Early on in Genesis, God gets in a huff and threatens to destroy the city of Sodom, which had an unusually bad reputation even for those times.

   

The McDonald Sisters

Abraham, who has an inside track with God, but is wary nonetheless, screws up his courage and begins to plea for the city. “Far be it from thee,” he says, “to slay the righteous with the wicked! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

    This gets God’s attention and Abraham asks for clemency. If there be 50 righteous in the place would God spare the city? God answers he would. Abraham pushes, what about 40? 30? Finally he gets the number down to 10 good souls and decides to go no further when God accedes that he wouldn’t wreak the havoc he had intended in that case.

    All of which, if history is any indicator, leads up to the fact that we in these parts can sleep easy because in our midst are four good women: the sisters McDonald: Rita, Kate, Brigid and Jane.

    Four Sisters For Peace is a homemade video, shown at the Bell Museum last Thursday night, that lets the goodness of these sisters, both in blood and as St. Joseph nuns, shine through its sometimes clumsy production. This imperfection is soon overlooked when we realize that young students at the South Side Family grade school made the video and star in it along with the McDonalds.

    In the film, we see the sisters coming back to their farm home for visits in full nun regalia, not as conventional religious figures, but, despite their dress, as vibrant young women laughing, dancing and singing. They are shown thoroughly enjoying their numerous siblings, nieces and nephews along with their mother and father on the farm.

    “There wasn’t much talk about religion in our home when we were growing up,” says Brigid(right), “but what I do remember is that Father was always there with his team of horses to pull a neighbor out of a ditch when that was needed. And Mother never turned away anyone who was hungry or needed any kind of help.”

    In the video the sisters are talking directly to young people in the room. They tell about their lives, their values, the things that are most important to them, and it’s obvious that the children are taking it all in. You can see the admiration for these remarkable women reflected in the faces of their audience. 

    At one point Brigid tells of being put in jail. Not so swell, she indicates. Then hurries on to say that the longest she had been in was 3 days. She knows some, she says, who have served 6 months. She confesses she doesn’t know how she would handle that.

    If you’ve ever been to a demonstration of any kind in the Twin Cities, or beyond, in the last 36 years or so, it would be rare not to find these four there. Over the years they have been found regularly on the Franklin Avenue bridge Wednesday afternoons, protesting the sanctions in Iraq. In every recent protest against the present war they were there. Civil disobedience is their protest of choice. They call it civil obedience, and they do it with flair, evident in the homemade peace signs they carry. One button they wear says, “Rated R For Rebellious.”  

    They are prominent in speaking out and demonstrating against Alliant Tech, a local company that manufactures land mines for export.   

  They were among the crowd more than once that protested and were successful in closing the School of the Americas in  Georgia, a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Unfortunately it has reopened under a new name - the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - with the same purpose. Its detractors call the place a “terrorist training camp.” On November 22nd thousands gathered in Georgia to stand up against such a place on U.S. soil. It’s a sure bet that the McDonald sisters will be there.

Jo Welch-Youngren worked with Harvey Egan in the early days of St. Joan of Arc. At that time she, Cy and Joan Speltz, Nancy Anderson, Darlene Arbuckle, Ferry Deslauriers, and John McGowan made up the staff. We all pitched in and did everything that needed doing and had a ball every day. Jo’s first husband, Jack Welch, was buried from St. Joan’s in 1980. Later she married Dave Youngren, moved to New Mexico, then returned to her roots. Now she and Dave sit on the left side center at the 9:00 o’clock Mass on Sundays and love every minute of it. Jo can be reached at JYoundave@aol.com.

    The sisters are all aging now, but the same spirit of love that took hold of them when they made their first vows, is still there. They have spent their lives walking the talk, and it shows. Lucky us. If someone like Abraham - Paul Wellstone? - pleads for us when we fall further over the line from grace - he can point to the McDonald sisters and chances are we’ll all be spared.