October 24, 2008
Sister Anne Munley, IHM, Ph.D.
And now we turn to the focus of this Academic Convocation—Human Rights Awareness…
I stand before you today as one person—one person, speaking out about the concerns and issues of many…one person, who has seen, up close and personally, the harsh realities of human rights violations in this world…one person, who has looked into the eyes of a child and seen despair and resignation beyond the scope of what any child should bear…one person, who realizes that the sheer volume and range of human rights violations, which we see in our communities and throughout the world, have dulled our capacity to understand just how much one person can actually do to improve the lives of others and to advance the cause of human rights around the world.
We have a tendency to think that human rights issues are too big for us—that they are somehow beyond us or our sphere of influence to change them. Our hearts are in the right place, certainly, but “there’s only so much that one person can do.” The world is too big….the problems are too great…the people of the world are too divided or helpless to actually change anything.
In the face of all this, what is my role?
What is your role?
What can each of us here do to advance the cause of human rights?
I turn your attention to the words of Václav Havel, a Czech playwright, writer, and politician—a man imprisoned for his role in the human rights manifesto known as Charter 77—who would later become the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). In a 1990 speech to the U.S. Congress, he said: “The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness, and in human responsibility…the only genuine backbone of all our actions, if they are to be moral, is responsibility…to something higher than my family, my country, my company, my success.”
As a Catholic institution, Marywood University’s responsibility is to draw on the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching (dignity of the human person; common good and community; option for the poor; human rights and responsibilities; economic justice; promotion of peace; stewardship of God’s creation, global solidarity, and more), linking these moral responsibilities to our cherished core values and our powerful mission to “shape the lives of men and women of all backgrounds to become leaders in service to others.”
We are educators; therefore, we are liberators—of minds and hearts—empowered to make a positive difference in the face of the harsh realities of this world.
Where do we begin?
The phrase “human rights awareness” flows so readily off the tongue that it can become a catch phrase, oversimplifying the importance and implications of what human rights are and what awareness of these rights demands.
It helps to understand what we mean when we say human rights—what are they and what do they entail?
- Human rights are held by all persons equally—these rights are inalienable; you cannot lose them.
- Human rights are indivisible—one cannot be denied a right because it is “less important” or “non-essential.”
- Human rights are interdependent—all human rights are part of a complementary framework, e.g. one’s ability to participate in government is directly affected by the right to express oneself, to get an education, and to obtain the necessities of life.
- Human rights are inherent to dignity—a violation of these rights undermines the human condition by treating others as if they were not human beings.
- Human rights are inspirational, practical, and empowering—these principles hold up the vision of a free, just, and peaceful world and set minimum standards for how individuals and institutions everywhere should treat people. Human rights awareness provides a framework for action when those standards are not met, because people still have human rights, even if the laws of those in power do not recognize or protect them.
- Human rights are everyday issues relevant to you and me—we experience human rights when we worship or choose not to worship; when we debate or criticize government policies; when we join a labor organization or trade union; when we travel domestically and internationally—actions, among others, that are often taken for granted. Yet, human rights violations are not just the problem of other countries and cultures. Many occur right here in the U.S.—domestic violence, homelessness, the provision of inadequate education or lack of access to a decent education, fraud, racism, gender-based pay inequities…the list is lengthy. (Adapted from Speak Truth to Power: An Educational and Advocacy Package, 2000, 9)
Marywood University, as a Catholic institution, must engage critically to observe, meet, and advance human rights, here in our own community, as well as in the global community. We must see things realistically, as they are, but, at the same time, work as ambassadors for meaningful change—because our position as a learning, teaching community calls us to this important work. The causes we choose to support, the people we choose to help, and the location where we do this work will differ for each person. The many experiences that I have had with people, especially young people from different countries, cultures, religions and life circumstances, have affected my life forever.
To cite a specific example--during the three years that I worked in Rome, I was privileged to collaborate with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in developing a training program to educate and link Catholic Sisters throughout the world to prevent and combat trafficking in human persons. As part of the team, I went to Nigeria and Thailand to work directly with Sisters involved in prevention, victim assistance and reintegration efforts. I saw the devastating consequences of the scourge of 21st century slavery in the streets of tourist centers in southern Thailand where children as young as six were bought and sold as commodities in the sex trade. I heard the stories of teenagers deported from Italy back to Lagos, Nigeria where they lived in an IOM shelter because they were afraid to go back to their villages. I resonated with the anger and frustration of African women religious who stationed themselves in airports to personally meet repatriated victims so that handlers holding the young girls’ passports would not ship them right out on another flight to be trafficked in another country. I realized the difference that ordinary people like you and me can make in engendering hope, empowering and restoring life to persons exploited for greed and/or pleasure.
These and other such experiences make it impossible for me to think or speak of human rights in abstract terms. The Millennium Development Goals and world-wide efforts to eradicate human trafficking are moral imperatives for this age. I am humbled by the good people I have seen making a remarkable difference. They have become my heroes and heroines and I carry them in my heart.
This story is just one of many you will hear today…so, YES—one person can make a remarkable difference…but working together, we can do so much more. To begin, we need to examine our hearts and summon the courage and conviction needed to accomplish the greater good for all. Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in the United States, addressed how individual actions can multiply into meaningful transformation in her 1963 book, Loaves and Fishes:
“Young people say, 'What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?' They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.
The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers [and sisters] with that burning love, that passion, which led to the Cross, then we can truly say, 'Now I have begun.'”
That is the biggest step—the biggest hurdle to overcome—acting on our good intentions. How do we act…How do we begin?
- Become aware of the human rights issues that surround us:
- Read about the issues that speak the loudest to you;
- Research the facts;
- Decide to take action.
- Get involved! Understand that no effort on behalf of human rights is too small, no effort is wasted:
- Your actions on a local level can have profound effects on a global level.
- Channel your focus to a few issues that matter to you—you CAN bring about changes that affect human rights issues in a positive way!
- Join organizations that support human rights awareness and action initiatives and, through them, connect with other people who are working towards these same goals;
- Build coalitions of support within your own community;
- Raise money for the causes you support;
- Write letters to national and state legislators, as well as “Letters to the Editor”;
- Choose to take a principled and abiding stand in support of human rights.
In the end, standing for human rights comes down to the choices we make in our everyday lives—some simpler, some more complex. It can all depend on how we frame the questions before making those choices. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—a champion of human and civil rights—related the tale of the Good Samaritan this way: “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But...the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” (“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” April 3, 1968)
I reaffirm to you what I know:
- The world and its people and cultures are beautiful.
- We are empowered to be forces for good to bring about change in those areas that ferret out distortions to this beauty.
- For as many areas that need attention, there are individuals and groups who can act in positive ways to change the world for the better.
The ways in which we demonstrate the principles of Catholic Social Teaching help us to follow in the ways of Jesus, who declared His purpose in the Gospel of John—that others “may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
For the past several years I have been inspired by the writings of Cardinal Carlo-Maria Martini, the now retired Archbishop of Milan. In Saving Beauty, a little book in which he sets forth his vision for this millennium, he tells us with exquisite sensitivity to human suffering that “the beauty that will save the world is the love that shares the pain.”(12)
In words prophetic to these times, he notes (13-14):
“It is not enough to deplore the ugliness that fills our world. Neither is it enough, in our ‘disincarnated’ age, to talk of justice, duties, the common good, pastoral programs, and the demands of the Gospel. We must talk with a heart full of compassionate love, experiencing that charity which gives with joy and enkindles the enthusiasm of all it touches. We must radiate the beauty of that which is true and just in life, because only this beauty truly captivates the heart and turns it to God. In short, we must understand what Peter understood when he saw Jesus transfigured, ‘Lord, it is beautiful for us to be here” (Mt. 17:4) and what Paul, quoting Isaiah (52:7), felt when faced with the task of announcing the Gospel, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!’ (Rom. 10:15)”
And so I stand before you today as one person…one person, who sees the beauty of the world and its people and knows that while distortions to this beauty exist, they do not preclude its ability to persevere …one person, who is empowered by the urgency of now, not defeated by its challenge… one person, who knows that there is a place for everybody at God’s table and realizes that it is up to each one of us…you and me…to make sure that place is properly set.
I hope that this convocation will spur all of us to deeper realization that we are meant to be one with all of God’s family. Would that our hearts might burn with this insight from Mary Oliver’s poem, “Sunrise”:
this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thoughtof China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sunblazes for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises
under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all us? Call itwhatever you want, it is
(Dream Work, 59-60)
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.