What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.
Conversations: Marie Braun: A Bridge for Peace
(The following article is an interview with a member of St. Joan of Arc parish. The primary purpose of the interview is to allow a parishioner an opportunity to share some part of their story or journey. These written snapshots are conversations between two people in which the person being interviewed willingly shares their ups, downs, reflections and life lessons with you the reader. We hope that you enjoy these conversations and that they are helpful to you on the journey. - C. MacDonald)
There is a bridge that crosses the Mississippi and it is called The Lake Street Bridge or The Marshall Street Bridge, depending on your sense of direction. (Actually for historical accuracy, in 1991 when the bridge was opened it was named the Sri Chimmoy Peace Bridge and dedicated to the goals of peace and goodwill amongst peoples and nations.)
 |
| The PeaceBridge Photo courtesy of CircleVision.org |
exchange with someone who knows well the church’s social justice encyclicals. When Marie starts to site facts and figures, you instinctively know you are listening to a true disciple of social justice.
“Each month, 5000 Iraq children die of sickness or malnutrition. To date, one million Iraqi civilians, mostly children, have died because of our government’s sanctions. This is wrong, this is not justice,” says Marie. Convincing, dedicated, and determined to use this time of her life to grow and to make changes, Marie stands firm in her well-practiced beliefs. “I grew up always understanding what I must do as a Christian is address the issues of peace and justice; my parents gave me that. Most churches preach Christ’s charity but don’t necessarily teach Christ’s message on the need to change the injustices of society. I am a person who believes in that part of scripture that speaks strongly to the need of systematic change for peace and justice.”
Much of Marie Braun’s personal time is spent committed to the Twin Cities Campaign to Lift Sanctions in Iraq, but she is also active in Pax Christi, a Catholic peace group, and she is connected to Woman Against Military Madness, the Global Peace Force, and the Peace and Justice Street Theatre. So where does a retired woman get her zeal and energy? I asked her that question and she stated simply that it came from her Irish father and maybe her Dutch mother, but mostly her father. He was working in South St. Paul stockyards in the 1930’s and was involved in the historic workers’ strikes and protests of that period. He then decided to try his hand at farming. He was a tenant farmer the rest of his life and they moved around Minnesota, Good Thunder, outside of New Ulm, Randall, near Little Falls. Raised on a farm and on her parents’ beliefs in justice, Marie knew about hard work and the principles of fairness. She was the second oldest of seven. When she finished high school, she went to Mankato for six months to commercial college and then started to work in a law office. She said farm kids had to support themselves right out of high school but she always found jobs in towns near her parent’s farm so she could stay close to her family.
When Marie wasn’t working or helping her family she devoted her free time and energies to a group known as the Young Christian Worker. Her interest in this group movement helps to explain part of Marie’s dedication. The Young Christian Worker movement was an idea of Joseph Cardijn, a Belgium priest. Cardijn was shocked to see the alienation and abyss that existed between the church and the workers. He set out to work with young people. Marie, like others who joined this movement, learned to see the facts of their everyday lives, to judge them in the light of the gospel and Catholic social teachings, to act on their new insights, and to try to change and transform their immediate surroundings as well as the larger society.
At twenty-six there can be a loss of idealism; Marie took her idealism to Chicago. For three years she worked at the national office of the Young Christian Workers. When she left, Marie worked for the International Catholic Auxiliaries, a training center for women interested in working in 3rd world countries. Those who know about social justice movements of the 50’s and 60’s know that much of the energy and leadership came out of the Chicago area. Marie listened to Martin Luther King, Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, the young Ralph Nader. “You know” she said, “When I was growing up there wasn’t much emphasis placed on reading scriptures but early on I was exposed to the social teachings of the church and that has always stuck with me. The Church has written some great social justice documents but we don’t seem to pay much attention to them.”
For eleven years Marie Braun was part of the Chicago social justice scene. She went home for visits to see family and friends and friends came to Chicago to learn and visit Marie. One such visitor was John Braun, at that time a priest from the diocese of St. Cloud. In 1972 they were married. Marie was thirty-seven. They stayed on in Chicago and Marie went to the University of Chicago and worked for HUD. They decided to come back to Minnesota. Marie started working on her masters degree. She had a daughter and they adopted a son from Korea. Armed with a Masters in Social Work, she and John opened their mental health clinic in Brooklyn Park but Marie always kept connected to issues of peace and social justice. Shortly after returning from Chicago, she became connected to the Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam and then became very active in Women Against Military Madness. Her training in Chicago had prepared her for the social and moral struggles of the day...... “Once the passion for revolutionary change is aroused - a passion long disturbing governments - it was bound to follow sooner or later that eagerness for change would pass from the political sphere over into related fields. (Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum - May, 1891).”
People like Marie might make us uncomfortable. They see the logic of the gospel and they try to follow it. When I asked about gender issues, she dismissed the idea almost as if to say, being a woman didn’t change for me what I knew I had to do. There are children dying, there are people suffering. I must do what I can to challenge the system. When we discussed church, she said simply, “We go to St. Joan’s because, well, it helps. My tradition is Christian so I follow it but I know that there are many ways to God. I believe I must live my faith by what I do with my life. There is a spark seen in some. You find it in the faces of staff at the Catholic Worker Houses, in the social outreach centers along Franklin Ave, and you can find it any Wednesday afternoon on the Lake Street Bridge, and it is all about the same thing. It is in the words of the Sermon on the Mount and the writings of Pope John XXIII..... “Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. Indeed, precisely because he is a person he has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from his very name. And as these rights and obligations are universal and inviolable so they cannot in any way be surrendered. (Pacem in Terris - April 11, 1963 ).”
 |
 |
 |
 |
For further information on Peace and Justice activities go to www.circlevision.org.
Marie Braun was interviewed on February 6, 2001 by Chuck MacDonald/chuckmacdonald@uswest.net