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| Catherine with pupils in Chinsapo, Malawi, 2014 |
Catherine Booth was born in Manchester, in
the North of England. First she met MSOLA in Malawi in 1972 when she was a
young teacher. In 1975 she joined the Congregation. A teacher, a novice
mistress, regional in the United Kingdom, a very warm person, always very well
organized and ready to help.
Ania Wojcik: Catherine can you tell me about your best experience with the
MSOLA Congregation? Recall a time when you felt most alive, most involved,
spiritually touched, or most excited about your involvement. Tell me about this
memorable experience that you have had with in MSOLA.
Catherine: It was at the beginning of 1990 when I was
in Salima (Malawi). I was teaching already for 3 years. I was always enjoying
teaching because it opens young people to so many possibilities. At that time I
was asked to accompany 2 aspirants and a sister and because the school
programme was very full, it was suggested to me that I will stop teaching and
that I will look around to find something else. One of our parishioners said,
that we are now in pandemic of AIDS and there are so many people in need and
there is no one who can go and see them in a hospital. At that time church was
not so much concerned about it. Already at school I had tried to promote
awareness by getting medical people to talk with students about the problem. So
I started to go to TB ward, trying to pray in Chichewa, to talk with the
patients and their carers and then I invited some women from our parish to come
too. It opened new world to me, the situation of the people, being with them.
It is there, that I met people from other dominations and they were the ones
who told me, that their pastors don’t come to see them. I went to the pastors
and I told them that the sick are waiting for them. A few women from the
Anglican parish joined our group of women
who were visiting the hospital. I went to the mosque as well. Through
this the pastors became to know one another. It was beyond catholic world. It
raised awareness. I was excited. I was encouraged even to apply for a pastoral
training in Ireland but after the Tertianship my life changed direction- I
became a formatter.
Ania: Were you not afraid
to visit the sick?
Catherine: No. I wasn’t because of my previous
personal experience with my elder sister who was very sick.
Ania: Did you talk with the
patients about AIDS or was it rather a taboo?
Catherine: It was general sharing, how they were,
sharing news, they were asking me: “Please pray for me”. I talked about AIDS
with the SCC of the medical staff, who I knew very well, but not with patients;
sometimes they said it was what they had, but not always. I remember that I had a very good film “The
life of Jesus”, someone translated it in Chichewa. At Easter I suggested that
we could watch it, just to remind them what is Easter about.
Ania: How long did you live this experience?
Catherine: It was a bit more that 2 years.
Ania: What was the biggest lesson which you learned from the
experience?
Catherine: That people are willing to work together.
There is goodness in people; they have a desire to help one another.
Ania: Now, what are the things you value deeply about MSOLA? When you
feel best about being a MSOLA, what about yourself do you value?
Catherine: The thing which I value deeply about MSOLA
is what first attracted me to our Congregation when I was a lay missionary with
my friend. It’s our whole way of living – and especially our internationality
and simplicity. Being in an international community pushes us to try to
understand one another and I think that’s a big thing in today’s world. Why do
we have all the wars in the world? We fear one another, people don’t try to
understand, they just fight to defend what they think. When I was a young
sister once I asked: Why we don’t call ourselves just White Sisters Limited? We
– like everyone else are limited. It is God who puts something good in us. It
is a constant invitation to go beyond. To keep on going, trying, to go out, to
understand. If we stop trying, what do we offer to our world?
I was also attracted by our sisters’ simple life style
and easy relationships when in the Congregation which my friend joined they
were calling each other ‘Sister’ and talked about ‘Mother General’. I also see
that it’s this simplicity that enables our sisters to go out to other people.
Ania: What is the single most important thing that MSOLA has
contributed to your life?
Catherine: The Congregation gave me a chance to
reflect on what I have just shared with you and to try to live it very
practically. We need to keep on adapting and not in staying in criticizing and
judging.
Ania: What do you think is the core value of MSOLA? What values give
life to the Congregation? What is it that, if it did not exist, would make
MSOLA totally different than it currently is?
Catherine: Being initiators is one core value and I
see it makes us different. Local Congregations have schools, hospitals - it is
theirs. We have to trust people, to train them, to prepare. It is connected
with simplicity. Our experiences say that sometimes things don’t go well but we
still need to trust.
Ania: As a final professed sister, who have so many experiences which
wisdom, advice can you share with me?
Catherine: Be sincere to what is going on inside you,
to what is best in you, because that’s where God is. As you went so far
in joining us, becoming a sister to continue to listen to and to understand
what is inside you, to live what God is inviting you to live. Then things can’t
go wrong, because we know and we feel what is true
to our deepest selves.
Ania: And at the end: How would you describe yourselves in few words
as MSOLA?
Catherine: I would say I’m still a MSOLA who is
enthused by God’s call to me and us in our Congregation and I’m still trying to
live it and want to keep on trying because it gives me life.
Ania: Thank you very much Catherine for your
sharing and the time which you have given to me.
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| Malawi community 2015, Catherine first on the left. |
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