IGF050 In Good Faith with Sister Dusty Farnan, United Nations Representative

Sister Maxine  
This is In Good Faith, a conversation about the experience of living faith in everyday life. I'm Sister Maxine, and my guest is Sister Durstyne Farnan, representative to the United Nations for the Dominican Sisters Conference, an organization of Dominicans across the country. At the UN, where the world's nations work together on global problems and solutions, Sister Durstyne gives voice to the Dominican perspective on issues such as homelessness, the rights of women and girls, and the impact of mining and deforestation in the Amazon region. The perspective draws on the experience of Dominicans, minister on every continent in the world, with local people who are directly affected by the issues. Before the United Nations, Sister Durstyne, or Sister Dusty, as she is known, served for over 15 years in peace and justice ministry for religious congregations, including hers, the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Earlier she served in formation ministry for her congregation in Ghana and Kenya, and in Michigan. Sister Dusty joins me today from New York, where the headquarters of the United Nations are based. Welcome to In Good Faith, Sister Dusty.

Sister Dusty  
Thank you, Sister Max, it's great to be with you. And to your listeners--so glad that we have this opportunity today.

Sister Maxine  
Sister Dusty, your work at the United Nations seems like a natural extension of your earlier work in peace and justice. But the seeds of your commitment to peace and justice took root much sooner than that. But before we talk about the UN, let's talk about the journey that brought you here. Were peace and justice concerns part of your upbringing? Did your parents influence or encourage you in that regard? Could you tell me a little bit about them?

Sister Dusty  
My mother was a psychiatric nurse, and my father owned a bar. So I guess you would say my father was quite the listener where he worked. But my mom always tried to teach us about difference. And when we were children, we had foster children in our home. By "difference," I mean these little children weren't even able to know how to use a fork and a spoon or how to use the toilet. And one of the young girls was Native American; they had been living in the car for several months. And this young child was also burned in a fire, and her name was Karen. My mother taught us how to care for Karen and talk with her and get her wig and get her little dusters for her head. So I guess in a way, you know, I would say mental health was also another way in which my parents introduced all of us children to, and as a result, all of my siblings are involved in healthcare or in childcare of some form or another. So I guess that would be one way in which I entered into the whole arena of justice and peace, and worked in mental health myself, as well as overseas, for many years.

Sister Maxine  
As you reflect back on that experience now, Dusty, is there one main thing that you learned from that that continues to inform your life today, as you now have had years of peace and justice work?

Sister Dusty  
Yes, I think in light of today, and what's happening in our world, in trying to understand racism, I would say that was a big learning from my mother. Yeah.

Sister Maxine  
Your parents sound like a wonderful, and an unusual combination.

Sister Dusty  
Unusual in a way, because my father didn't even get to finish high school. And my mother went on to college, which was so different. And they're from different parts of the world. My father was, as my grandmother would say, a damn Yankee from Indiana, and my mom was from the South, from Atlanta, Georgia.

Sister Maxine  
How did they meet, just out of curiosity?

Sister Dusty  
Well in one way, it's kind of one of those romantic stories that would be good somebody would write about. My father was a bellhop in a little hotel in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And it just so happened that my grandmother, her mother decided she was going to start selling encyclopedias. That was another era for sure. But my mother accompanied her to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and my father was the bellhop and that was the beginning. My father went on to the war, and when he came home, they got married then.

Sister Maxine  
It's a wonderful story. Now, how many siblings do you have?

Sister Dusty  
We're four girls. I'm the eldest of four children. And there's quite a spread between myself and the youngest, which is 15 years.

Sister Maxine  
And did you grow up in Indiana?

Sister Dusty  
No, I'm from St. Joseph, Michigan, otherwise known in Michigan as the Twin Cities. My father had an opportunity when he came out of the war to go work for someone in St. Joe's, so he took it. I don't believe either one of them had ever been to Michigan before. But that's what happened.

Sister Maxine  
And then, as you were growing up, at what point did you meet the Adrian Dominican Sisters?

Sister Dusty  
Well, I met them pretty early on in my life. My entire education from grades one through 12 was in St. Joseph Catholic School in St. Joseph, Michigan, where I had Adrian Dominicans my entire life.

Sister Maxine  
So when you met them, and you were in school, were you like, "Oh my gosh, I sense a call to join the Adrian Dominicans?"

Sister Dusty  
No. [laughter] Wonderful women. And I loved--like most kids in that era, who stayed after school, you know, to erase the board and to straighten out things and clean up and all of that for sister--I really enjoy hanging out. I only lived a couple of blocks from the school. Wonderful women, but I never thought seriously about being a sister, until I graduated from high school and went to college for a year. And one of my classmates chose religious life and she entered and then I went for her reception as a novice, and completely was enamored and inspired, and could not get her ceremony out of my head, or my heart. And so the next thing I knew, I talked to my family and talked to the sisters. And I started to write for an application to the Adrian Dominican Sisters, where I've been now for 56 years.

Sister Maxine  
As you reflect back on some of the roots of your commitment to peace and justice, dd you recognize in them a kindred spirit?

Sister Dusty  
Well, what I recognized in the sisters was this incredible joy that they had, and this incredible ability to relate to whoever was in front of them. You know, they supported everything we did as kids in those days. Although they couldn't go to the basketball games, the content was across the street, and they went up to the top of the floor--like the fourth floor--and looked out the window to see at least the scoreboard to see how we were doing in basketball. Or the kids would go over to the sisters and be with them after the game, and they would support them on how they were doing with football. But I didn't think immediately that I would become a sister. I always thought I was going to be a mother of 12 children with 12 different names--international names. That's what I thought.

Sister Maxine  
Why 12 different international names?

Sister Dusty  
Well, you know, when I was in high school, we had exchange students, so we've had different people in our family come and go. My sister Barb, next to me and age, one of the exchange students has remained in her life all these years, since high school. Marbella Contreras, from Mexico. Such a wonderful woman. And so my sister Barb has continued to be in relationship with her and went to the birth of some of her children and the marriage of some of her children, and they've gone on vacation together. So I would say, you know, as a kid in high school, I was exposed to different cultures, and always loved the experience. That's probably how I got the whole idea of having children with different names. Well, I've been to many countries as a result, but never had any children.

Sister Maxine  
When you finally did feel called to Dominican life and took those first steps, what ministry was the first that you did as an Adrian Dominican?

Sister Dusty  
At that time, almost every Adrian Dominican sister wasn't a formal educator. So I taught first grade for three years. And then I taught junior high for a year. Then I was sent to Barry University in Miami--I had one year to complete my degree. So that was my introduction to teaching.

Sister Maxine  
And then, in addition to teaching, over the years, you've also done a fair amount of work in formation ministry--n African countries as well as in the US. Can you describe what the role of a formation minister involves?

Sister Dusty  
Yeah, thank you for that question. That's an important question, because it was a significant part of my life. It involved working with African sisters, my first experience with formation work in Ghana, West Africa in the north. And then in Kenya, East Africa. And the experiences were different in both countries, because the young women that were in Ghana probably completed maybe high school, and so needed more instruction. So that kind of formation work was primarily getting them up to speed for ministry. So I taught English, and I taught scripture in Ghana. And then in Kenya, we had the wonderful task of working with the young sisters, who were already professed, to help create an ongoing formation year experience for the young professed. And that was a lot of fun, because I got a chance to go to all of the missions of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi, to just see where the sisters were living and what kind of work were they being called to. And so what would that mean, from a formation perspective? What background would they really need in order to really be professional women, but also just increase their faith and experience. So I did a lot in the area of liturgy with these younger sisters. And that was so exciting, because that was still the early 70s, not so long after Vatican two. So inserting these young women in that. And then when I came back to the United States, I decided to go on for my master's in social work. After several years in justice work, my congregation asked me to become vocation director for the congregation. And that was meeting young women in various places in the country and exploring, talking with them about trying to find out what was their life going to be in the future? What were they thinking about? What were they being called to? And how would the Dominican charism, in some way, facilitate their call, and actually fit who they were? And then how they fit the charism of the order.

Sister Maxine  
In terms of the vocation ministry, it is a vocation to religious life as an Adrian Dominican, but it might be more broadly vocation writ large.

Sister Dusty  
Yes. And in fact, I would say that was a lot of the work in those days. And that was wonderful, because it was helping women explore their gifts and their talents, and how they might use those for the benefit of others, not just for themselves--but what were they going to bring to other people from a faith perspective? And also to learn about the Dominican charism. And how would that really help these young women in their own understanding of what God might be calling them to, whether that's to religious life--or was it to further study? Or was it to a relationship with another person? So it was very exciting. And it was challenging, because, you know, you're called to be the vocation director, hoping that maybe you might work with someone to come into the congregation. But frequently it led to other paths that these young women ended up exploring.

Sister Maxine  
As you reflect on that through, let's say, the lens of peace and justice, would you say that, that work carried, for you, a spirit of peace and justice? Maybe not in a in a way that people would consider typically peace and justice or overtly peace and justice? What would be the peace and justice elements in that kind of ministry?

Sister Dusty  
Well, that's a really good question, Sister Maxine. I think it's when you are at peace with yourself, then you can be a peacemaker, regardless of what you choose to do, whether it's as a sister or it's as a social worker, a lawyer, an artist. Yeah, the role of peacemaker was an important aspect. The other thing about that: the opportunity to be engaged with people in other cultures was another way in which I could work with young women. Because young women were looking for another way to explore their gifts and talents and in a different place, or in a different culture. And many of the young women that I've worked with were actually from different cultures themselves. And so that experience of having been in another culture, or two or three, actually assisted me in the vocation work, because it made me sensitive to the possibility that these young women were exploring how they might use their cultural background for the benefit of others.

Sister Maxine  
When you talk about the different cultural backgrounds and different geographies, of course you know, as an Adrian Dominican, the Dominican family is pretty much everywhere around the globe, isn't it?

Sister Dusty  
Yes, we're in 120 countries in the world.

Sister Maxine  
 What is the spirit that makes you a family--a Dominican family?

Sister Dusty  
Well, several years ago, one of the master generals of the order began to use the term Dominican family. And I think what it was, was to try to connect us to one another around the globe. And so we have within the order a lot of laity--probably that's the largest group of Dominicans in the in the order, are laity. And then we have the friars, and then we have the sisters and the nuns. Now, many congregations in the United States have associates as well. So these are all people who identify with the charism. And so the term "family" just seemed like a natural way to identify who we were together, rather than who we were separately, so that we would begin to do our work together. And then, as you may know, during the time I was International Justice Promoter for the North American Dominicans, we had the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And then we coined a phrase from the Master General of the order at the time--who was Timothy Radcliffe--said to us, "What are you Dominicans in the United States going to do about this?" And then we began to explore the whole concept of family. And the next thing we adopted was we have family in Iraq. And now we know we have family all over the world. And that's a way in which we connected with our Dominican Sisters there, particularly from 2003 to 2015.

Sister Maxine  
When you talk about the Dominican family, and the spirit of that if you were to describe the Dominican charism--and I know there's a lot of different ways to talk about charism--how would you describe that?

Sister Dusty  
Well, very simply, the word "veritas" or "truth" is probably the most important thing about Dominicans. And we are preachers. And that means no matter what our ministry is, we are to be about the gospel, preaching it or teaching it. Living it. And sharing it with others that we meet. The word for us, "veritas," which is "truth," is extremely important to Dominicans. You might say Dominicans are fanatics about words, not only the gospel word, but words! And therefore it's important for us to seek the truth. And that means that we really study, and that's a big part of our charism as well: to study events, people, places, issues, in a way that we're always trying to see, is there another side to the truth of this story, or this experience, or this happening in the world? So for Dominicans, it's really the search for truth. And that takes a certain amount of humility, actually, to search for truth, because, you know, I might be wrong. And so therefore, how do we then search together for what really is true in whatever situation we're looking at?

Sister Maxine  
We're going to pause for a brief break. This is In Good Faith, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors and individual donors like you, whose support makes the In Good Faith program possible. We'd love to hear from you. And your input helps us create the podcasts that you enjoy. Would you please take just a couple of minutes after the podcast to fill out a short survey? You can click on the link in the Episode Notes. We'd be very grateful.

Welcome back. This is Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry and my guest, Sister Dusty Farnan. Sister Dusty, part of the Dominican family also includes the Dominican Sisters Conference, whom you represent at the United Nations. Can you describe what the conference is and what its overall purposes?

Sister Dusty  
Yes, thank you. The Dominican Sisters conference is an opportunity, in this case, for all the Dominican women in the United States, as well as associate women to have a place, if you will, where people belong, and an opportunity to explore a variety of issues, particularly from the perspective of justice and from the perspective of truth. The conference is a way to help unite Dominicans in the United States, and every few years to actually bring together all of the sisters into a conference to strengthen the bonds between all of us. There are 19 Dominican congregations that belong to the Dominican Sisters conference. There are other Dominicans who are apostolic women, but who are not in the conference, and they've chosen that for a variety of reasons. But it is an opportunity for all of us to feel a certain unity as well as bonding to one another so that we might continue the preaching of truth.

Sister Maxine  
Your work for the Dominican Sisters Conference, your work at the UN, began in October 2019. And I understand there's part of a Dominican tradition at the UN as well.

Sister Dusty  
We've been here at the UN through the status of initially to the Department of Public Information, which now has changed its name. And we became accredited as ECOSOC, which means that we are able to give voice and print writing statements and sending them to the General Assembly through different working groups that we belong to here at the UN. So I am the third director of this organization. Sister Eileen Gannon from Sparkhill was the first fabulous woman, very inspiring woman, followed by Sister Margaret Mace, who is now leading the Dominicans worldwide, in Rome, through the Dominican Sisters International Confederation.

Sister Maxine  
At the UN, as the representative for the Dominican Sisters conference, what is the goal of your work as related to the goal of the conference?

Sister Dusty  
My goal is to assist Dominican women in bringing their voice to the UN on behalf of civil society. On behalf of the regular folks, like all of us here listening to this podcast, we are trying to represent some of the issues that Dominicans worldwide are really concerned about, such as climate, such as nuclear weapons, such as homelessness, the extraction from indigenous areas, particularly in the Amazon, mining extractions. These are just some of the issues that Dominicans worldwide are concerned about. And so we try to participate in those kinds of working groups here at the UN, so that we will have a voice here and a voice on behalf of our brothers and sisters, wherever our sisters are in the world, here at the UN and have an opportunity to actually document the concerns and what they are seeing and experiencing so that there might be a more positive response to the needs of the world.

Sister Maxine  
And in that way, you give input. Of course, the UN is not a government, although governments certainly are represented there. So you give input into UN efforts to really secure the human rights of all people.

Sister Dusty
Correct. Yeah.

Sister Maxine  
You mentioned some of the working groups, you're involved in, Dusty. Can you tell me a little bit more about what those groups do and what your work within them involves?

Sister Dusty  
Yeah, let me give you an example. One of the groups I didn't mention was the working group on the girls. We Dominicans have institutions here in the United States, and elsewhere, such as South Africa and other places in the world, where we have schools where young girls, 18 to 14, are going to school. And this working group on girls is an opportunity to invite girls from our institutions to come together to meet other girls. At least right now, it's all virtual. But to meet other girls and to be in conversation with them about what is it that young girls really want and desire? How do they want to be involved in climate? How is economics impacting these young girls? How does their ability for decision-making get counted in? Are we listening to young girls? Are we asking young girls for their opinions? And so it's exciting to connect with the girls at our different institutions, and have them connect with other girls around the world so that they are actually able to engage in a conversation and write statements about "this is what we are committed to. How are you going to help make this happen globally?" So that's just one example.

Sister Maxine  
That's such an interesting example, too, because instead of saying, "This is what we think the girls need, this is what we think they want," you bring them to the table.

Sister Dusty  
Yes, and it's so exciting. These young girls have opinions. They know what they want. They're concerned about gender-based violence, they're concerned about their own bodies and how to protect themselves. It's just amazing. But unless we ask them, and unless we invite them to talk about it, and to share with one another across the world, which is what the girls did this past spring. And now they're getting ready for the International Day of the Girl, which is October 11 this year. So we're trying to do that as well. So now our young girls in South Africa want to connect with our school in Wilmette, Illinois. And these girls are going to have conversations together, as well as with other people--but this is a way to connect girls, so they really do know what it is that they all want.

Sister Maxine  
Have they said things that are surprising to you?

Sister Dusty  
 I can't say they're totally surprising. But what is surprising is the ability to articulate. I guess that's the most important thing. These young girls are able to really articulate their desires. And it's so important, if we're talking about leadership of young women, how we give them the space and the opportunity to actually learn from one another and in that way, they are forming themselves into the young women they want to be for the rest of their lives.

Sister Maxine  
So then with the input from this working group on girls, how does that input get to the UN and what kind of an impact or what kind of an influence might it have?

Sister Dusty  
That's a great question too, Max. In the spring, each year in March, we have the Celebration or the Commission on the Status of Women. And so these young girls had an opportunity to be one of 45,000 women who gathered last spring virtually online to talk about women's issues and girls’ issues. And so that opportunity, that sharing actually is under the auspices of the UN, UN Women. And so that was a great opportunity for their voices to be heard. One of the girls created a little video. And that went viral because in the summer, there was the gender equality forum. And part of the equality forum was in Mexico for a few days. And then it went to France for a few days. And her video, talking about what she wanted, and what she believed that girls wanted, was actually shown around the world. And the UN gets a copy of that as well.

Sister Maxine  
Earlier you were talking about for Dominicans, the importance of truth and the importance of words and importance of writing. With these various forms of connection and documentation and exchanging of ideas, and articulations, for the ultimate goal, is it to help change the situation of girls? You had mentioned helping them to speak their own truth. But in the long run, for the UN, what would be the ultimate goal of something like this?

Sister Dusty  
Really, it's an opportunity then for girls to realize that they're not alone. Let's think of the young girls in Afghanistan right now. They're not alone, because there are other girls in in the world who are mindful of what's happening to them. And they're not going to let their voice be silenced. So these young girls around the world will be advocating for all girls, not just for themselves here in the United States. That's why it's so important for the girls to be engaged in conversation with other girls around the world. That's one of the things that happened for some of these girls, is that they actually got to talk to somebody else around the world. That's one of the, if you will, benefits of Zoom and one of the benefits of the pandemic: there was an opportunity of connecting more girls with one another globally. And so that really strengthens the girls at home, and also strengthens the girls who are together in these conversations. The point is to make known their concerns, make known that they do have opinions, that they are able to articulate it, and that these are the potential women who will be leading our countries, no matter where they are. And we need to do whatever we can to provide opportunities for these young girls to meet one another, no matter how that is--if it's virtual, it's virtual. But to meet one another in such a way, that they will be able to help strengthen each other, so that they can go on. So they can become the new UN representative for women, that they will become the new people here at the UN, that they will be the women who are actually going to bring about the peacemaking that we hope will happen. So there are many benefits of engaging these young women in these kinds of conversations. But it's only one little aspect of the work that we do here at the UN.

Sister Maxine  
You had mentioned working on concerns in the Amazon region.

Sister Dusty  
Yes, I've been very involved in the Amazon region for the last two years. And we just had our monthly meeting, talking about some of the upcoming meetings that the UN has, on an annual basis such as, in February, the Commission on Social Development, which is really about how are the people on the margins doing. Or the Commission on the Status of Women in March, or the Indigenous Peoples Forum that comes up in April each year. One of the things we've been doing, working in the Amazon, is finding out who are the companies and what is happening to the people in, let's say, Brazil as an example. One of the largest indigenous groups of people live there in Amazon. And as we know, it's the lungs of the world. But why is it that the President Bolsonaro is actually encouraging more companies to come in and move into the Amazon region where the indigenous live, who then are very susceptible to the outside world. I mean, we don't realize how many tribes there are and how many people are in these tribes. Some of them are small, some of them are large. These people have been the guardians of our breathing, so to speak. But with farming coming in--now they're trying to do much larger agriculture, farming for soy. And these are companies that are coming in and they're digging, without any free prior consent of the indigenous people. They're being left out of the decision-making. So how are we going to safeguard the indigenous? We need to have forums where they can speak. So the last couple of years, we've actually been able to bring indigenous voices to the UN through the forum in April.

Sister Maxine  
You had mentioned the situation of farming, which I believe Brazil is a larger soybean producer than even the United States.

Sister Dusty  
Correct.

Sister Maxine  
So there's a considerable amount of farming that are going on over there. You also mentioned other industries, the mining industries. Which kind of companies are there? What industries do they represent?

Sister Dusty  
They represent illegal gold mining, lumber, deforestation. These companies are emitting more carbon than other places in the world as a result, so much to the point that then the forest is unable to help. It can't beat the carbon as a result. This is something we have to be really more thoughtful about. And hopefully at the COP meeting in November in Glasgow, this will be addressed.

Sister Maxine  
What you're describing, it's just not one issue. It's a multitude of issues that are combined.

Sister Dusty  
Yes.

Sister Maxine  
You also are on a working group, on a committee on social development?

Sister Dusty  
Yes.

Sister Maxine  
What kind of work do you do with that committee?

Sister Dusty  
I had the opportunity to work with some of my teammates, to help produce a couple of what we call "side events" at the Social Development meeting. It's one of the largest meetings at the UN. And we were really looking at the digital divide. How are we going to help people, especially in distant areas where they don't have access to cell phones, or don't have access to internet and things like that, as a way to help deal with the COVID pandemic? So how do you get the word out to the people about what's happening? How are we going to really improve the digital divide? How do we make that smaller rather than larger? So that's one of the things. So we had workshops on that, if you will, or webinars on those issues at the UN. The main issue in 2021 was the digital divide. In 2020 it was on homelessness. We had all kinds of workshops or webinars on homelessness. What is homelessness? Where is homelessness? I heard a new term in the last few weeks called "houseless." Somebody said, "People aren't homeless. They're houseless; because we all belong to Mother Earth, and she is our home. So therefore they do have a home." But how do we help people get housing so that they can actually flourish and live sustainably and healthfully?

Sister Maxine  
As you describe some of this work, I am so taken by how articulation of an issue or a situation is so crucial to how one might address a solution for it. And that there is, as you were talking earlier, power in words and power in that articulation to frame the situation. I think that is so crucial. You mentioned in 2021 the emphasis on the digital divide, and certainly I think the pandemic--here in the United States for sure--brought up the disparity in those who have access to internet and those who do not, and the benefits of having that access. Is that something that this group is looking at worldwide? Who gets left out if they don't have access?

Sister Dusty  
Lots of people are getting left out. And not only people, but countries or regions in countries are being left out. And so that's why it's so important for all of us to try and really understand what is needed. So another aspect of these commissions is prior to the commission they have what they call expert group meetings, EGM. So we have called on people from around the world who know a lot, let's say, about technology, and what is possible. And what do we need to do in order for those things to happen around the world. And so those expert people give a lot of input. And then we all begin to look at other people that we know, in the global community where our sisters are stationed. Find out who do they know, and can any of them come and speak to us, so that we actually bring in some of the local people from around the world, in the countries where there is a digital divide, so that we can come together and say, "Here's what is needed," or "Here's what young people are trying," or "Here's what this new company is attempting to do," to bring about less discrimination, where it's important to have more technology available to more people.

Sister Maxine  
And I love how you describe that, because it's hearing from people, again, whose lives are directly affected. So it's not just concepts, it's not just theories. It's actual experience that has a voice.

Sister Dusty  
Absolutely. You know, there are over 30 religious congregations here at the UN, of both men and women. And we have men and women throughout the world. And so it's so important for us to try to be more in touch. So that's one of my challenges, as a Dominican here at the UN: to find out where our Dominicans are and how to be in touch with them, so that they can bring their voice to the UN. They are living this reality. So that's really one of the challenges that I have here at the UN: to engage more Dominicans around the world in some of these issues.

Sister Maxine  
Since you're talking about the kinds of issues, certainly it is very encouraging to be so involved in it. But when you look at the seriousness of the issues--talking about the Amazon and the global repercussions of some of what's going on there--does it ever get overwhelming to you?

Sister Dusty  
Well, of course! Because while one is hopeful that there's something you can do about it. I think the most important thing that I'm trying to do is to actually have more responses by more Dominicans, letting them know that we haven't forgotten them in their country. So here's an example. I have two quick examples. One was this whole situation in Haiti. Part of my job was to find out, do we have Dominicans in Haiti? So I talked to our sisters in the Dominican Republic. And they gave me some context. So then I try to contact the prioress of those congregations, which are in another country altogether, and then try to find out who in their congregation are in Haiti, so that we can let them know that we want to support them. I need their voice: What's happening? How are you handling this? What do I need to tell people here at the UN? And then the other is this week, I got a lovely email, a long one, from one of our Dominicans in the Solomon Islands, who said, "Dusty, why don't you tune into this webinar that actually happened this morning? The Marshall Islands are saying how much we need, now, a new special rapporteur on human rights and climate. So people have been asking for this for many years, but it's getting a lot of momentum right now. And so we're hoping it goes to the UN General Assembly, and they deliberate on it, and will actually develop a new, special rapporteur on human rights and climate. So seeing the combination between human rights and climate is a new understanding about what's happening in the climate issues.

Sister Maxine  
You mentioned that there are--did you say 30 congregations that work in the UN?

Sister Dusty  
Uh huh.

Sister Maxine  
What is the impact? Or maybe I should say, because there are so many different kinds of groups giving input, what is the distinctive contribution that religious can make?

Sister Dusty  
Well, number one, religious are all over the world. And one of the things that we can do is tap into our constituencies, if you will, and invite them, call them, contact them, invite their wisdom on a particular issue, and have them be the speakers. I'm here in New York City. It's its own little world--big world! But I'm not with the people. And so I need to hear from the people. And that's one thing that religious do: we are everywhere. It's not only Dominicans. We are everywhere. So our job is to try to bring the voice. They're grassroots. And grassroots people's voices must be heard at the UN. This is one of the most valuable things that we religious can bring to the United Nations. And that's the voice of the people. Because without the voice of the people and their experience, we just have a lot of bureaucrats talking about stuff that may or may not be of any significance to the people on the ground. So I think that's one of the biggest things. The second thing is that we bring the faith and the hope of the people to the UN--the belief that the UN can make a difference. Yeah, we believe it can and it has. Without the UN, many other things would not be in place as they are now. We bring another element of faith and hope, that it is possible to bring about change. We believe it, we hope for it, we work for it. So I think this is another dimension of what it means to be a religious at the UN.

Sister Maxine  
That is really beautiful, Dusty. For people who want to learn more about the UN, and to learn more about the Dominican Sisters Conference, what would you suggest? What kinds of resources?

Sister Dusty  
Every other week I write a UN update about something that's happening here at the UN. So if people would be interested, they could go to our website, which is called the dominicanleadershipconference.orgwww.dominicanleadershipconference.org website. That's one way to get an update of what's going on. And another is Twitter. DLC, it's called. So every now and then there's something going on Twitter, kind of informing people what's happening at the UN or what's happening with Dominicans around the world. And then we have a Facebook account as well. So these are just some of the ways in which people could chime in.

Sister Maxine  
I'll be sure, Dusty, to put those links in the Episode Notes for the podcast.

Sister Dusty  
Thank you.

Sister Maxine  
We've reached the end of our time today. Thank you so much, Dusty, for joining me and In Good Faith, and thank you for the ministry you do at the UN.

Sister Dusty  
Well, thank you, Maxine. It was great to be with you again. May In Good Faith continue. We need you and we need this voice, because we need to give people hope in the world.

Sister Maxine  
In Good Faith is a production of A Nun's Life Ministry, helping people discover and grow in their vocation by engaging questions about God, faith and religious life. This program is made possible through the grace of God and the support of the sponsors of A Nun's Life Ministry and you, our listeners. Visit us at anunslife.org. God bless.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.