"It is not difficult to be good - provided one wants to be so."

These words of Marian Żelazek, the Catholic priest who has worked in India for fifty years, have become not only a strong foundation of his entire life, but have also become a call directed to all men irrespective of where they were born or the religion they profess. For the scope of goodness is unlimited. Therefore such world, which is the hope of humanity in the twenty-first century and especially which is the hope of those who feel themselves responsible and indeed are responsible for the fate of all the inhabitants of our planet, cannot be built without goodness.

Reverend Father Marian Żelazek, SVD, a member of the Catholic Society of the Divine Word has been a good man. He is stretching out his hand to all those who need help, either because they have been rejected by those stronger than themselves or because they have been ailing, maimed, helpless in their loneliness or lost surrounded by common indifference. Such people always await even a little gesture of somebody's compassion, they await someone who notices them and wants to help them. Father Marian Żelazek is precisely such a man who during his entire life has been looking for people who need help and especially for those who suffer silently.

He was born on the 30th of January 1918. By some strange working of Providence he, who dedicated his life to lepers, was born during the week the Sunday of which later on the world declared an International Lepers' Day. Similarly to the late Mother Theresa, his illustrious predecessor, he has chosen India as the field of his activity. It is perhaps only India, with her commonly professed religious philosophy, which could find explanation for this coincidence of the date of his birth.

His determination and unwavering conviction to become a priest had already crystallised during the period of his education both at school and seminary, just before the outbreak of the World War II. Later on he spent five years in the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. He survived despite being brutally treated thanks to his determination to become a priest. The barbaric experience of the concentration camp did not leave him a bitter man, but awoke in him a deep faith in the dignity of every human being and a strong desire to make this world good by being himself good. When the war ended he completed his education in Rome and after his priestly ordination in 1948 he went to India, determined to testify by his deeds that a man has to be a man for another man!

The first twenty-five years of his stay in India Reverend Żelazek dedicated to teaching among the aboriginal people called Adivasis. From the year 1975 until today he has been working in Orissa, in the city of Puri, which is one of the holiest places of the Hindus in India. There is the famous Hindu shrine of Lord Vishnu known as Jagannath - the Lord of the World there. Every day the shrine is visited by countless pilgrims from all over India. It is at the southern outskirts of Puri that Rev. Żelazek organised a lepers' colony which constitutes his life-work - life filled with love for the most downtrodden ones.

He could never reconcile himself with the passive way that lepers and their sufferings have been treated by the rest of society. It is for this reason that he decided to help those rejected, humiliated and scorned people to bear their horrible burden. Although himself a foreigner, he is deeply revered and loved by his charges, especially because belonging to another faith, he nevertheless accepts and respects their traditions and rituals, proving in this way that there is one God and love is His attribute. They understand well the principle of this stranger, who has become one of their closest friends - the principle that love of one man for another is the only scale with which we can measure love for one God.

The lepers' colony established by Rev. Żelazek is incessantly growing as fast as the expanding population of India itself is growing. At present the colony counts 600 permanent inhabitants, who in their majority are also patients treated for leprosy. They have families which have to be provided with decent hygienic homes, food and clothes. Besides those among them who can work are provided with suitable jobs.

Children are under his special care. Very close to the colony he established a special school for the children of lepers. Among the teachers there are also lepers who have recovered. The school has its own dormitories as well as playgrounds. Rev. Żelazek's idea has been that the children should not stay round the clock among sick people and they should not feel inferior to other children. Father Żelazek looks all over the world for the so-called adoptive parents for his children who help financially to bring up and educate them so that they may become self-supporting when they reach adulthood.

Rev. Żelazek's colony has its own hospital and provides boarding for the most maimed ones who cannot take care of themselves. Those inhabitants of the colony who are able-bodied work in a shoemaking unit specialising in making shoes for those whose feet have become disfigured by the disease. There is also there a rope-manufacturing workshop, a textile-manufacturing unit, a tailoring unit and a brick manufacturing plant. Not so long ago Rev. Żelazek managed to organise a permanent dental clinic for his friends the inhabitants of the colony. The colony maintains its own vegetable garden, an orchard and a chicken farm, the produce of which sustains the members of the colony and the surplus is sold at the market.

Rev. Żelazek does not limit himself to the work for the colony itself. He serves other people as well. So much so that he managed to organise inhabitants of the neighbouring village for the purpose of constructing an embankment to protect their houses and field from floods, endemic in the locality.

The fact that doing all this Rev. Żelazek scrupulously abstains from proselytising, preferring rather to be a living witness of the Gospel values has to be specially noted. The very fact that he built the church exactly in the middle of the town proves his honest attitude towards the Hindu majority. For he could never have received permission from the authorities to built the church had he been involved in proselytising activities.

Next to the church Rev. Żelazek has built a library with a reading room and a conference hall. Thus the centre of inter-religious dialogue has been created for the people 'hungry of God' - as Rev. Żelazek says - to meet. He proves in this way that love for others only can become a solid foundation for mutual understanding and for the ecumenical dialogue, even in the centre of orthodox Hinduism.

During more than half a century of his activity in India Rev. Żelazek earned love and popularity not only among the poorest, the downtrodden and those rejected but also gained sincere respect and appreciation among the elite. The Chief Priest of the temple of Jagannath visited the Church premises on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Rev. Żelazek's priestly ordination and delivered a congratulatory speech. In spite of working with the lepers more often than not belonging to the so-called Untouchables, Father Żelazek is considered a Brahmin by the local Hindu priests. An important step towards better understanding of the two communities has been made. Thus it is true- as Father Żelazek insists - that in order to be good it is necessary to want it.

One of the many spectacular achievements of this exceptional man is how he has found all over the world numerous helpers and sponsors who are ready to go out of their way to assist him in his stupendous task. Isn't it the best proof that a good example does miracles! We are strongly convinced that real and permanent international peace depends very much on the lives and actions of individuals who inspire the hearts and minds of people in order to build up a harmonious world society. Therefore we understand that Father Żelazek's achievements deserve international recognition. It is because of these reasons that we nominate Reverend Father Marian Żelazek for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 2002.