PEACE INSTITUTE

Father Theodore Hesburgh brings international students to study world peace.

Marianna came from the Ukraine in pursuit of peace, and she found it - at the University of Notre Dame.

There she studied as a member of the Peace Institute, then returned to her country with a better understanding of life and its importance in a world of peace.

Now back in the United States finishing a degree in journalism at American University in Washington, D.C., she will be the first female foreign correspondent from the Ukraine, one of the countries that gained independence by the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame, works with people like Marianna at the Institute for International Peace Studies. He serves as chairman of the advisory board that runs, among other things, the International Scholars Program.

Origin of institute

The idea for forming the Peace Institute came when Joan B. Kroc, the widow of the founder of McDonald's restaurants, donated $6 million to the university in 1985.

The Peace Institute opened in 1986. Every year since then, Hesburgh and its staff search the globe to invite 14 college or university graduates to live in an environment that promotes peace and community living.

"We reached out all over the world," Hesburgh explained during a recent phone interview with Children's Express, "to nuclear powers - that's Russia, China, England, France, the United States - and got a couple of students from each of those countries. . . . Then we got people from other trouble spots in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and we bring them to Notre Dame."

They come to the "Peace House" on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend to learn about personal responsibility and social interaction and also to study with world-renowned professors on the subject of peace from religious, military and legal points of view.

Hesburgh explained that during the 10 months the students live together, they develop friendships that will last a lifetime, and they learn how to adapt to people who come from different cultures, religions and ethnic backgrounds.

They have to decide "what they're going to have for supper, who's going to do the dishes, and who's going to clean the common room, where they get together to study," Hesburgh explained.

"That was a great experience in itself to take these people from such surprising backgrounds and to give them a chance to live in peace with all that means."

At the end of their time together, they have to write a paper that they all sign, answering two questions: What kind of world do we want to live in? What do we think should be done to create that kind of world?

"Now, they almost always say they want to live in a world of peace," said Hesburgh, "and that there won't be peace in the world unless there is justice, which means that people deal decently with each other."

Justice needed in U.S.

Hesburgh thinks a lot could be done in our country to promote peace. He says young people see too much violence on TV, we don't value the family as much as we used to and there isn't equal opportunity for all.

"There are a lot of things wrong, but most of them have to do with social order," Hesburgh said. "We've got to work more for justice throughout the country, and then we'll get more peace.

"But justice means that everybody gets an equal chance to make a living and to get an education and to hopefully grow up in a family. . . . Good families don't come from government; they come from good fathers and mothers."

During Hesburgh's 50 years as a priest, he has visited more than 160 countries.

"I have to say that wherever one goes, one gets the impression that people yearn for peace," Hesburgh, 76, said. "They don't want to be in Somalia where they're shooting at each other all the time, or in (Bosnia-)Herzegovina where they're blowing up women and children and even stopping food convoys.

"It seems to me that that's not the way God intended the world to be. He intended for us to live in peace despite all our differences."

Hesburgh describes his ideal world as "more and more a small village instead of a big glob all split up with high walls around each country.

Call for new world order

"I'm working on big international problems," he said, "like human rights, peace in a nuclear age, development of the poor world, especially Latin America, and ecumenism, which means getting religions to pull together instead of shooting at each other."

According to Hesburgh, more than 100 years ago the world was divided up into empires. The people in charge of these empires had armies that kept the peace. "But today," Hesburgh explained, "when everybody is free and democratic supposedly, people within each of these big countries . . . start fighting with each other, which is terrible.

"There's nobody keeping the lid on now, so everybody's going their own way and fighting their own little wars. What we need is a new world order to see how to cope with this new world and to work for peace."

Trying to create this new world will not be easy, but Hesburgh is optimistic.

"Everything is possible if we work hard enough and have good ideas and effective ways of working on it."

EDITED BY: Eric M. Augenstein, 15