Cecile Meijer, RSCJ, visited Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in early February to speak about her time and experience at the United Nations (UN). Sister Meijer served as the Society of the Sacred Heart’s first UN-NGO (Non-governmental organization) representative from 2003-2017. Sarah Malone, who teaches high school theology, extended the invitation to Sister Meijer.
Sister Meijer offered a reflection during an upper school prayer service and spent the lunch-hour meeting with the high school’s model UN club. She incorporated the scripture readings from the Sunday following her visit that were on the Beatitudes. “My work at the UN was a way of applying and living out the Beatitudes,” she said. She shared with the students the importance of person-first language. “Instead of speaking about ‘the poor’, we say ‘persons living in poverty.’ If we are serious about Catholic Social Teaching, it’s important we reflect in our language the dignity of a person, a child of God,” said Sister Meijer.
Sister Meijer speaks to students during their prayer service.
She also shared with students why religious congregations are present at the UN and emphasized the inter-congregational nature of their work. The Society’s representative often collaborates with other congregations and NGOs to advocate and educate.
When speaking about her time with the Model U.N. club, Sister Meijer said, “The students had a lot of energy. I learned they had been to a conference, where they got to experience internationality on a whole new level, working with students their age from all over the world for a common purpose. The energy they had around this was fantastic!”
The Society’s UN NGO office is based in New York City. The current representative of the Society’s UN NGO is Margaret Mwarili, RSCJ.
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