Peace

Fred van Iersel and the importance of study and prayer for peace-activists – Gied ten Berge

Editor

“PAX for Peace” in the Netherlands is 75 years old. From his commitment, theologian Fred van Iersel felt heir to this peace movement. For two years he was general secretary of one of the ‘forerunners’ Pax Christi NL, combining it with a professorship for issues of spiritual care in the armed forces. Earlier, he was a Catholic council member in the Dutch IKV (Interkerkelijk Vredesberaad / Interchurch Peace Council, PAX’s other constituent). Gied ten Berge held intensive talks with Van Iersel during his illness until his death on 27 July 2023. Fred van iersel would have liked to write a kind of ‘testament’ for the peace movement, but death intervened. Ten Berge wrote the draft for such a text and, after consulting with his widow Marieke Feuth, he reworked it into his own.

Full text available here.

Fred van Iersel (1954-2023) in his last stage of life on the beach of Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands.
Image by: Gied ten Berge

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Pax Christi International is a global Catholic peace movement and network that works to help establish peace, respect for human rights, justice and reconciliation in areas of the world that are torn by conflict. It is grounded in the belief that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.

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