Remembering Dirk Ficca, A Reflection from John T. Pawlikowski

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.