Over 110 undergraduates from the United States and Canada gathered March 22-23 at the Hesburgh Center at Notre Dame to talk about peace topics presented by peers from 14 colleges or universities.

This year's conference theme - "Be the Change" - was taken from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world." The '02 conference featured fourteen workshops on such topics as security issues, Islam and interreligious dialogue, religious founda-tions of peace, teaching peace in elementary schools, and the media's role in reporting peace issues.

The keynote speech and conference workshop were delivered by former Washington Post columnist and veteran peace educator Colman McCarthy. McCarthy, the director of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C., observed that peacemaking requires commitment, prayer, adherence to nonviolence and service - with an emphasis on prayer and service. "Experiential knowledge is crucial for peacemak-ers," he said. McCarthy himself jumped feet first into peace education in 1982. He approached a public high school in Washington, D.C. and offered to teach peace studies when asked to teach journalism. Since then, McCarthy, whose latest book is I'd Rather Teach Peace (Orbis 2002), has taught peace studies at Georgetown, American University, the University of Maryland and in a juvenile prison.

In a workshop on "Religious Foundations of Peace," four undergraduates spoke about witnessing inter-religious efforts for peace. Notre Dame senior Kate Diaz talked about attending the January 24, 2002 inter-religious gathering called in Rome by Pope John Paul II. Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and even Voodoo practitioners went to Rome for dialogue and prayer. The pope invited them all to travel by train to an all-night prayer vigil for peace in Assisi, the home of St. Francis.

"What I saw," recalled Diaz, " is that God is the prime wellspring of peace. Prayer can unleash new energies for peace."

In a workshop on Islam and Inter-Religious Dialogue, one presenter, Rashied Omar, an Imam from South Africa and the Coordinator for Kroc Institute research programs or religion and ethnic conflict, talked about how inter-religious dialogue has a new priority in the aftermath of September 11. This new emphasis on inter-religious dialogue has made it easier to dispel negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims, Omar said.

"There are a number of diverse articulations and understandings of Islam," he said. However, the foundations of religious tolerance are found in the authentic sources of Islam - the Qur'an and the hadith (the tradi-tions of the Prophet Muhammad). "If your Lord had so desired, all the people on the earth would surely have come to believe, all of them; do you then think that you could compel people to believe." (Qur'an, 10:99).

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