Dominique Pire

Belgian social reformer

• Born: February 10, 1910
• Birthplace: Dinant, Belgium
• Died: January 30, 1969
• Place of death: Louvain, Belgium

Pire received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work among World War II refugees in Europe, particularly those who were aged, disabled, or without those skills that could ensure them acceptance by a receiving country.

Early Life

Dominique Pire (peer) was the first of seven children born to a schoolmaster and his wife. Pire was four years old when World War I began. In 1914, German troops marched into Belgium, and Pire fled with his parents to France, where they remained as refugees until 1918. When he arrived in his hometown again after the war, Pire returned to a family house that had been burned to the ground.

Pire attended school in Leffe and, after learning classics and philosophy at the Collège de Bellevue at Dinant, decided in 1926 to become a priest. He was sixteen years old. As Brother Henri Dominique, he entered the Couvent de la Sarte, a Dominican monastery in Huy, where he studied philosophy for four years. Pire took his final vows on completion of his studies in 1932 and during the same year went to Rome to attend the Angelicum, the Dominican university. While pursuing doctoral work there, he was ordained into the priesthood (1934) and became Father Pire. He was ordered back to the Couvent de la Sarte monastery at Huy, where he continued work on his dissertation, receiving the doctorate of theology in 1936. At that time, the assignment came to teach the Dominican brothers at Huy. At the age of twenty-six, Pire believed himself to be too young and inadequate to assume those duties and requested further preparation. He studied social and political sciences at the University of Louvain in 1937 and then returned to Huy to begin work as a teacher of moral philosophy and sociology at the Couvent de la Sarte.

When German troops marched into Belgium in 1940, Pire fled to France with other Belgian refugees. When France itself was occupied, he returned to Belgium and resumed his lectures at Huy.

Life’s Work

Aside from teaching, Pire spent the war years trying to obtain sufficient food from the countryside for the children in the villages. He served as chaplain to patriots of the Belgian underground and as an intelligence officer for the resistance, carrying messages and using his proximity to vital information to serve the cause. Pire also assisted downed Allied airmen in escaping German occupied territory and reported German V-1 launches on the Strait of Dover to Allied authorities. For his work, he was honored with several national medals. Already in 1938, Pire had established a mutual aid society for poor families in rural areas and, by 1945, his open-air camps in the country had supplied homes for thousands of children from bombed Belgian and French cities and towns. In 1949, on hearing an address by Colonel Edward F. Squadrille, formerly of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Pire expanded his commitment to charitable work and assistance to the homeless. Squadrille had resigned his post with the United Nations out of frustration, citing enormous difficulties in placing stateless and destitute refugees who were old, handicapped, or without marketable skills. Although most of the eight million displaced persons of World War II had been settled by relief and relocation organizations, approximately 150,000 remained uprooted. These were the “hard-core” refugees who had little to offer receiving countries. Pire began writing letters to such refugees and visited an Austrian camp in which sixty thousand of them awaited relocation. Noting the toll that years of insecurity, lack of privacy, and reliance on charity had taken on their lives, he began disseminating information about their plight, encouraging more fortunate people to develop relationships by writing letters and sending packages, and calling on others to assist in programs to resolve the displaced persons’ problems. In 1950, Pire opened the first of four homes in Belgium for elderly refugees who were no longer able to care for themselves. To rekindle self-worth, these people were encouraged to cultivate old and vanishing skills, such as embroidery, to offer for sale. The priest’s major task was locating refugees in communities where they could participate productively in mainstream European life. Pire believed that reestablishing roots was the fundamental need of displaced persons, and he conceived of small villages near cities where refugees would gradually be integrated into local life. After convincing citizens that their cities would not be negatively impacted by such groups, Pire began establishing his “European Villages,” each housing 150-200 refugees and largely supported by private funds. Eventually there were six such villages, and members ultimately became self-supporting. It was through his efforts to establish the sixth village that Pire received the Nobel Peace Prize. Short of funds, Pire applied to the Nobel Foundation for support but was informed that the organization only disbursed money as prizes. The priest found a person qualified to nominate him for a prize, and in 1958, Pire received an invitation to come to the Norwegian Embassy to present his work to Nobel Foundation representatives. Later, he traveled to Oslo for further discussions, and, in 1958, Pire was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to help refugees, especially the “hard core,” leave their camps and return to lives of freedom and dignity. Pire extended his efforts to achieve peace through creating contacts and understanding among people from different parts of the world by beginning his Open Heart to the World organization in 1960. The major operation of the organization was the Mahatma Gandhi International Peace Center, which later became known as the University of Peace. Located in Huy, the university held seminars designed to help men, women, and youth to engage in positive peace activism. Additionally, the organization sponsored the World Friendships initiative, which encouraged exchanges between people of varied backgrounds; the World Sponsorship system, which provided aid for Asian and African refugees; and the Peace Islands in East Pakistan and India, which provided education, medical assistance, and help in developing more effective agricultural methods. Pire died at the age of fifty-eight in Louvain, Belgium, of a heart attack while recovering from surgery.

Significance

Dominique Pire’s commitment to social justice pivoted on interaction between individuals of varied backgrounds. Beginning with a recognition of both the fundamental diversity and unity of humankind, Pire promoted the equality of all persons in respect to their dignity and rights. To achieve that level of mutual esteem as a practical reality, he developed a style of communication that he referred to as “fraternal dialogue.” This form of exchange was characterized by listening, openness, and unselfishness on both sides of the dialogue, and Pire advanced it through his writings and teachings as the sure means of achieving internal as well as external peace.

Pire was one of several post-World War II peace activists who went beyond nationality, race, and creed to seek solutions to the destructive capabilities and the competitiveness that his generation had experienced in human relations. Although his goals were regarded by some as idealistic, the priest’s simple and practical program for achieving them united with useful results to gain international recognition. Pire described himself as being pro-humankind and not “anti” anything. Because his agenda included the advancement in dignity of all categories of people, Pire’s views obtained widespread currency and support.

Bibliography

Gray, Tony. Champions of Peace. New York: Paddington Press, 1976. The story of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize, and its recipients is described in this work. Gray analyzes the political and social milieu in which Pire worked and how that environment affected the decision to award him the prize.

Houart, Victor. The Open Heart. London: Souvenir Press, 1959. Houart focuses on the evolution of Pire’s “European Villages” but includes substantial information on the priest’s childhood and early adult years.

Northcott, Cecil. “Profile: Father Dominique Pire.” Contemporary Review 202 (September, 1962): 130-131. This article deals with the University of Peace and the philosophy and approach of the person who founded it.

Pire, Dominique. The Story of Father Dominique Pire. Translated by John L. Skeffington. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1961. This work provides Pire’s autobiography and includes editorial comments from Hugues Vehenne, the person to whom Pire told the story. The engaging and reflective account is enriched by photographs of family, friends, refugees, and the villages that Pire founded.

Wintterle, John, and Richard S. Cramer. Portraits of the Nobel Laureates in Peace. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1971. The chapter on Pire contains an interesting analysis of how he obtained the Nobel Peace Prize and addresses the question of whether he was an appropriate recipient.