My dear friends

I feel very much at ease with you, having been a school head myself. In fact, except for the years I have spent in Society administration, both in the United States and in Rome, my whole religious life has been spent in schools. So I have a great affinity for this group and feel as if I am among colleagues.

Having been together yesterday with the Alumnae, we can continue the conversation. And I trust that we will have the opportunity for interaction; that this will not be a monologue!

Your expectation is that I focus on the work of our General Chapter on Transformative Education and I am happy to do it. I was present at the Assembly of Provincials in Punta de Tralca, Chile when the provincials decided unanimously that the theme of the 2000 General Chapter would be our Educational Mission. There was a spontaneous outburst of applause when the last of six small working groups said Education”. Perhaps the delight was due to the fact that all the groups had come to the same conclusion independently of each other. Perhaps it was the fact that we were also celebrating our Bicentenary and were very conscious of rediscovering our roots” and renewing our understanding of our vocation, revitalizing our response, given our world and our own evolution over these past years, particularly since the Second Vatican Council. In any case, there was enthusiasm for the theme.

By the end of the General Chapter in August 2000, we had elaborated three themes: Collaboration (which I developed in yesterday’s talk and which your proposals to the Chapter from Joigny emphasized), Interculturality, and An Education that Transforms. The document on Education, which corresponds to the theme of the Chapter, is key. What is interesting is that all three themes are interrelated, woven together, each one influenced by and completing the others. At least four of you were delegates to the Chapter, so I count on you to supplement my remarks.

I trust that everyone is familiar with the document that came from the General Chapter (at least the part on Education). It gives eight criteria for an education that is transformative”. You might well ask: So what is new here?” Sacred Heart education has always aimed at putting the child at the center of the educational process, forming to critical thinking, helping children to discover their potential, forming leaders… But I think that we have gone a step further in this document.

To set the stage for what I want to say I want to share with you a description of our world that may not be new to some of you. It was first publicized by Donella Meadows in 1990 as "The Global Village" which describes our planet as if it had only 1000 inhabitants. An e-mail version that reduces the number to 100 has been circulating for several years, and recently I received it in both English and Spanish:

"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.

There would be:
57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south,
8 Africans
52 would be female, 48 would be male
70 would be non-white, 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

Such a stark listing leaves no doubt

• that education is absolutely essential to bringing about a change in this situation;
• that acceptance of and learning to live with human beings very different from ourselves is an imperative (and, I might add, made even more urgent since the events of September 11th);
• that attempts to address the inequality of access to a decent life has to be a collaborative effort;
• that only a deep faith in the inherent value of every person will be enough of a motivator to make the effort required;
• that only a firm hope that change is possible will sustain the day in, day out work; and
• that only a disinterested, self-giving love will sustain one’s desire to lay down one’s life … not for a friend, but for those one will never know.

It is this present reality of our world that has pushed us a step further” in our understanding of an Education that Transforms and motivated us to commit ourselves with a renewed sense of corporateness. All of the elements mentioned above are reflected either explicitly or implicitly in the text.

• There is an explicit statement that our educational mission embraces persons of all ages in contrasting social situations” with the recognition that the means will vary; they will be both institutional and non-institutional.
• There is a conviction expressed that education is a lifelong process”, that it is to be understood in much broader terms than merely childhood education.
• The challenges of the world situation in which we find ourselves are spelled out in some detail and particular mention is made of the plight of children, young people and women, especially those who are excluded.
• There is a strong recognition of the reality and indispensable value of collaboration: with the laity, with church organizations, with civil society.
• There is a recognition that only in allowing ourselves to be transformed will we be channels of the transformation of others. To paraphrase Ghandi, We must become the change we seek.” We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

What might be overlooked because it is said succinctly is the sentence:

Our common vision has its source in our spirituality, orients our commitment to education from the perspective of those who suffer inequality and injustice, and is always lived in the light of the Gospel.” (p. 22)

I would like to dwell on each one of those elements for a few minutes.

First, our spirituality. Those of you who were at the Joigny meeting (and I understand that the large majority of you were) will remember that among your proposals to the General Chapter you said,

We recognize that Language is the vehicle for evangelization and transmission of culture, and at the same time it can have a great transforming influence. We encourage the Society to renew its language regarding Mission and Charism, through ongoing dialogue which is respectful of and comprehensible to lay collaborators and youth.”

Your request echoed those of others. We took it seriously and grappled with it throughout the Chapter. We ended up with a very modest statement saying, in essence that the time is not yet ripe for a new expression. I personally think that until Asia and Africa have the opportunity to make their contributions to our predominantly western Society we will not be able to re-express our spirituality. This is something that is not done once and for all, and we are en route” but we have a long way to go.

That being said, our spirituality is very much alive, and we came to realize that our lives poured out in love are its best expression. It is this love that is the transforming power of the educational mission that RSCJs and lay collaborators are engaged in together. Yes, we need to update curriculum. Yes, we need to keep improving our methods and upgrading equipment. But, as St. Paul says, without love at the heart of it all, it is nothing. (cf. 1 Cor. 13)

When making decisions have you ever said, How will this decision make this a more loving school?” As head of your school, think of paraphrasing St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s words and applying them to yourself: She said At the heart of the Church I shall be love.” What if you said: At the heart of this school I shall be love.” As you well know, I am not talking about love in the sense of hugs and valentines, but rather, of loving as Jesus did: valuing each one’s uniqueness, excluding no one and being willing to give one’s life day after day so that others may have life.

Secondly, we educate from the perspective of those who suffer inequality and injustice. Let’s go back to the Global Village. Of the 100 in the village whom do we have in our schools? Isn’t it the one who will go on to a university? The one with the computer? How does it feel for that lone student to stand surrounded by ninety-nine who have no access to the same opportunity? Will s/he automatically feel impelled to do something for the others in the village or will s/he hoard what s/he has received, feeling lucky that s/he is not one of the ninety-nine?

Having the perspective of those who suffer inequality and injustice is a work of the head and a work of the heart. The headwork” involves a growth in critical consciousness that leads students to seek the roots, the causes of our present situation of inequality. If all human beings are equally precious in the eyes of God, and the goods of the earth are for everyone without distinction, why are corporate executives in one country paid millions in bonuses while families in another are barely surviving from one day to the next? In any governmental decision, who benefits? Who pays? Once the light begins to dawn that there is something terribly wrong here, one will feel an urgency to do something about it.

The heartwork” is done through personal experience of others’ suffering. There is a saying that Where you stand determines what you see.” To have the perspective of those who suffer inequality and injustice we need to have the opportunity to see through the other’s eyes, to walk a mile in their moccasins” as the Native American saying goes, to get inside the body of someone whose skin is a different color.

A critical consciousness that impels to action, a commitment to justice is certainly not new in our schools. Fifty years ago my school in Washington, D.C., Stone Ridge, had a Catholic Action” program that had been in place long before I arrived in the early 50’s, but it was a voluntary after-school program. What has happened during these intervening years is that, more and more, social justice has become integrated into the fabric of our schools, influencing curriculum, broadening horizons, determining students’ career choices. During the past months, as I have begun to visit schools and become familiar with what Sacred Heart graduates are doing with their lives, I have been heartened by how much a social conscience has become part of their being.

Often it is a committed teacher whose passion for justice infects his or her students. How explicit are you when hiring teachers that in a Sacred Heart school justice, peace, concern for the integrity of creation, are integral to the life of the school? Are non-negotiable? Is it your experience that the justice-conscious teacher sometimes feels unsupported by other teachers? Does he or she feel your support? How can you as heads, caught up in all the demands of administration, keep your own commitment alive and communicate it to your faculties? What if, from time to time you asked yourself this question: Will the poor of this world thank me for this decision…?”

Thirdly, we educate in the light of the gospel. The gospel is the Word of God addressed to every age. Its message is always contemporary. What is its message for us today who live in a post-September 11th world? This question could have many responses but I would like to dwell on one. I think we have a special call to educate our children and ourselves to be peacemakers, peace-builders, instruments of peace; to contribute to the transformation of our world from one of intolerance, conflict, violence and exclusion to one of mutual acceptance, reconciliation, non-violence and inclusion.

Months before the September 11th events, the UN declared 2001 the International Year of Dialogue between Civilizations” and Pope John Paul II’s Message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2001 was Dialogue Between Cultures for a Civilization of Love and Peace.” We know that the ordinary person in every war-torn country is longing for peace. There is a sense that people are willing to do what it takes to achieve it. Small, do-able” actions engender hope and together, they can snowball. The story I told yesterday of Sadako and the peace cranes is one such example. I am sure you could recount many more from your own schools. Keep telling children that they can be peacemakers here and now!

Included in this call to build peace is an aspect which, until September 11th was much less in the consciousness of most Christians. It is the need to be knowledgeable about other religions in an attitude of respect. We find ourselves living in a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, the world is shrinking as the many levels of globalization, including communications technology, continue their relentless advance. On the other, there is talk of a conflict of civilizations”, a polarization of religions, which did not begin on September 11th but has been intensified since then. Again, it is an invitation to understand the other” from the inside, to discover what unites us and not to settle for superficial stereotypes. Some of you, due to the diversity of your student body, have this as a daily challenge.

In Joigny you said:

We wish to live our internationality as Good News” for the poorest, and to this end we commit ourselves in our educational institutions to seek together the implementation of projects for solidarity, communion and education for peace.”

Have you begun to communicate these initiatives to one another? Are you using the web site for this or, if you are not, could you begin? I am hoping that once it is functioning, the new commission that I mentioned yesterday, the Sophia Commission can be helpful along these lines, providing a much-needed infrastructure for collaboration and communication across the Society.

Up until now, the Society of the Sacred Heart at the international level has had no organized way of communicating needs, connecting resources. We do have a Fund for Solidarity, Justice and Peace which gives grants each year for projects presented by our provinces all over the world. It just so happens that just before coming here we reviewed the requests. The total amount requested was much more than the funds we have to give. It occurred to me that several of the grant proposals might interest your students:

• a request from the province of Congo for school fees for six orphans who now wander the streets;
• a request from the province of France to aid a center in Ile Maurice serving 7-16 year old at risk children;
• a request from the province of Uganda-Kenya to buy bench desks for boys in the Kangole Boys Primary School so that they no longer have to sit on the ground;
• a request from the province of Mexico-Nicaragua for help with a project in Guadalajara using supervised play as a means of educating. This particular project is being supported also by the Sacred Heart school there.

Finally, many of you have heard that the Uganda-Kenya province is in the process of building a primary school – the first Sacred Heart school in the province’s 40-year history. Could this school become a project built by children of the Sacred Heart all over the world just as our school in Taiwan was in the 1960’s?

I have brought information on all of these projects for any school that might be interested.

Finally, I want to say a few words about tending to yourselves. I heard once that a professor of Education was fond of saying Administrators grow teachers and teachers grow children.” But who grows” administrators? You carry an enormous responsibility and often you carry it alone. Who among you doesn’t sometimes lie awake at night wondering if some deranged person with a gun might come into your school and go on a killing spree? How many of you fear that one day you will receive a phone call that a former teacher has been charged with sexual abuse? You could add to these questions, I am sure. My point is that you perform the role of caregiver, confidante, calmer of fears and wiper of tears. Do you have a mentor or wisdom figure to whom you can turn? Another school head or support group of school heads? A spiritual director or someone who can accompany you, be a sounding board, hold in sacred confidence what you carry in your heart? You are constantly ministering to others. You need to be ministered to” as well. I encourage you to be pro-active in seeking ways to keep yourselves healthy in body and spirit.

A final word… I want to thank you in the name of the Society for carrying out our mission with us. Children are a precious trust. Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God belongs to them. May they teach us how to allow ourselves to be transformed by the power of God’s love so that we may contribute to the transformation of our world.