From CNS, Staff and other sources
The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a 65-year-old Catholic priest and human rights activist, and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do of Vietnam have been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Father Ly has been a prominent human rights defender since the 1970s, campaigning for religious freedom, democracy and a free press in Vietnam. He has been imprisoned off and on for more than 15 years, most recently in July 2011 after a temporary medical parole. He is partially paralyzed as a result of several strokes and suffers from a brain tumor. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do is a Buddhist monk, human rights activist and Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church, once the largest Buddhist organization of southern Vietnam. Thich Quang Do spent 10 years in internal exile and was given a five-year prison sentence in 1995 for organizing a humanitarian relief mission.