Joan Rosenhauer at the Red Mass Jan. 20 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
Here is the prepared text of the keynote talk by Joan Rosenhauer, executive vice president of Catholic Relief Services’ U.S. Operations, at the Red Mass Jan. 20 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu.
Thank you for being here and for inviting me to be with you. It’s an honor to be with so many leaders and dignitaries here in Hawaii. When I heard the Gospel message today, the story of the Last Judgment, the first thing I thought was that I’m surrounded by people who bring that message to life everyday by responding to human needs and building a stronger community, state, nation and world for all people.
I also want to thank Father Robert Stark of the Office for Social Ministry and Dr. Dave Coleman from Chaminade University who have been my primary hosts here in Hawaii. And I want to thank Iwie Tamashiro who has joined them in demonstrating the incredible hospitality for which Hawaii is known.
I especially want to thank Bishop Silva for inviting me to be here. I’ve said countless times to colleagues in recent weeks that if Bishop Silva needs someone to leave Baltimore where there has been snow and ice and come to Honolulu, I will step up and make the sacrifice.
The second thing I thought of when I heard today’s Gospel was a conference I was at recently where a colleague, a priest of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, said, “That sheep and goats thing scares me.”
I understand what he means. It’s the most direct message we have about how our lives will be judged in the end — whether we cared for those in greatest need.
I always like to remind myself that at the end of that parable, Christ doesn’t say, “But really that only applies to the staff of the Office of Social Ministry and everyone else can just ignore it.”
He also doesn’t say, “But really, this story only applies after you retire and you have lots of time; before that you can just forget about it.”
This is a message for each and every one of us at every stage and in every circumstance. And it is mirrored in the other faith traditions represented here, as well as in our culture as Americans to the extent that we see ourselves as a force for good in the world.
A few years ago, during a social ministry conference in a diocese here in the U.S., the bishop said to me, “You know, Joan, not everyone can be a social ministry person.” I wish I could tell you that I had a profound answer on the spot but unfortunately, I didn’t. But later I thought about what I wish I had said, which was that actually, if we listen to today’s Gospel, not only can we all be social ministry people but we all have to be social ministry people. That doesn’t mean we all have to do everything, or that we all have to do the same thing. But everyone can do something. It’s up to each of us to discern what the “something” is that we can do.
At CRS, we invite people to join us in reaching out to those in greatest need in four ways, which we call PLAG — Praying, Learning, Acting and Giving. I want to thank you for what you’ve done already to join us in prayer and giving during the collection today. I hope you’ll continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, no matter what your faith tradition is.
So what is the mission of CRS that I’m inviting you to join through prayer and other ways if you’d like?
Almost 75 years ago, the bishops of the United States created CRS as a vehicle through which the Catholic community in the U.S. can respond to our brothers and sisters who are suffering around the world because that is what the Gospel calls us to do. At that time they were responding to refugees after World War II.
Today we represent the church in the U.S. and the American people in 100 countries around the world serving nearly 100 million people each year, regardless of their creed or race or nationality. We often say that we help people not because of who they are, but because of who we are and what we believe.
Now, I know that it can sometimes seem like there are too many overwhelming problems in the world that are too far away. Just since a little over a year ago, we’ve seen the Typhoon in the Philippines, the war in Syria, ISIS moving through Iraq, the Ebola epidemic, the fighting in Gaza, and on and on. “What can I do about such desperate poverty?” people ask. “And there are so many needs right here in our own communities.”
Whenever I hear that question, I think of my colleague in Kenya named Peter. When Peter was a little boy, his region in Kenya suffered a drought and one day his parents ran out of food. They knew they weren’t going to eat that day. But they hoped that if they sent 5-year-old Peter to the neighbors with his bowl, they might be able to spare a little food. Unfortunately, Peter came back with an empty bowl. So his mother put a little salt she had left in the house on his finger and told him to suck it to help him forget his hunger and sleep.
When I first heard that story I thought two things. First, when my children were young, I knew a lot of tricks to help them — putting them in the car to get them to stop crying and sleep; rubbing their gums when they were teething. Fortunately, I didn’t need to know what you do when your child is starving. How sad it is that there are mothers in the world who need to know that.
The second thing I thought was, what do we do when there are places where the neighbors nearby are not able to help their neighbors. Who is supposed to step up and help and be the neighbor even if it’s from far away? I believe people like us, who have the resources to help, are supposed to step up and respond to others’ needs.
The great news is that we are stepping up. As a community of faith and as Americans, we are stepping up and helping our “neighbors” on the other side of the world. Let me just give you a couple of examples that are particularly striking for me.
In West Africa, my colleagues at CRS, church leaders and other medical personnel are going into the life-threatening Ebola-affected areas, while everyone who can is getting away. We are helping the front-line health care system — the local clinics and hospitals — reopen by providing training on safe ways to screen for Ebola so health care workers don’t contract the disease and can refer affected patients to the correct facilities. We’re also trying to address the most dangerous thing to do when it comes to Ebola, which is to bury a person who has died from it. We’re helping local church leaders of all kinds to educate their communities so they have loving and respectful, but also safe, ways to bury their loved ones. And we’re helping the survivors, especially orphans, to rebuild healthy and productive lives.
In the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, because we were already there, we were able to work with local groups to preposition supplies and immediately distribute food, clean water, tents and other supplies. We’ve also developed a design for sturdy housing, using local supplies, so that people can be safe in homes that can withstand major storms. At the same time, we’re helping people rebuild their livelihoods — helping fisherman replace their boats and coconut farmers to plant and replace the trees destroyed by the typhoon and identify new crops so they can support their families again.
We’re also responding effectively to longer term challenges. I recently visited Rwanda where I went to a parish that is helping survivors of the genocide. One woman took the microphone and said, “Hello, my name is Annunciata and I am a survivor of the genocide but I was forced to watch as my parents and husband were macheted to death.” Then she handed the microphone to the person next to her who said, “My name is Andre, and I’m the one who killed her family.” How amazing it is that the people in Rwanda are finding ways, 20 years after the genocide, as people are getting out of prison, to beg for forgiveness and to give it, and then to go on to build peaceful and strong communities.
I’d like to lift up one more example of a significant part of the work we do, which is promoting long-term development in some of the poorest places on earth. In rural Ethiopia, I drove through a region that was just barren scrubland for as far as you could see. Then we came around a bend and before me I saw green spreading out for acres and acres. Why? Because we had helped the village build terraces on the hillside so that when it rains, the water doesn’t run off, but soaks into the ground, replenishes the water table, and natural springs that had been dry for years are renewed. We helped them pipe the water into the village so they could irrigate their fields and have clean drinking water. Before this project, the girls in the village spent eight hours walking every day to get water. They couldn’t go to school. Now they can. One of my colleagues asked a group of women what difference this project and the access to plenty of food and clean water had meant for their families. One woman answered, “None of my children died this year.”
All of this is to say that together, we can make a real difference in peoples’ lives and effectively respond to the crisis we see around the world. I’m grateful that you’ve invited me here which demonstrates your commitment to this mission.
I’d like to close with a story that will especially resonate with the Catholics and is particularly touching for me as a Catholic. As you may know, millions of people have been displaced by the war in Syria. One of the most concerning parts of a tragic situation is the impact this is having on children. Some estimates suggest that 42 percent of Syrian refugee children are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and 60 percent are suffering from depression. What impact will it have — for the individuals, but also for the region and the entire world — if an entire generation of children is left with the impacts of this trauma?
So we’re setting up child-friendly places where children can come and work through their trauma, express their feelings and hopefully get back to being children. They come in drawing pictures with black crayons of stick figures shooting each other or having bombs fall on top of them. We use puppet therapy programs and other means to help get to the point where they’re drawing colorful happy scenes like all children should. One little girl of about 12 told one of my colleagues that when she and her family first came to the camp the children all told her to go to the building that said “Catholic Relief Services.” She said she didn’t know what it was, and as a Muslim she had never heard the word “Catholic” before. But when she walked in and saw what we were doing for the children, she said, “I just assumed the word ‘Catholic’ meant ‘help.’”
What a blessing it is that we can be known as the people who help, because that is what the Gospel calls us to do.
