Barbara Flaherty, Dr. Everett Kelley, Fr. Sean McManus
The National Secretary-Treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the latest World Peace Prize laureate. AFGE is the largest federal employee Union proudly representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas.
Dr. Everett Kelley, a native of Alabama and a Baptist Minister, was honored with the Prize on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, in a ceremony appropriately held in the George Meany Room of the hallowed AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC.
The late World Leader and Master Planner, Rev. Dr. Han Min Su, founded the World Peace Prize in Seoul, South Korea, in 1989.
The World Peace Prize Awarding Council consists of 14-member Board of International and Interfaith judges. The Board is comprised of representatives of the world’s nine major religions: Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Russian Orthodox, and Zoroastrianism.
The presentation was made by Fr. Sean McManus—Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize and President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus—and the ceremony was chaired by Barbara Flaherty, a Judge of the World Peace Prize Awarding Council, and Executive Vice President of the Irish National Caucus.
Fr. Mc Manus explained: “Working for peace, locally or globally, means, in effect and of necessity, working for social justice. Therefore, members of the Labor Movement are ideally qualified to be recipients of our World Peace Prize.Dr. Kelley eminently deserves this Prize. As Pope John Paul II has said, ‘peace is the fruit of solidarity.’ And the American Labor Movement is dedicated to solidarity, which Pope John Paul II raised to the status of a virtue in his Encyclical: Sollicitudo rei socialis (“Solicitude for social concerns”) 1988.”
Dr. Kelley spoke beautifully and humbly about being honored and thrilled to receive the World Peace Prize, the meaning and purpose of which is fully aligned with his own religious view and Labor convictions
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Fr. Mc Manus said:“Dr. Kelly is a most impressive man and is deeply respected in the AFGE. The National President of the AFGE, J. David Cox, Sr., attended the Presentation Ceremony and spoke very movingly about his admiration for Dr. Kelley.”
Fr. Mc Manus concluded:”It was a beautiful event, full of a great sense of social justice and peace, and replete with dignity and solidarity. ENDS
