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DAVENPORT — Chad Pregracke might have delivered the most humorous acceptance speech in the 60-year history of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award ceremony but concluded with a powerful message for St. Ambrose University students in the audience. “We’re all counting on you. Find out what you want to do and do great things for the world,” he said during the Dec. 3 ceremony in the university’s Rogalski Center.

DAVENPORT — For her efforts in sharing her gifts and her passion for justice, peace and integrity of creation, the Pacem in Terris Award Committee honored Barb Arland-Fye with the One Among Us award Dec. 3 at St. Ambrose University. She received the award during the ceremony honoring Chad Pregracke as Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award recipient for his work in environmental justice.

Chad Pregracke, a Quad-Citian recognized worldwide for energizing people to join him cleaning up rivers and planting trees, will receive the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award. He is the first recipient in the interfaith award’s 60-year-history receiving recognition for work on environmental justice and care for creation. Bishop Dennis Walsh, the new bishop of the Diocese of Davenport, will present the award Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.

The Pacem in Terris Award Committee has chosen Barb Arland-Fye, editor of The Catholic Messenger, to receive the One Among Us Justice Award, first presented in 2017 to recognize local peace-fostering efforts.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger DAVENPORT — Dan Ebener was a college sophomore when he witnessed Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day, now on the path toward sainthood, accept the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1972 in Davenport. On Sept. 13, Ebener emceed the ceremony during which Atiya Aftab and Sheryl Olitzky, co-founders of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, an international movement that builds relationships between Muslim and Jewish women, received the Pacem in Terris award. Gail Karp and Lisa Killinger, who co-founded a local chapter of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, received the One Among Us Justice Award. The event took place at St. Ambrose University.

Gail Karp, who is Jewish, called her longtime friend Lisa Killinger, who is Muslim, to talk about the possibility of forming a local chapter of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, which builds relationships between Muslim and Jewish women. Lisa loved the idea. “Salaam” is the Arabic word for peace and “Shalom” is the Hebrew word for peace.

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Peace and justice depend on respect for the human rights and human dignity of all people. “It is imperative that all religions teach their adherents to see the Image of God in those who are different,” said Bishop Munib Younan, a Lutheran church leader and Palestinian. He delivered that message during his passionate acceptance speech at the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award ceremony Sept. 24 in Rock Island, Ill. The Pacem in Terris Coalition, led by the Diocese of Davenport, chose Bishop Younan as the 49th recipient of the award for his vision and commitment to human rights, world peace and the nonviolent resolution of conflict. Past honorees include the Dalai Lama, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger Bishop Emeritus Munib Younan, a Lutheran church leader from the Middle East committed to cultivating peace by building bridges among religions, has been chosen to receive the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award. Bishop Thomas Zinkula of the Diocese of Davenport will present the award to Bishop Younan during a Sept. 24 ceremony that begins at 7 p.m. at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. All are welcome. Bishop Younan is visiting Augustana as part of a larger tour of colleges and universities affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He is the past president of the Lutheran World Federation and former bishop of the Evan­gelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger Widad Akreyi was 8 years old, attending an all-girls school in northern Iraq, when a member of the ruling Ba’ath Party entered her classroom. He wanted all of the students to join the Ba’ath Party. She refused. “I said I didn’t want to join their party.” The shocked man instructed someone to write down her name. She will join the party, he said. But Widad again refused. “He became really, really angry. He used force against me,” Widad told a small group of students and professors at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Pacem honoree speaks from the heart By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger DAVENPORT — As a young child living in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Widad Akreyi survived the Iraqi government’s offensive against the Kurds in the mid-1970s. That and other experiences of persecution convinced her to choose a path toward peace and justice, to which she has committed her life’s mission. Her selfless commitment to human rights for all inspired the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Coalition to select her as the 47th recipient of the award first given in 1964.

Widad Akreyi has a vision of what the future can look like in her home town of Aqrah in Iraqi Kurdistan. Akreyi’s vision is of a sovereign country that will encompass the historic lands of the Kurds and the minorities who live in peace with them. It is a vision of a place of safety for these people. It is a place that will give them a way to escape the genocides that have befallen those people, much as Israel has become a safe haven for the Jewish people. But it will take an involved world, and specifically an involved United States, and an involved Israel to get there, she said.

By Anne Marie Amacher The Catholic Messenger DAVENPORT — Nora Dvorak has devoted her life to helping those in need, both through work and volunteerism. October is Respect Life Month, which seeks to protect the dignity of the person from womb to tomb. For her selfless dedication to the dignity of all persons, Dvorak will receive the first “One Among Us” Award during the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award ceremony Oct. 22. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. in St. Ambrose University’s Christ the King Chapel. All are welcome.

A Kurdish woman who was an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's chemical attacks in 1988 and now lives in Norway has been named the 2017 winner of the Pacem in Terris Peace & Freedom Award, presented by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport. Dr. Widad Akreyi, a social justice activist, joins previous recipients who include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A special mass for Akreyi is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22., at Christ the King Chapel, St. Ambrose University, Davenport. Bishop Thomas Zinkula will preside, and Akreyi will present to accept the honor.