williams whether she is optimistic about peace prospects in Northern Ireland. She doesn’t mince words.

"The people spoke clearly, Father," she answers in that rising Irish lilt. "Nearly 98 percent by our calculations say they want peace. So they’ll have to be gettin’ what they want. They’re not puttin’ up with the violence any more, ya know? We have Gerry Adams and when Gerry gets up to talk, Ian Paisley, the Protestant leader, turns his back. Ya know what it’s like when you have2-year-olds fightin’. Only 2-year-olds have more sense. But the people don’t want to go back, Father. The children don’t want to go back. They tell us they deserve better than the old days. And they’re right."

For Williams the issue is clear-cut. War is an assault on motherhood. "The way I see it," she says, "every child who has died in a war is a mother’s labor spurned. This is a woman thing. If you really love me, you’re going to be good to my children, because that’s how I know you love me."

She hopes to change the war and peace debate worldwide by shifting the focus to those who lose the most: children. Just as senior citizens have gained power by organizing to safeguard their vital interests, Williams believes giving children a political voice will break the old war mindset. As a first step, her group is lobbying the United Nations to adopt a universal bill of rights for children. She is determined to succeed. "I love to hear someone say, ‘what do you mean set up a political voice for children?’ If you tell me it can’t be done, I’m so ignorant I’ll show ya it can."

Williams continues, "The word ‘peace’ is so airy-fairy. If you say you want to work for peace, people think you’re an idealistic fool. And you get called an idiot, ya know. People are almost apologetic for wanting to build a just and peaceful society. Well, I don’t apologize for wanting to try to save the lives of children. We should be pushing governments into apologizing for what they’ve been doing to the children of the world."

She says one of her priest friends ends all of his Masses with the prayer "May the peace of Christ thoroughly disturb you." To that closing prayer I would add: May Betty’s "airy-fairy" ideas gnaw at the hearts and minds of us all. Amen.

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