Dear friends, contributors, supporters and
all our Sacre Coeur alumnae around the world,
Thank you for all your comments,
encouragement and personal messages. I was so heartened by your
warm reception of the inaugural issue of the AMASC Newsletter on
the Web. I am writing to you now because time has passed and it
is now time to think about the second issue! I would like
everyone to feel that this Newsletter is your own and for this
reason it is important that you let us know what you would like
to see included in our pages and if possible to make your own
contributions, whether as individuals or on behalf of your
respective associations. To those who have already sent in some
material - thank you for your efficiency and enthusiasm.
For those who may be hesitating and
wondering what to write about, or to write at all (and as someone
who writes for a living I understand this problem all too well!)
I would like to offer some ideas which may get you going and may
cohere around a theme.
The term ‘globalisation’ is used
with a great deal of ambivalence at the moment, with many people
feeling that the negative consequences of this process -
individually, socially and economically - may outweigh the
positive benefits. Perhaps it is time to remind ourselves that
AMASC, by its very definition, has always been a
‘global’ organisation. We have a wealth of experience
in transcending personal, national and cultural barriers which
can be put to good use in a world that is struggling to do the
same. That spinning earth on our logo is not just a symbol, it is
real!
I have recently had my own small experience
of this. This year I was lucky enough to escape part of the
unusually cold, wet winter we are enduring in Sydney and escape
to the European summer. After the long flight from Australia, my
family and I landed on a warm Paris morning and almost
immediately found ourselves sitting around Dominique
Archambeaud’s dining room table having a most convivial
family lunch - all warmth and no formality. Nothing extraordinary
about this, you might say, except that Dominique had never set
eyes on any of us before. We had established an excellent
relationship through phone and fax working on the first issue of
the newsletter, but I was still amazed, and most touched, to find
my ‘instant French family’. I cannot help but feel that
in our often dark and dangerous world, each of these encounters
of friendship and love within the Sacre Coeur family make the
world, at least for a moment, a better place.
I am sure many, if not all of you, can
think of a similar experience. Our challenge now, and the theme
around which I would like to base the second issue of our
Newsletter is: how do we use the rich resources of our global
family to make our own small worlds, and the big one we all live
in, a truly better place?
Perhaps we can start with our own identity
as Christian women in an increasingly secular world. Here I would
like to freely borrow some ideas I picked up in France (Trish
Burns will tell you that I am an unabashed Francophile and have
been amusing her for some weeks by missing the place so badly).
But how can one not love a country where a popular magazine runs
a series called ‘Summer Philosophy’? Happily taking on
French habits, beside the swimming pool I read the transcript of
an interview with a man described as ‘ undoubtedly the most
celebrated philosopher in France’, Paul Ricoeur.
Now aged 85, Ricoeur is a Christian who has
devoted most of his work to ‘exposing his faith to the
exactingness of reason, and his reason to his own deeply held
convictions’. One of these convictions, which I believe has
great resonance for us, is this - in a world and in societies
where religion does not have the direct political power it had in
the past (which Ricoeur believes to be a better state of
affairs), what role does the community of believers have within
the human community as a whole? ‘Personally’, he said,
‘I believe more and more that the biggest question believers
must address is: how do we bring out the essence of goodness
which exists in mankind?’
It is a big question and a difficult one,
but I think it is very relevant to us as a world community of
Sacre Coeur alumnae and I would very much like your contributions
and comments on this subject. It is also intimately connected
with our theme for the next World Congress in 2002:
Reconciliation.
‘Reconciliation’, like
‘globalisation’, is also loaded with ambivalent
meanings, particularly for us here in Australia where the term is
intimately tied up with our relationships with our indigenous
peoples. But for myself at least, it is in exploring these
ambivalent messages that the big questions, which may seem
daunting, are reduced to manageable and workable ones. You may
find that this is also true for you. For instance, how does
AMASC, as a non-political organisation, engage with issues within
national and international communities? Some of Ricoeur’s
statements also give answers to this, in suggesting that we go
back to fundamentals, based on our beliefs.
Here in Australia, we are currently
undergoing a disturbing political and social debate because a new
political party, with extreme views based on intolerance and
ignorance, is enjoying up to 25% of popular support in some
areas, according to the opinion polls. Many people find such
views abhorrent and are aware of the dangers of dividing society,
but there is still an apparent ‘consensus’, led by our
current Prime Minister, that even extreme views should be aired
because to prevent this would be an abuse of ‘freedom of
speech’. On freedom of speech, Ricoeur says, ‘everyone
not only has the right to speak, but also the duty to give the
best possible arguments, to listen to others, and then to search
for a consensus’.
Through this I can see a role we can play,
not necessarily to directly engage in politics, but to question
notions such as ‘freedom of speech’, to listen to
others, to respect our responsibilities as much as our so-called
‘rights’, and to try, each in our own way, to find some
way of bringing out that ‘essence of goodness’ in
ourselves and others. Please think and write about this!
I look forward to receiving as many
contributions and messages from you for the next issue.
With my love and best wishes,
Josephine Barcelon,
Editor
An Open Letter
From the Editor