John Hume was “a person of vision, who lifts us up to see and think beyond the confines of our own, much narrower, perspectives,” according to the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh.
Hume, who died Aug. 3 at the age of 83, was principal architect of Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
The Northern Ireland politician was the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the moderate voice for the Catholic minority in the North. He and the Protestant leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble, shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the Troubles, which had led to the deaths of over 3,500 people.
Martin said a “great sadness … ripples out to every corner of Ireland and all around the world where the mere mention of the name of John Hume evokes admiration, respect and thanksgiving for a life dedicated to peace and social justice,” and he remembered Hume has “a paragon of peace, a giant of a statesman whose legacy of unstinting service to the Common Good is internationally acclaimed, even though it is still perhaps only unfolding.”
The Armagh archbishop said that when he grew up in Derry – a flashpoint during the Troubles Hume was a hero and role model that “hugely influenced” him.
Read more at Crux
Louisiana voters approve Amendment 1 to exclude ‘right to abortion’ from state constitution 
Election Results Are In: Christ Still On His Throne 
Election will be meaningless if we don’t change our ways