The Father Richard Novak Memorial Library at Notre Dame College in Dhaka was opened Aug. 21 by his brother Michael Novak, an American Catholic writer and religious philosopher.
The library is dedicated to the memory of Holy Cross Father Richard Novak, who at age 28 in 1964 was killed and his body thrown into a river while on a mercy mission during communal disturbances in Bangladesh.
Father Novak, a member of the Notre Dame College faculty with a master´s degree in Islamic studies from Dhaka University, was also a major contributor to the college library.
The library plaque was unveiled at a function headed by Archbishop Michael Rozario of Dhaka, president of the college governing board, and Bangladesh minister of planning Moyeen Khan, a student when Father Novak taught there.
Michael Novak, author of over 25 books and former U.S. Ambassador to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, visited Dhaka Aug. 18-25.
A Holy Cross student for the priesthood for 12 years before leaving the seminary, and known for his theology of economics, he won the 1994 Templeton Prize, awarded for advancing mankind´s understanding of God and spirituality.
In his remarks at the ceremony, he stressed that "the most important resource is not land but people," adding that the "worst poverty is a poverty of ideas; the main cause of development is ideas."
Another brother of Father Novak, James Jeremiah Novak, once worked for the Asia Foundation in Dhaka, and a nephew, who once worked at the United States Embassy in Dhaka, is married to a Bangladeshi.
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