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Conversations: Julie Madden- Peace and Justice/Pastoral Ministry Coordinator

(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 verbal snapshots are conversations between two people is which the person being interviewed willingly shares the ups, downs, reflections and life lessons with you the reader. We hope that you enjoy these conversations and that something said or written, is helpful to you.)

“Meet me at Amodyne on 43rd and Nicollet. Look for someone who looks something like Angela Lansbury in her late 30’s.” That was my introduction to Julie Madden, St. Joan of Arc’s newest Peace and Justice/Pastoral Ministry Coordinator. The title alone is awesome but Julie wears it well. She not only carries the title well; she captivates, recruits and validates you as she talks. Julie admits to being an extrovert and she is seldom lost for action verbs. We sat down at 12:30 and stood up at 3:00 for an agreed hour interview. In the end she bought me a cookie to kick my energy back up. My carefully crafted questions only served to re-ignite her passions. This is a woman who can quote scripture, theatre scripts, and old movie casts in the same sentence. It was five minutes or less into the interview when I was made aware that Julie Madden has literally walked on and off a lot of stages. Some of them were theater and some of them were life.

We all arrive somewhere and Julie was born in Chicago but by nine her parents moved to Montana. High school had honed her skills in speech, drama, and music. The University of Montana earned her a degree in acting and directing, what else!

Dancing at Family Camp

This woman knows how to deliver great lines and she summed up the first twenty years by saying, “When you are in your early twenties, you really need to go somewhere and re-invent yourself.” Julie selected the Castro district in San Francisco for her new life try-outs and she paid her dues waiting table, temp work, and of course a stint as a singing telegram girl. As she says “ I was sitting on a city bus in a gorilla suit one day when I had this epiphany, this definitely was not Broadway.“

Back to auditions she landed a job with Disney World working as a performer on Pleasure Island Comedy Warehouse. She met her husband Michael along the way and then delivering another great line, she said, “ We went together for a year, we didn’t go together for a year, then we went together for a year, but laughingly said “That is another interview.” Minneapolis was Michael’s hometown and so a job opportunity for brought them back here and Julie took a clerical job with Minneapolis Catholic Charities. She auditioned her way into becoming a case manager for Charities and for six years she experienced a lot of people who didn't have a make believe life. When St. Joan’s advertised for a Peace and Justice Coordinator, Julie was ready. When I asked her what her closing line of her job interview was, she did it again with, “ You are not going to get a great opportunity like this very often.” and as I listened to her wonderful answers to the rest of my questions, I knew she was dead right.

One of my initial questions was what her reaction would be if 10 years ago someone told her she would be working in a contemporary Catholic parish in South Minneapolis as a Peace and Justice coordinator. That brought laughter and the announcement that 10 years ago she was working for Disney as a comedy performer, now it’s St. Joan’s, put that together! I asked her to finish the sentence, “Today’s women are.....” She simply said, “Tired.” Then she elaborated by talking about all the options women have but so many of the options require so much more energy and time. Who in your life really changed you? I asked. “My eight year old son. When you have a child, any illusions you have about being a star of your own life are gone.” Then there was a pause in the conversation and she looked at me and said, “Of course my son changed me, children just do that, but there was a woman client of mine at Catholic Charities who also changed me. She was a welfare mother and she shattered my conceptions about women on welfare. She was not what some of our politicians want us to believe. This wonderful woman taught me about dignity and strength and the real meaning of survival. Christ was so right on when he talked so much about the poor. My job was to help her, but in the end it was the other way around. This wonderful woman was gospel, she helped me understand scripture.”

There were more questions and more answers. When I asked where she drew her strength from, the answer again was one word. “Relationships.” What is your core belief from which all else springs? “I do believe in the unconditional love of God and in unconditional forgiveness. I really don’t think God wants us to spend too much time in self-measurement, self-analysis, we should spend our time in the community of mankind. I think the gospel is about our on-going need to help and support one another. She thought for a minute and then she said, “ I want to go back to that question you asked me about who changed me. There is this woman who mentored me at Catholic Charities and she has mentored so many others. She showed me how to see the big picture, she knew the right questions to ask and she inspired me to want to do this kind of work. I smiled because I knew she could only be talking about one person, Mary Morris. When I mentioned Mary’s name, Julie became even more alive and animated. “You know Mary Morris?” We laughed about the reality of the six degrees of separation but Julie had made her point. Her carefully chosen relationships in life had served her well.

Julie talked about her passion for St. Joan of Arc. I listened as she recited the litany of what she wants to do . She wants to catalog all the diverse ministries people in St. Joan’s are involved in. She has a passion about affordable housing , for the rights of those on welfare. She is concerned about our need to reach out to the increasing Spanish speaking population. There is Guatemala and South Africa. The list grew longer, but I knew that maybe others would come forth with blueprints and plans for doing this or that, Julie Madden would breath energy and great sense of mission into anything or anyone she comes in contact with. As she was putting on her coat and buying me my cookie, she looked at me and said, “ You know what we have been talking about making life work and making a difference, I really think is all about just showing up.”

Julie Madden was interviewed on November 30, 2000 by Chuck MacDonald

Chuck MacDonald and his wife, Beth are parishioners at St. Joan of Arc. Beth is director of a Montessori school. Chuck describes himself as a volunteer activist.

Becka Watry stumbled across SJA in late 1996 4 blocks from her new home. Becka says, "I had been displeased with our church experience, stuck around awhile in hope to be part of change, and then left it for the Methodist faith vowing to return when my kids drew near the teen years. With SJA so close, we gave it a try, and found Saturday evening Mass to be everything we had hoped for! It was so family friendly. In the fall of 1998 we were ready to join the church, and I became a Sunday School Teacher. We found Sunday Mass to be even more dynamic. I continue to teach Sunday School, and help out with Camp StJoans, 1st Communion, and Family Camp. Thanks SJA!"