feminine-genius

Courageous Sister Murdered

On November 15th, Sister Valsa John of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary was shot to death in an Indian coal mining town in the state of Jharkhand. The 53-year-old nun was buried from the cathedral in Dumka, where she was remembered for her fidelity to her mission, despite intense pressure from moneyed interests in the region:

Among the crowd that filled the cathedral, the brother, sister and two nephews of the nun, who for 20 years dedicated her life to the Santal tribal region. Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, told AsiaNews: "Her violent death was a terrible shock and a great loss to the Church. We seek justice, but while we mourn this loss, our mission for the poor, the weak and voiceless will continue, strengthened and renewed by the blood of Sister Valsa, who now intercedes for human rights, justice, dignity and hope of these people. "

Fr. Tom Kavala, SJ, who has worked for over 15 years with the nun, told AsiaNews: "Sister Valsa created a tribal organization to stop the expropriation of land sought by the powerful coal lobbies, including helping them to obtain compensation from companies. Six years ago, one of these lobbies e tried to buy out nine villages and Sister Valsa mobilized the local poor people. These coal barons lodged 33 complaints against her and her supporters, and many of them ended up in prison".

"Sister Valsa - said Mgr. Marandi - paid for her struggle for the poor and defenseless, against the interests of the powerful coal mafia with her life. The Church of Dumka and all Jharkhand pray that her martyrdom will renew the mission of the Church to be a witness of faith. "

Bless her for her courage and dedication to the people she loved. May she rest in peace and intercede for all who call upon her.

A "powerhouse of creativity"

That is how Dr Margaret Ogola saw the feminine vocation, and she provided a marvelous example of its potential. This mother of six was driven by her love for the family -- especially children -- and was ultimately responsible for administering roughly 20% of the health care facilities in her native Kenya, speaking out tirelessly on behalf of human dignity.

She attacked the sacred cows of international development organisations by insisting on “the availability of cheap and safe methods of child spacing such as Natural Family Planning”, expressing her distress “that there seems to be a conspiracy to keep women in the dark, especially the African woman, regarding the many dangerous side-effects of contraceptives”, and calling for recognition of “the irreplaceable role of parents and the family in educating and in forming children in matters of sexuality”. (She herself wrote a book to help parents with this.)

While recognising that the collapse of sexual morality was basically to blame for the AIDS epidemic, she was full of compassion for those suffering in one way or another from the disease and insistent that poverty was driving its spread among women.

One can see how such a philosophy placed her at odds with the United Nations, which constantly ties its development dollars to the implementaion of immoral "family planning" structures. She knew better, realising how the family was always undermined by such initiatives.

Beyond the reproductive issues, she promoted women, whom she recognised as the backbone of the family, and who must be supported in her vocation in order for the poor to overcome their marginalisation:

The main reason for this is poverty and the disadvantaged place of women. Therefore prevention programs should have women at the core, not only to help them say "no", but also to have alternatives when they say "no". This means attention to the poverty prevailing in our country which is extremely severe, with about 57 per cent of Kenyans living on less than one dollar a day. Most of the poor are women, and particularly young women, because socially they are not considered equal to men and so have less access to education and resources at every level. Their situation has to be addressed in a holistic and integral manner, so that you not only foster family values but also give them opportunities to make a living other than by transactional sex, which young girls get into out of sheer poverty.

Her death is a real loss for Kenya on one level, though an advocate in heaven may allow the truth to prevail. She was always a woman of hope, as this account from her funeral attests:

She was progressively closer and closer to God. Today at the funeral Mass the priest who looked after her mentioned that she wanted to do everything, big or small, no matter how difficult it was, for love. Different people who spoke at her funeral – family, friends, colleagues and government officials -- highlighted the fact that she was a very talented and determined person, an untiring worker and always seeking ways to serve better in the medical profession, especially in the care of HIV/AIDS orphans who were her special concern as a paediatrician. She had a great love for children and fought for respect for the dignity of human life. They also highlighted the faith and trust in God which characterized her life.

With God, all things are possible. Rest in peace, dear sister, and remember these little ones before the celestial throne.

[This video is not in English, but the point is clear -- much work remains to be done.]

 

"Women were pretty mean to me"

That's the experience of Annette Charles after taking the role of "Cha Cha" in Grease, which you may remember (here's a little help). Even as a teenager, I despised the movie when I first saw it in the theatres, and I have only come to dislike it more as the years pass. (It doesn't help that every year Catholic schools across the country love to perform it with younger and younger casts.)

The movie was a riot of adults behaving badly, of teenagers lacking guidance, and of vice conquering virtue. Remember, just as bad boy Danny (John Travolta) realises that he should straighten up if he wants to win the pure Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) she likewise has a change of heart (and a change of costume) and embraces her inner sleeze.

This was just one in a long string of films that proved that the straight-laced 1950's was a hot-bed of hormones just waiting to spill over (Animal House was another in this genre) and that those who weren't complete hypocrites were just morons. The frustration may have been related to the often vapid, vaguely-Christian promotion of conformity and "good behaviour" as thin gruel--more important for social order than actual imitation of Christ. There was also a near-puritanical horror of sexual urges, and if we've learned nothing else in the last ten years, it's that Jansenism is no way to form children in authentic chastity.

I may be simplifying it too much, but something caused the culture to topple, and the Protestant ethos of the public square had no ability to push back. In fact, it buckled and caved. That said, we pray for the soul of Annette Charles. This starring role put her on the map, but her destination was somewhat confused after that--as was the nation that latched onto such entertainment at an enormous cost.

 

 

She survived Hollywood

 

Sybil Jason was supposed to rival the biggest child star of her generation, but rather than an ongoing cat fight, the two little girls established a friendship that lasted until the end.

In 1935, when she was six, she was spotted in the British film Barnacle Bill by Irving Asher, then in charge of Warner Bros at Elstree. Asher telephoned Jack Warner to say: "I've seen this kid, she'll be bigger than Shirley Temple." She had a screen test and Jack Warner signed her.

Sybil Jacobson was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 23 1927. When she was two the family moved to England, where she was soon picking out tunes on the piano; at three she was impersonating Maurice Chevalier, Greta Garbo and Jeanette MacDonald on stage; at four, she was headlining at London night clubs, singing, dancing, doing impressions and playing the piano.

Her uncle, the bandleader Harry Jacobson, was also piano accompanist to Gracie Fields, and it was Gracie who was responsible for getting Sybil her first film part in London.

Once in Hollywood, Sybil was top-billed in Little Big Shot (1935), for which she sang the title song, Rolling in Money. The film bore a striking similarity to Little Miss Marker (1934), starring Shirley Temple, and was a success with critics and audiences alike.

To see some crying scenes, go here. You also might remember as Becky, the scullery maid who befriended Shirley Temple in The Little Princess. I wish we knew more about what grounded her so that she didn't become shredded by the fame machine, though WW2, which grounded her in South Africa, may have played its part. May she rest in peace.

Another curious life

Sophie Gurney was the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, and born into a very creative home. Unfortunately, it was also one where suffering was found, and not always dealt with on Christian terms. There was love, though, which she passed on generously. The vignette of her home in one brief period sounds lovely, in its own disheveled way:

After the war the family settled in Cambridge, where Mark became a lecturer in Zoology and then Senior Tutor at Trinity. Their large house in Chaucer Road overflowed with children, cousins, lodgers, friends and pupils in difficulties. Sophie was expert at looking after people, and an excellent cook. She tolerated her husband’s collection of usual and unusual pets — the lawns were mowed by vast numbers of guinea-pigs, or “poor man’s deer” as he called them.

Of course, retrospect is often coloured in sepia tones, which gently cover the trials. A life of suffering and little graces -- may God grant her rest.

"Through a mirror backwards"

What a feisty and gifted woman Mother Thekla was, and how rich her collaboration with John Tavener.

The daughter of a barrister, Mother Thekla was born Marina Sharf on July 18 1918 at Kilslovodsk in the Caucasus amid the clamour of the Russian Revolution. She described being baptised in a flower vase because her parents were prevented from getting to the church by crossfire in the streets. Shortly afterwards they moved to England and she grew up at Richmond, Surrey, before moving to Chelsea.

Educated at City of London Girls’ School, she went up to Girton College, Cambridge, to read English, graduating in 1940. The following year she joined the WAAF and spent the war working for British Intelligence, partly in India, being mentioned in despatches in 1943, although she would never be drawn on this episode in her life.

After the war she worked for a few years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Education, and later worked as a teacher, becoming head of English at Bedford Girls’ School.

Her decision to become a nun was abrupt. “I went on a retreat and met Mother Maria and that was it. I was called to it. It’s a bit like a thunderbolt. You can’t deny it when it hits you. I used to love things like visiting second-hand book shops, but you can’t compare life now with life before. It’s like walking through a mirror backwards.”

You may recognise this work by Tavener:

  

Tavener attended Athene’s funeral [a young woman killed in a cycing accident] and came away with the music fully-formed in his mind. “I rang Mother Thekla that same day,” he remembered, “and I said: 'I want words’.”

The next day’s post brought, from Thekla, the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”, together with verses from the Orthodox funeral service. Although it was retitled for the occasion, Song For Athene went on to become the music played when the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, was borne out of Westminster Abbey, in August 1997.

Mother Thekla was also Tavener’s librettist on his opera Mary Of Egypt (1992) and choral works including The Apocalypse (1993) and Fall And Resurrection (1999), which was dedicated to his friend the Prince of Wales.

Theirs was a rich friendship, and Mother Thekla's fidelity to her vocation no doubt has other fruits we'll not know while here. May she rest in peace, and those same angels bear her lightly to the throne of God. 

[For a clearer (exquisite!) rendition of the Song of Athene go here. The link above is not of good quality at all, but shows the piece in the context of the widely-telecast funeral.]

That's entertainment, folks!

Amy Winehouse was not really on my radar, though I was familiar with her name and a couple songs. Obviously, with her premature death (age 27) all the gory details are now arrayed, like the scattered bits of a fatal accident. Melanie Phillips makes some excellent points here:

• Amy had tremendous talent;
• Amy had a tremendous following;
• Amy's decline fascinated her followers;
• Amy's death induces sadness, but for the wrong reasons.

Consider this chilling quote she found:

The soap opera of her deeply dysfunctional life boosted her appeal and commercial value. Indeed, this is openly acknowledged. At the weekend, commentator India Knight wrote (after telling us all how devastated she was by the singer's death): 'And I loved that she was a bad girl with bad appetites: a breed that, with her passing, heads further into extinction.'

Even given this particular consequence of a 'bad appetite' for drugs and alcohol -- a wholly avoidable and tragic death over which she says she weeps -- Ms Knight appears actually to regret that there is now one person fewer to behave in this way.

What is this utterly perverse yearning for yet more bad behaviour and self-destruction? And doesn't such a comment itself add to the climate of indifference or even approval which makes such tragedies even more likely?

How many people make their living chronicalling these sorts of death spirals, enabling the addicts for their own personal gain? This would be because they know there's a vast audience which enjoys the show, and mimics the destruction. This Daily Mail piece provides the visual props, and a bizarre reminder of the lasting harms:

A friend of Amy Winehouse conceded after she drank herself to death on Saturday that, yes she had her problems, but ‘she never did anyone any harm’.

If only that were true. The packets of cigarettes and bottles of vodka, beer and rum left outside her home in Camden, North London, by adoring fans bear testimony to how much she affected vulnerable young people.

Along with flowers and farewell notes, this was their way of saying goodbye to a woman they worshipped and emulated — not just because she was a musical genius, but also, I suspect, because of her car-crash lifestyle.

Take from it what you will. The next generation is in free-fall, with few moral boundaries and a candy store full of vices within arms' reach. At the heart of it, there are fewer stables families, which leaves them on a bed of quicksand and few defenses. God help them, and Jesus, mercy on these sunken souls!

A "moral giant"

Although I noticed this death last month, I was remiss in commenting upon it. Readers cannot fail to be impressed by the courage of Elena Bonner, who may have actually been the driving force behind her famous husband's more visible dissidence. Cathy Young offers the details:

There was a time when moral giants walked the earth. ...A model of courage and principle, Bonner was one of my heroes from the days when I was a teenager in the Soviet Union and my parents listened to news of Sakharov and Bonner on banned foreign radio broadcasts. She was also a personal hero I had the privilege to meet: Four years ago, we had a long talk at Bonner's apartment in Brookline, Mass., when I interviewed her for a feature for The Weekly Standard.

A devoted partner to her husband, Bonner was much more than his helpmate. A former World War II army nurse, the daughter of a father executed in Stalin's purges and a mother who endured 10 years in the Gulag camps, Bonner was already active in Soviet Russia's budding human rights movement when she met Sakharov in 1970. Her influence likely helped radicalize his opposition to the Soviet regime.

After their marriage in 1972, Bonner became the Kremlin propaganda machine's scapegoat for Sakharov's scandalous fall from grace as a top Soviet scientist. She was attacked, with blatantly anti-Semitic and misogynist overtones, as a wily Zionist and a gold-digging seductress. Bonner remained unbowed. In the 1980s, she served as her husband's link to the world during his exile in the town of Gorky, until she herself was forced to share that exile.

She had been a widow since 1989, and had never flagged in her work for human rights. There was another pressing project that consumed her energies:

Among Bonner's greatest fears was that, once she was gone, the Kremlin regime would claim Sakharov as its own by recasting him as a champion of Russian nationalism and populism rather than liberal values. Her tireless work to prepare Sakharov's diaries for publication was not only a labor of love but an effort to preempt such a hijacking.

She had her rough edges, like most, and yet left a remarkable legacy. Ultimately, a "moral giant" is one who will not compromise his conscience -- no matter the stakes. May she rest in peace, and I hope her example inspires us to reflect on what we'd find worthy of such fierce tenacity.

A rollicking good life

I have no clue as to the state of her soul, but humanly speaking, she was a real pip.

Bënda grew up a considerable beauty, with long golden hair and sapphire blue eyes. She joined her father in Malaya in 1921, when his younger daughters went home, and found him fiercely protective of her: he drove off all potential suitors and placed her under the tutelage of Mrs Jean Cavendish, head of the Girl Guides and the wife of a senior Malayan civil servant. Accordingly, Bënda lived in what she called “a state of suspended sophistication.”

He never did come around to he idea of her marrying, but she had as much firm will as he did. Then of course, she found another just as bull-headed. A good read, and we pray she rests in peace.

What courage!

It's unfortunate that often we don't hear about such tremendous actions on the part of our contemporaries until they die, but better late than never:

Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne was born in London on March 15 1921 into a large Anglo-Spanish family which moved to France during the interwar years; she was thus brought up speaking French. When France fell the Nearnes fled through Spain, eventually arriving in England in mid-1942. Eileen Nearne and her older sister, Jacqueline, joined the FANY, but their language skills were highly prized and later they and their brother, Francis, were recruited by SOE.

At first Didi worked as a home-based signals operator, receiving messages from agents in the field, while Jacqueline was sent to France to work as a courier; both girls were supposed to keep their roles secret from one another, but were unsuccessful.

Then, on March 2 1944, Didi Nearne was also dropped into occupied France with her organiser, a Frenchman, Jean Savy. On landing she was greeted by two Frenchmen, who exclaimed: "Oh, a young girl. Go back, it's too dangerous!"

Using the code name "Rose", she was given the mission of helping Savy set up a network in Paris called "Wizard"; its aim, unlike the networks dedicated to sabotage, was to organise sources of finance for the Resistance. Didi Nearne's role was to maintain a wireless link to London, and in the course of the next five months she transmitted 105 messages.

The obituary offers great detail concerning her dangerous work amidst triangulation, which brought the Germans closer and closer to her ever shifting operations. Ultimately she was caught, and interned at Ravensbrück where she underwent torture -- but she never revealed compromising information. From there she was sent to perform forced labour until the arrival of American troops.

Didi Nearne lapsed into unconsciousness for several days and awoke to the sound of gunfire. Peering out, she saw white flags everywhere, and when American troops stormed into the church she tried to explain that she was a British agent. The incredulous Americans reported that she was unbalanced and her story invented; but London confirmed her story, and within a few weeks she was back in England.

Didi Nearne was one of only a handful of British agents to have survived Ravensbrück but her experiences marked her profoundly, and after the war she often had to live in the care of her sister. She painted violent pictures as a way of exorcising her time as a German prisoner. She trained as a nurse, and at one stage tried to find a job as a radio operator.

She indicates that she maintained a strong Catholic faith, despite the hardships. May she find peace in God's eternal embrace after working so hard to free Europe from that totalitarianism threat.