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GATE celebrates 25 years of Cultural Immersion Programs

by Maria Friedman, FSPA
GATE is 25 years old and the GATE (Global Awareness Through Experience) staff provided a hearty celebration for the occasion at the Christine Center in Willard, Wis., Oct. 27-29, 2006. Forty-three participants came from Mexico City and Toronto and the states of Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

Chess Campbell

Most had been GATE travelers at one time, with the three people who have made the most trips all present-Linda Holly and Lou and Jean Boos, all of Atlanta, Ga., with 21 trips among them.

A special guest was Chess Campbell, who served in the first years of the program as co-leader with Stephanie Lindsey, SC, now deceased, GATE founder.

The festivities began Friday night with a welcome by Sister Cecilia Corcoran, GATE co-director with Sister Marie Des Jarlais since 1991. "You can't imagine the joy I'm feeling tonight that all of you are here," Sister Cecilia said as she began the session. Participants shared their first GATE pilgrimage and why they had come to the anniversary celebration. For each of them it was some aspect of touching into the energy that GATE provided.

"GATE was a life-changing experience," said Mary Gehrke of Idaho Falls, Idaho. "I wanted to renew that."

"We needed to expand the vision of ourselves and our world," said her friend Bernadette Lohse, also of Idaho Falls.

"I enjoy being around travelers and people who inspire," said Laura Moriarty of La Crosse.

"To pick up information on what is needed for the future," said Phil Tracy, a pastor in South Portland, Maine.

From left, Linda Holly and Jean and Lou Boos, all of Atlanta, Ga., have attended 21 GATE trips between them.

"To learn more about the Divine Feminine, getting to the center of who we are," said Shirley O'Neil of Fridley, Minn.

On Saturday, Carol Johnston, SC, of Convent Station, N.J., gave two presentations which invited people to examine the aspects of global awareness calling us in the present day. She painted a stark picture of where our earth is at the present time with so many cultures marginalized, with so much land and water privatized, with forced feeding of animals, with destruction of our ecosystems and a consumerism that encourages people to think about themselves 24 hours a day. "We are badly in need of transformation," she said.

These things can be changed only by "recouping a sense of what it is to be a planetary person," she said. People of vision and common sense need to connect with people of like minds and hearts to bring change. We need to "find common chords with people who love the same things," she noted. "Our global awareness must move to planetary consciousness." We need to measure our decisions on how they affect the poor, plant and animal life and the environment, for only what we love will be saved. She pointed to the spirituality of our attempts to preserve the planet, reminding her audience that "the universe is the primary revelation of God."

Following the presentations, participants gathered in interest groups to talk about finding ways to work for transformation-1) water projects, 2) the Christian message and the "new story," 3) the Feminine Divine and its relationship to the "new story" and 4) possible GATE initiatives for the future.

Sister Marlene Weisenbeck recalled her GATE trip to Mexico in 1988: "I was where my spirit wanted to be," she said. She also spoke as FSPA president in thanking GATE leaders for their work and pointing out GATE's roots in a Franciscan view of the world. "It is a natural expression of our Christian background," she said.

From left, Amy Blumenshine, Carol Johnston, SC, and Cecilia Corcoran, FSPA, share stories. Photos in this story courtesy of Lou Boos

Saturday evening was celebration time. Participants shared key memories of their GATE experiences. Brendan Seaton, a Toronto businessman who made his first GATE trip in 1983 and then brought employees and family members on GATE trips, provided a PowerPoint photo presentation on Guatemala. The group then retired to the dining area for a wine and cheese party.
Sunday morning was wrap-up time. Sister Marie Des Jarlais introduced the session with a reminder of how peace activist Phil Berrigan said, "We hide the poor and kill the prophets." GATE offers the opportunity, she said, to travel south to meet the poor as sister and brother, have our hearts broken by their reality, experience compassion and be moved to acts of solidarity. She ended with a quote from J.E. Lewis: "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough."

Sister Cecilia recalled the years she worked with the immersion program and the resulting desire "to unleash the power of women for transformation." This led her to begin Women's Spiritual Quests (then known as Goddess GATE) in 1996.

Chess Campbell shared her thoughts with the group also. In a private interview she spoke of GATE's foundational years. It was her first experience with Catholic nuns and she found it heartwarming. She was grateful to the Sisters of Charity for their support to the program in its first nine years and to the Franciscan Sisters for taking it over in 1991.

She recalled how she and Sister Stephanie visited with the poor in Mexico City prior to the first GATE program, asking them what they wanted GATE participants to know about their lives. She thought that GATE being a faith-based program allows participants "to be evangelized by the poor" in a way that other immersion programs cannot do. "It touches you in your inner being and has a permanent mark on you," she said.

Lou Boos, an Atlanta businessman, also shared his experience of GATE. He recalls thinking his wife, Jean, "was crazy" when she, after a trip to Guatemala, suggested he join her on a trip. He spoke of himself as a "business guy," focusing on engineering and the technical, but he found himself becoming interested in the social situations he encountered in the seven trips he has taken. "You meet people in desperate situations and the people working with them," he said. He spoke of how GATE has helped him and Jean find good charitable causes, "and you know 100% of what you give goes to the poor." He also described himself as being "pleasantly surprised by the diversity of people you meet on GATE trips, people you don't ordinarily meet in your social circle, and the kinds of discussions you have."

Also present was Jan Gregorcich, SSND, of Milwaukee, co-director of the GATE immersion program. She appreciates the impact GATE has on the lives of those who participate. Also, as head of Global Partners: Running Waters, the Notre Dame program that sponsors water, food and health projects in poor areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru, she spoke her delight in being able to visit sites as she leads GATE trips. "Thank you for all the connections," she said. She reported that Global Partners is now on project 60, among them 28 water projects completed and seven in process.

Gayda Hollnagel, former religion editor for the La Crosse Tribune, who participated in a Mexico GATE in 1993, and has written numerous stories on GATE, enjoyed the weekend. "It was great connecting with Cecy and Marie and other FSPA," she said. She found it "interesting to see how GATE impacts lives and how people come again and again for the experience.

"I also appreciated the chance to see what a great and welcoming place the Christine Center is," she said.

FSPA attending were Sisters Rita Mae Fischer, Maria Friedman, Delmarie Gibney, Karen Grochowski, Mary Ann Gschwind, Ladonna Kassmeyer, Theresa Keller, Romana Klaubauf, Linda Mershon (former Women's Spiritual Quest co-director), Laura Schreck and Marlene Weisenbeck.

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