Passion for peacemaking leads sister to Holy Land |
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Written by BY LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 05 September 2008 01:00 |
TIFFIN—Tiffin Franciscan Sister Paulette Schroeder leaves for the West Bank city of Hebron this month with a single-hearted goal: to get in the way of violence.
She travels to the Holy Land as a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an ecumenical organization that promotes nonviolence in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world.
"Basically our hope is to prevent violence, or deescalate it, [and] advocate for the ones who are being oppressed," explains Sr. Schroeder, 64.
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| Tiffin Franciscan Sister Paulette Schroeder |
After her first trip to Hebron on a delegation led by CPT in 2006, Sr. Schroeder attended nonviolence training and returned to the West Bank last January for a month as a CPT reservist. She has now committed to serve full time with CPT for the next three years.
As she prepares to return to the center of the conflict Sept. 9, Sr. Schroeder says she feels "staunch."
CPT members work at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers, but she admits the work is dangerous. She was attacked twice when she was last in Hebron, and CPT members can also get caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Palestinians.
"I feel like I’m bracing myself. And I’m just trying to trust," Sr. Schroeder explains. "It’s all teamwork, so you know, there’s consolation with that.... There’s friends among the Palestinians, and also among Israeli peace groups."
Corps members typically spend nine months a year in the field. Her first trip will last three months — the maximum length of time for a visa issued by Israel.
Her duties in Hebron include monitoring the treatment of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks, patrolling the streets to protect Palestinian residents from harassment by Israeli settlers and standing with those who have been detained. CPT members also lead nonviolence training and join Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in nonviolent protests against Israel’s construction of the security wall, which cuts through Palestinian territory.
Construction of the wall, which Israel began building in 2002 to prevent terrorist attacks, has restricted freedom of movement and trade and contributed to the worsening economic situation for Palestinians, according to Sr. Schroeder. Tourism has been decimated in cities like Bethlehem, which is now enclosed on three sides by concrete barriers.
"The unemployment is just horrendous," she says.
Many Palestinians have lost their land and homes to Israeli forces, and Sr. Schroeder has seen as many as five Palestinian families living in one home to support those who are unable to find work.
Despite these hardships, she says she was greeted with "prime hospitality" in the Palestinian neighborhood where she lived on her last tour in Hebron.
"You’d think that since we Americans haven’t [had] such a good record toward the Palestinians, that they would not accept us in that neighborhood — and it’s just the opposite," she adds. "I did not experience any sort of terrorism from the Palestinians. I experienced only kindness and friendliness."
Faith is also a powerful force in the lives of the people she has met in Hebron.
Sr. Schroder says she is attracted to learning about the Muslim faith and culture because of St. Francis of Assisi, who visited the sultan in 1219 on a peace mission. Though the sultan could not stop the Crusades, he and Francis ultimately parted as friends.
"St. Francis always said, pray that we might understand rather than be understood," she adds. "The emphasis is there."
Throughout her 46 years as a Sister of St. Francis, Sr. Schroeder says she has always felt a strong call to peacemaking — one of four directions in Franciscan living that also include care of the poor, prayer and care of the earth.
"Even when I was teaching, when I was working in pastoral work in the parishes, I felt like there was always a drive within me to reconcile people who were enemies to each other, who couldn’t understand each other, that sort of thing," she relates.
In the Holy Land, "my sense is we have to find people within each of these audiences that are adversarial, who would be willing to just take a first step at least and dialogue with each other, listen to each other, and see if they can hear the pain in each other," Sr. Schroeder reflects. "I think that’s one of the clues that’s going to take us forward."
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Last Updated on Monday, 01 December 2008 10:11 |
