Ruth Pfau is a medical doctor who generously devoted her efforts and service to Pakistan, working for peace in a way that has reached far beyond feild of health assistance. Evangelical Bishop Christian Krause called her a Christian woman who has “overcome the abysses between men and women in a society dominated by men; between rich and poor, between tradition and modernity, between foreign cultures.” She is a religious sister who has brought the experience of Christ’s love to people of all backgrounds and religious convictions,” said President of the Pakistan Bishops Conference, Archbishop Joseph Coutts, as he thanked her in name of the Pakistani Church. With the help of the German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association (DAHW) Ruth Pfau has built a hospital in the city of Karachi. Because of her work in the management of leprosy and tuberculosis she was appointed Secretary of State by the Pakistan government. For more than twenty years she has been working in collaboration with the Christoffel Mission offering assistance to the blind, and gaining the esteem of a nearly entirely Muslim society. Appreciation for this woman who was born in 1929 was also expressed by the Bishop of Aquisgrana, Heinrich Mussinghoffe and by Focolare president Maria Voce, who called her a “witness of God’s love and builder of a more just and fraternal society.” Every two years this award is conferred by the Focolare Movement in honour of the spiritual patrimony of Hemmerle. What does Ruth Pfau have in common with the theologian Klaus Hemmerle who was once bishop of Aquisgrana and a contemporary of Ruth? Television journalist and theology professor Michael Albus answers this question in the keynote address he gave at the Dome Church of Aachen (Aquisrana) where the award ceremony was held on May 8th. “She had the courage to dare to take the plunge, to decide to help without hesitation, wherever there was need: without theoretical, political or even theological justification. And without asking – as happens in our capitalistic world – how she would be repaid.” This is what these two people have in common, along with their desire to build “a Church that salvages God in the world, from dying of cold,” as St Martin reminds us. Then Ruth spoke: “We can help one another to be better people and full of humanity,” she stated. For her, one sign of this humanity is “wasting time.” She was taught that lesson during her time in Asia. You very rarely find it in a hospital or house for the elderly in Germany. For her, this signals a loss of humanity. She was pleased to accept the award because it gave honour to this “wasting time”, although the motivation for the award highlighted her ability to “build bridges and create unity through her radical devotion to the poor, based on her faith which she lived with strength and conviction in an environment charged with conflict.”