Nobel committee member vowed never to offer award to Pope, Allen recalls
October 10, 2014
Before the October 10 announcement that Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi would share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, many journalists had expected that Pope Francis would take the award. But John Allen of Crux points out that a key member of the Nobel committee has vowed not to name any Pope for the prize.
In 2001, Allen recalls, Lutheran Bishop Gunnar Staalseth, a member of the awards committee, stated his public opposition to a Nobel Prize for St. John Paul II. He said that he would block any award for a Roman Pontiff as long as the Catholic Church continued to oppose contraception.
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Further information:
- The Nobel Peace Prize (Crux; scroll down)
- Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize (New York Times)
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Posted by: filioque -
Oct. 11, 2014 3:46 PM ET USA
@ aclune9083: you ask "Since when is Nobel recognition tied to a candidate's personal beliefs as opposed to his achievements?" Don't confuse the Peace Prize with the science prizes. The Peace Prize is awarded by a Norwegian committee. It is thoroughly politically correct. The science prizes are awarded by Swedish academic committees and are based on real achievements, although inevitably some politics can creep in.
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Posted by: garedawg -
Oct. 11, 2014 12:44 PM ET USA
They should give Pope Francis the award for the same reason they gave it to Obama and Gore: he's not George Bush.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Oct. 10, 2014 9:50 PM ET USA
Oh well. Pope Francis will not lose any sleep over this slight,I'm sure.
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Posted by: aclune9083 -
Oct. 10, 2014 9:24 PM ET USA
So, now the respected Nobel Committee has been politicized by a dissident with an agenda, one who remains in his sin and allows his sinfulness to color his judgments about the worth of a prospective candidate, regardless of what the candidate has achieved. Since when is Nobel recognition tied to a candidate's personal beliefs as opposed to his achievements? Does this then invalidate the award of someone like Barack Hussein Obama, who won the award in 2009 before achieving anything?
