German chancellor’s ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ act

IT IS most heartwarming that Germany is leading the world in alleviating the plight of refugees from Iraq, Syria and other Islamic State-dominated regions in the Middle East. The country’s current head, the first woman chancellor of Germany, elected in 2005, Angela Merkel, is also one of the architects of the European Union. She is really, really such a brave woman. It seems that she has more courage and conviction than so many male heads of state put together, in any part of the world. What a beautiful coincidence that her name is “Angela.”

If Germany has been maligned and has suffered tremendously for decades because of the Holocaust, it is giving back life and hope to millions of people—something that the victims of the Holocaust were deprived of by the German Reich during World War II. Her actions speak volumes for the healing of so much violence and hatred in our world today.

The other beautiful part of this is that the beneficiaries are mostly Muslims. I am sure she did not think of this when she decided in favor of the refugees, but I propose her for the Nobel Peace Prize. If any person deserves it today, it is Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is not just “arbeit macht frei” (work makes [people] free), but it is “liebe macht frei” (love makes [people] free).

—ANTONIO MARIA ROSALES, OFM, thinktonymaros@gmail.com