IARF was founded in 1900 and appears among the first international, inter-religious organizations in the world.

While primarily founded by Unitarians and "liberal Christian thinkers", the organization has since grown to include major religious groups of many traditions, including Buddhist, Shinto, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish participants.

The Association counts over 90 affiliated member groups in approximately 25 countries, which share a commitment to religious harmony and freedom of worship. They are all of the conviction that a diversity of religions and beliefs exist, which have a positive and constructive contribution to make to human society.

In practice, this was translated into:
- major presentations, notably by professor Abdelfattah Amor (United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief) and doctor Karel Blei (author of a book called: "Freedom of Religion and Belief: Europe's Story", offered to each participant)
- sharing, at the level of each one's beliefs and practices
- circle groups of discussion
- workshops
- alternative lectures (including Fraternite Notre Dame's)
- and finally, regional meetings for participants coming from around the world.

Fraternite Notre Dame was able to see some well-known faces, such as Sue and Vernon Nichols, members of IARF and friends from a long time at the Committee on Religious NGOs at the UN in New York; John Taylor, IARF representative at the UN in Geneva, Gianfranco Rossi and his wife, very active for the cause of Human Rights in Geneva, and who often had the opportunity to appreciate our oral or written statements on the suject, and many others.

Very lively and colorful conversations followed, inspired by Fraternite Notre Dame's experience in that field, in the various countries where our Founder and Superior General, the Most Rev. Bishop Jean Marie Roger Kozik, opened Missions to help those who suffer in their heart or in their body.

Examples are not lacking with Niger, which has a strong Muslim majority, Mongolia, where we maintain very good relationship with our Buddhist brothers, and of course the USA, with their large numbers of churches, Protestant or other, and that remain, however, one of the strongest models for tolerance and active collaboration among the various religious groups.

May God bless such initiatives, may He give strength, courage and growth to all those who dedicate to this Cause; Fraternite Notre Dame offers her prayer, along with her humanitarian and constructive efforts, to further this Cause wherever she is present in the world.

As Catholics, we entrust the right to religious freedom of every human being, to the good care of the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bishop Marie Bernard + snd. & Father Philippe Marie + snd.

Joseph A. Sullivan

President of the Rotary Club of New York 1989-1990

Major Case Inspector Joseph A. Sullivan, a former FBI Special Agent
and a legend of the Bureau, left us today at noon.

"Joe Sullivan has been the defender of our rights.
He has held the most valuable of public trusts He has been
the guardian of our constitution"
Tom Clancy

He was also our mentor, the founder of E-POL and an active member of the Rotary Club of New York, Joe Sullivan was "old enough to know how to do business, and young enough to want more business to do. Joe was the youngest old fellow Rotarian in the Club."
Giorgio H. Balestrieri, Member of the Board of Directors

Joe Sullivan's Accomplishments

As a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Joseph A. Sullivan helped solve some of the highest profile civil rights crimes of the 1960s. His 30-year law enforcement career reads like a social history of the latter part of this century. It began with National Security work during World War II, reached its peak during the civil unrest of the 1960s and culminated in solving a bombing spree that plagued New York City in the early 1970s. Inspector Sullivan worked in FBI offices from Florida to Alaska, ands served as an undercover agent in Colombia. Assigned to the New York City in 1946 he helped solve a truck theft operation of the Gambino crime family. Later after serving in Houston, Texas and Anchorage, Alaska, he was back in New York as a major case inspector.

Early in 1964, as President Lyndon B. Johnson was giving a speech in Florida, two railroad bridges were blown up nearby. President Johnson wanted the FBI to get the case, and Sullivan was called to Jacksonville where his investigation team identified the bombers and knew the time and location of the next strike, a bridge at night. During the night Sullivan crawled along the railroad bridge tracks until he found the explosive, set to go off when the train was on the bridge. Meanwhile, his fellow agents flagged down a train that was approaching the bridge, stopping it in time to let Sullivan remove the bomb.

It was in the south, deep in the throes of civil rights turmoil, that Joe Sullivan did see the fruits of his labor. One of his first tasks was to find out the state of preparedness of FBI offices in New Orleans and Memphis for what was expected to be a summer invasion of college students who would help blacks register to vote. In June 1964, three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwermer, were arrested by local authorities in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on suspicion of arson. They were released the same night, but admonished not to return to the town. But their car was later found ditched in a swamp, leading the FBI agents to a massive search for the three. The investigation led to two confessions and out of 17 suspects six were convicted on violation of civil rights charges. Mississippi Burning an Academy Winner movie was the controversial fictionalization of the true story. Inspector Sullivan was also involved in solving the murder of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Just before his retirement in 1971; Sullivan was back in New York, where he helped arrest Samuel Melville for a string of bombings.