Remembering Dirk Ficca, A Reflection from John T. Pawlikowski

February 10, 2022

I began working with Dirk [Ficca] during preparations for the 1993 Parliament.  When he became the Executive Director and I was serving on the PWR’s board our collaboration grew.  Dirk did much to establish the Parliament as a permanent institution.  For this, we who work with PWR today owe him our deep gratitude.

My permanent remembrance of Dirk involved his profound commitment to social cohesion, as both a possibility and a mandate for religious communities to pursue. Human society in our time is badly in need of forces that build and promote social cohesion. Dirk was convinced that religious communities were one of the few institutions that had the capacity to undertake this task. For Dirk, building social cohesion became a central feature of authentic interreligious dialogue.


Land Acknowledgment

The Parliament of the World's Religions acknowledges it is situated on the traditional homelands of the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Hoocąk (Winnebago/Ho’Chunk), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Baxoje (Iowas); Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee); Meshkwahkîha (Meskwaki); Asâkîwaki (Sauk); Myaamiaki (Miami), Waayaahtanwaki (Wea), and Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw); Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo); Inoka (Illini Confederacy); Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), and Odawak (Odawa).

PoWR recognizes the region we now call Chicago remains home to a diversity of Indigenous peoples today and this land upon which we walk, live, and play continues to be Indigenous land.


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