Conflict talk from acclaimed theologian

Renowned theologian, storyteller and lecturer Dr Megan McKenna from New York was in Ennis addressing the Poor Clare Sisters and other supporters of her work in the Friary last Wednesday.

She explained how she has been involved behind the scenes primarily in major international conflict situations, such as the Iraqi War.
“I do that kind of work through Pax Christi – the international peace keeping movement of the Catholic Church. I would work with people/groups who would eventually be part of negotiating teams in conflict situations. I use the truth of the Gospels and the words of the prophets and accidental prophets. I also use stories from all around the world from different religious traditions. These help people get a vocabulary to talk about it and to learn how to deal with difference,” Dr McKenna commented.
“Essentially through the Scriptures and other non-denominational stories, I teach people how to agree to disagree. It’s true that many conflicts in various countries are rooted in religious differences. This is interesting because most religious traditions recognise conversion and change and possibility for life. So I study and keep studying various religious traditions. There are parables of Islam, which in essence are similar in content to parables of Christianity. To a large extent, they all have similar messages. It’s a question of finding common vocabulary, deeper than individual ethos,” she added.
Dr McKenna said she is very familiar with the conflict in Northern Ireland over the years. “I have always been particularly interested in the situation there. I didn’t come to Ireland until I was in my 40s. In the final stages of the peace process, which reached a resolution, I was involved in that behind the scenes but for reasons of confidentiality I cannot say much about that.
“I was overjoyed and relieved that a peace agreement was found and went through and was voted on so positively. I do feel that things are really moving on now in Northern Ireland, finally. I would say that what goes on in these situations behind the scenes, in the groups that speak to the leaders, are the places where change takes place. A change of attitude starts to happen in the bottom group and this spreads out. For various reasons they can change the attitudes and vocabulary of those who do the actual negotiating. That’s common to all situations of conflict,” she said.
At all groups in Ireland that she has addressed in recent years, the issue of the crisis in the Catholic Church has been raised.
“There are people who have moved away from the Catholic Church in Ireland, given the crisis that has emerged but I think that many are choosing to stay. I think members of the Irish Church can separate out what individuals do from what religion actually is. I think many people and I’m hearing a lot of this, are utterly disappointed and enraged, with reason, and even more angry at the failure of the leadership of the Church  to deal with these issues with integrity and honesty.
“They are angry that children were exposed to this. They do talk about repentance and some are clearly trying to make amends. Not only do they need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again but they need to find out what’s the root of it and why there was so much avoidance of the issue,” she remarked.
“I know there are many who are starting to think of themselves not as victims who are leaving the Church but are staying in the Church to help rebuild it. The Church is the people in it, not just the leadership. It is the body of the Church  who can change things.
“They can demand accountability and responsibility and they can demand that their leadership can change. I think in some ways there are some seeds within the Irish Church that perhaps the time has come to change how the Church  works. How, for example, bishops are appointed. Up until the late-1800s, people chose their own bishops. Now, people are asking deeper and deeper questions about how bishops and priests work. They don’t deal with much of ordinary life – the economic issues, the daily family issues. I think many are taking this crisis and trying to change towards something new. Because it wasn’t dealt with upfront, I think it destroyed so many people. But there are many people who say we do believe in the Church and their primary belief is in the Resurrection.
“In every talk I’ve given in Ireland in recent years, this topic comes up and I always deal with it in the context that within our religion everything is redeemable. Within the Crucifixion – betrayal, lying, cheating, loss – out of that comes a new way of life.”
She believes that this is the time for renewal and review in the Irish Church. “I would call it transformation by grace. First comes forgiveness and acceptance and out of that restitution and out of that comes something new.”
Dr McKenna also strongly believes that people who are struggling financially and in other ways can find at least part of the answer in religion.
“Definitely. The basic principle in communities over the years was that people did share. It goes back to the Father. We were all brothers and sisters in the family of Our Father. Culture moved towards individualism and economics began to take a more central role. The economic structure is so complex now that even with both partners in a family working, they can struggle to make ends meet. It can be so devastating when that structure collapses and a lot of families just can’t make it. Rich isn’t bad – it’s only bad if you don’t share it. The understanding is that poverty is bad. It’s one thing to live simply, it’s another completely not to have any choice in how you live,” she added.
She spoke to a group of people in the Friary in Ennis on the theme of living inside a story – the topic of her latest book, We Live Inside a Story.
“In this book, I used the image of the Russian dolls, where there are layers of dolls, which fit inside each other. So it’s about how we fit in to different things – our family, our community, our Church, our society, our country, our continent, and this world. But what if we started looking at life from the big doll downwards, how the bigger story applies to us – the spirit in the world, the spirit in the Church and the spirit in yourself – it would make a lot of difference. I also spoke on Luke’s Gospel – on the power of the spirit and what is Church.
Spirituality is anything that makes us alert to that which is holy in our lives,” she added.
Dr McKenna has graduate degrees in scripture, adult education and literacy from the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters in Systematic Theology from Catholic University, Washington, DC. She has worked with indigenous groups, in base Christian communities and with justice and peace groups across the world including in Northern Ireland, Iraq and South America, as well as in parishes, dioceses and religious communities. She has been on the United States National Board of Pax Christi and in 2002 was appointed an Ambassador of Peace for Pax Christi.
She has taught at several colleges and universities and does retreats, workshops and parish missions. She has also extensively studied the Scriptures, and has vast experience of stories, poetry, images and phrases spoken aloud, written down and spun to make meaning.
Dr McKenna has written many books, including And Morning Came: Scriptures of the Resurrection, Praying the Rosary, Send My Roots Rain, The New Stations of the Cross, On Your Mark: Reading Mark in the Shadow of the Cross, and the recently released, Harm Not The Earth.
Her parents were both Irish – her father was from Five Mile Town in County Monaghan and her mother from Knock. They emigrated to New York, where Dr McKenna grew up. She currently lives in Albuquerque.