By Scarlett Rose Ford
Special to the Herald
Since the Jubilee Year of Hope concluded in January, recent global events have left many people longing for a renewed sense of hope, while others feel overwhelmed and discouraged by just how hopeless the world appears.
This tension formed the heart of Carolyn Woo’s presentation Feb. 22 at Chaminade University of Honolulu, titled “Why Hope: Claiming the Promise and the Responsibility.”
Woo, the former CEO of Catholic Relief Services and former dean at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, spoke in Mystical Rose Oratory on the Chaminade campus as part of the Marianist Lecture series, which seeks to foster inclusive dialogue on Catholic thought and responsibility.
The series is sponsored by Chaminade University, the Marianist Center of Hawaii and Saint Louis School. At the end of her lecture, Woo received the Mackey Award for Catholic Thought, named in honor of Marianist Father Robert Mackey, the first president of Chaminade.
Woo served as CEO of Catholic Relief Services from 2012-16, and before that was dean of the Mendoza College of Business from 1997-2011. Among the topics the acclaimed academic administrator addressed was one that grips many people with despair: death.
Especially now, death seems to be closer than ever before. Cellphones constantly feed people stories of death both literal and figurative — the death of services, the death of speech and thought, the death of the common good.
Death is inescapable, but there is a light in the darkness: resilience.
Woo told the audience that just as social and political tensions exist today, there have also been periods of darkness in the past — such as World War II. But where there is hope, there is resilience.
In times of trial, people are called to use all the resources they can to solve problems. When this occurs, society can begin to have hope — not in a naive or wishful-thinking way, but in a way that is driven by the responsibility to work in service of the common good.
“Hope is agency in action,” Woo said. “Agency is the capacity and responsibility to do what we can.”
This involves people changing their attitude: Those around us are neighbors, not “the other”; they are people, not problems. Through this reframing, people can more clearly recognize the human dignity of others.
The change in attitude also extends to fostering relationships and peace-building, as Woo said: “Forgiveness is the basis that allows us to change the way we view people.”
Woo placed Christian hope into its own category: “Christian hope is God in action through us,” she explained. “The harvest is from the Lord; we just carry the basket.”
The faithful have a responsibility to be resilient and resourceful, using what the Lord has given them in service of the common good — all they have to do is trust in Christ working through his flock.
“This is where our hope lies,” Woo concluded. “‘Ave crux spec unica’: Our hope is in the cross alone. The journey begins when we pick up the cross.”
A livestream of Woo’s lecture is available on Mystical Rose Oratory’s Facebook page.
Chaminade University of Honolulu contributed reporting.
Above: Former Catholic Relief Services CEO Carolyn Woo spoke Feb. 22 in Mystical Rose Oratory. (Scarlett Rose Ford)