Summer Universities, World Conventions, Refresher Seminars, Awards

Celebrating initiatives of bridging the world and formation

Networking, respect for all irrespective of all differences, exposures, encounters with realities, cultures and lives, acquiring better world perspectives, knowledge and wisdom

Tough economic times in U.S. newspapering -- Christian newspapering included -- have reduced my direct involvement in the World Organisation, so I doubt I'll be in Rome in December 2008. But I am proud to maintain my membership in the World Organisation. Oh, I wish I were still a "young" Christian journalist again!

But the Summer University experience opened my eyes to the rest of the world and its possibilities. I was lucky enough to participate in the three world congresses of the 1990s. There, I met people whose friendship I value to this day. I'll even e-mail them news features I've read in the Washington Post or the New York Times to alert them how well-read Americans may regard their country and its customs.

Two days before I wrote this, I was in Minneapolis for a conference on media reform (the secular version of the Pontifical Council on Social Communication's "Renewing the Mind of the Media"). One panelist hailed from Kenya and spoke about women's rights. After the presentation, I approached her and the first question I asked was: "I know two journalists from Kenya. One is Vivian Charity Simwa," which elicited a blank stare from the speaker, "and the other is Juliana Omale." "Oh! She
works in my organization!" replied the panelist. We chatted like old friends after that, exchanged business cards, and issued oaths to each other to contact each other -- and Juliana -- once we returned to our respective homes. That would not have been possible had it not been for Organisation, the Summer University and the International Network of Young Journalists.

Virtually all of the Christmas cards I send outside the U.S.A. (and a few within the U.S.A.) are to people I've met through the International Network of Young Journalists and my 1991 Summer University experience in India and Pakistan. If you weren't there, the stories I could try to tell you could bore you rather than entertain you. But for those of us who were there, it's still hard to forget things like "Ilu, Ilu," the boy "Patna," the poem "Swagathaam," the camel rides on the Arabian Sea, the long bus rides in southern India, the guitar pass-around party in the Karachi convent, the unexpected day at Kovalom Beach, and meeting Mother Teresa.

Another rewarding time came 10 years after my Summer University, when my wife and I hosted the two eldest children of Santiago Farrell, another 1991 trip participant, as exchange students for one month. It was easier than I thought to open our homes and hearts to these two fine children. Santi is now a learned young man behind hair longer (and guitar fretwork
faster) than I'll ever have, and Julia -- who, because of her difficulties with English, once ran from the dinner table sobbing out of homesickness -- is now studying to be a translator and interpreter.

In short, the World Organisation makes the world smaller, but our perspective larger.