Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004

By ANGELA JEFFS

It comes as quite a surprise when Joan Chittister opens her hotel room door. All photos seen to date suggest a rather fearsome individual. Here instead is a smiling roly-poly figure in a casual two-piece summer suit. All she needs is a large white apron and she could be a merry farmer's wife instead of an opinionated activist.

Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister, is a best-selling author, cochair of The Global Peace initiative of Woman and founder of the Benetvision center on spirituality.

Joan is a Benedictine sister based in a monastery in Erie, Pa. She is a best-selling author (30 titles and many more still to come), an international lecturer, cochair of The Global Peace Initiative of Women, and founder and executive director of Benetvision, a research and resource center for contemporary spirituality.

Impressive enough. But there is also her column for the National Catholic Reporter, "From Where I Stand . . ." She is just sending off her latest contribution, "The Sacredness of the Singular," via her faithful laptop Dell. Beginning with a quotation, "There is meaning to every journey that is unknown to the traveler," Joan explains how this third annual trip to Japan has called into question everything she tends to take for granted: plenitude, crowds, noise, routine.

"Japan is a land of little things, of attention to details -- one flower in a vase, or the man I saw moving a patch of moss carefully by just a few centimeters. There's such consideration, concentration, order. Look down. See the homes of the homeless in the park, ranked in neat rows? What I see is attentiveness to singularity in a country that functions always in vast crowds in small spaces."

What, she wonders, do outsiders make of her own country? "Every nation has an essential cultural character. What human values do foreigners see mirrored in the USA? What is it in our social mores, good as they may be, that we may be idolizing, exaggerating, to the point of extreme? And what is that doing to us as a people?"

America, she believes, is at a turning point in world history. She describes contemporary politics and policies as "the theater of the absurd." Preparing herself for the worst in November -- another four years under Bush -- she completely understands why a person would choose to stare at a flower in preference to going insane. "I too am trying to survive."

Growing up in Erie, Joan entered the monastery at age 16. "We are now 120 women aged from early 20s to 90s, standing firm against nuclear development, showing solidarity with the poor, and prosustainability."

She taught high school, served as federation president and prioress for 20 years, and in 1978 began exploring concepts of peace and justice. She developed this thinking through writing. "I'd been a writer since age 14, scribbling night and day. I gave it up to enter the monastery." Writing more and more, she was finally enabled in 1990 to express herself freely. "The community released me to write and speak. The then current prioress, Sister Phyllis Schleicher, said it was the will of God . This is when I founded Benetvision and began traveling abroad."

Her next epiphany was hearing herself quote to an audience the writer Alice Douay Miller -- "Mother, what's a feminist?" "A feminist, my daughter, is anyone who thinks or cares to take charge of her own affairs, as men don't think they oughta!" -- and knowing she was qualified. Having always thought of feminists as crass, rude, dangerous and unspiritual, she remembered her own mother saying, "Be all that you can be." "So I made the decision: 'Time to stop saying I'm not a feminist!' "

Her 10-day stay in Japan has involved three major commitments. "I gave a speech to the Pan-Asian Youth Leadership Conference in Hiroshima. I told the young people assembled, 'If you want to be a real leader, learn to rebel.' " Joan also participated in choosing this year's winner of the $ 100,000 Niwano Peace Prize. She is spending the rest of her time with women's groups. " Tonight I'll be addressing 250 women at Tokyo Union Church about the place of women in peace and war. This is in relation to the Global Peace Initiative of Women, based in the United Nations."

When the U.N. Peace Summit convened in 2000, the Dalai Lama was not invited, in political deference to China. "I was furious, refused to attend. Kofi Annan himself -- a rare and marvelous human being -- says that war is illegal and immoral, and that there can be no peace without religious tolerance."

Of the 2,000 delegates in Geneva, only 15 percent were women. "I cut down the number even further, but it's important to make a stand. Look around. Leaders in power are male. On the ground they are women. It's hard for women like us to move around in the global arena; we just don't have the money."

One solution: a gathering of 600 women from 75 countries under the auspices of the U.N. in Geneva. On Oct. 6, 2002, Annan declared in his opening promulgation of the event that the future belongs to women. "For the next five days, I moved in a sea of Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim female spiritual leaders discussing peace and every other relevant issue under the sun."

April saw the publication of Joan's latest book, "Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir"; it was also the month she completed an analysis of what Benedictines call "the renewal period" to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of her community. "I have a funny feeling it will resonate far beyond the walls of my office. It turns out not to be about nuns at all, but rather helping people understand their lives."

And next? "I'll be writing a book with Rowan Williams, Britain's Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, discussing 'questions of the age.' We'll be mailing back and forth, sparking debate and agreement, to meet a March deadline."

nationalcatholicreporter.org/fwis/ www.millenniumpeacesummit.org www.benetvision.org

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