Radio Days feature

Through public radio, Maureen Fiedler SL provides a welcoming forum for people of all faith traditions A person of deep faith and an activist from an early age, Maureen Fiedler SL, now 72, has put her wellspring of natural energy into a lifetime of justice and peace advocacy, and the results have been delightful. These life experiences now inform her national public radio show, “Interfaith Voices,” produced in Washington, D.C. Nearing its 15th anniversary, the program has built both a legacy and a future for fascinating discussions with a broad spectrum of religious and even non-faith-based leaders from across the globe.

Q

How did you, as a young woman with a traditional Catholic education and an early vocation to join the Sisters of Mercy in Erie, Pa., develop an interest in social and political activism?

A

I’m from Lockport, N.Y., near Buffalo and Niagara Falls, where I attended St. Patrick’s School and DeSales High School. From there I went to Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. When beginning my junior year, I entered the Sisters of Mercy in Erie and finished my college degree. I taught high school social studies in Erie and then for four years at St. Justin High School in Pittsburgh. One summer, I traveled to rural South Carolina where I lived and worked with very poor African Americans. That experience had a profound effect on me and stuck with me for my entire life.

In the fall of 1970, I began graduate school at Georgetown University, a Jesuit university, where I did both an M.A. and Ph.D. in government and political science. Toward the end of my time at Georgetown, I met a Jesuit, Bill Callahan, and Dolly Pomerleau, who were founding something new called the Quixote Center, a justice center.

Literally, they wanted to dream impossible dreams and chase windmills! That meant taking on impossible causes other people would think twice about. That sounded good to me! One of the first issues we tackled was the ordination of women in the Catholic Church.

Q

The ordination of women is a serious and still controversial issue. What did you think about this?

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A

Maybe I can best answer that question by telling you a story. When I was a high school senior, I was in a co-ed Catholic high school that was a new merger of a girls’ school and boys’ school. Senior year came, and I was the valedictorian. The principal, who was a priest, called me into his office to tell me I could not give the valedictory speech because I was a girl! This was 1960. The second wave of the women’s movement hadn’t yet come, but I knew this was wrong. My mother advised me, “Do not get in a fight with a priest,” but I decided that this was wrong and unjust, and I had to act. I went back to the principal’s office and said, “Father, this is wrong and unjust, and it’s going to look perfectly terrible on the front page of our newspaper.” Even then I knew the power of media. The long and short of it — he caved in, and I gave the speech!

So, of course I supported the involvement of the Quixote Center in the struggle to ordain women in the Catholic Church. It is a fundamental issue of justice and gender equality. But I was very interested in women’s rights across the board, and the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) going on then. In 1978, I co-founded Catholics Act for ERA. We organized in many states where the ERA had not been ratified — Illinois, Nevada, Missouri and places with reasonably large Catholic populations. At the end of that struggle, I was one of eight women who fasted for 37 days in Springfield, Ill., as a witness. We were not successful at that time, but I believe we still need to ratify the ERA legally. However, in my lifetime, the ERA has gone a long way toward being culturally ratified. My formal ERA work ended in 1982 when the early struggle for ratification ended. But it will be back!

Q A

So your activism has focused primarily on women’s issues?

Partly. If there’s a deep concern that runs through me, it’s my dismay at continued discrimination of all kinds — the failure to treat human beings as people of dignity regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. We are equal human beings and loved by God and need to be treated as such.

At some time in the late 1970s and 1980s, the Quixote Center became involved in an emerging struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Jeannine Gramick (then a School Sister of Notre Dame who later transferred to Loretto) came to the Quixote Center in the 1970s, shortly after I did. Her work, called New Ways Ministry, started at the Quixote Center. It was, to put it mildly, controversial.

At that time, my community, the Sisters of Mercy, was really nervous about this just because the Center took it on as an issue. I began to look for another community. I found

Loretto, came to an assembly and soon began the transfer process. I never looked back and never regretted it. The Sisters of Mercy, however, have changed a lot today.

As I fasted for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and was in the process of becoming a Sister of Loretto, I received Loretto’s Mary Rhodes Award for my work on the ERA.

Q A

When the ERA ratification work ended in 1982, what did you do next?

In 1983, I returned to work at the Quixote Center. There was emerging concern among faith-based justice activists about the Reagan wars in Central America and U.S. support for death squads in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. My major focus during that time was stopping U.S. involvement in those wars. The Quixote Center launched a massive program to aid the victims of the war in Nicaragua; it’s called Quest for Peace, and still exists.

Maureen Fiedler SL in studio in April interviewing Dominican priest Rev. Thomas Petri, left, and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, who were debating issues of conscience vs. obedience.

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I personally visited those countries and witnessed poverty like I’d never seen before. In the U.S., I lobbied Congress to stop U.S. involvement and wrote (with Dolly Pomerleau) a book-length newspaper called “Nicaragua: A Look at the Reality.” I was arrested several times for protesting these wars.

Then in the 1990s, the Reagan wars had wound down. I had a continuing interest in reforming the Roman Catholic Church, which meant not only equality for women, but also democratization of the institution, a married clergy and emphasis on serving the poor. I began to work with a coalition of church reform groups known as COR, or Catholic Organizations for Renewal. We were linked with international groups in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. I became a U.S. liaison to these international groups. I traveled to Europe several times and met wonderful people dedicated to the same ideals.

Q A

So when did radio broadcasting enter the picture?

In the 1980s and 1990s, my parents were sick and dying in western New York. I would travel up there frequently, driving through long areas of rural Pennsylvania. I had the radio on in the car to help stay awake. In spots, all I could get was so-called Christian radio. I found it intolerant, preachy and focused on sexual issues. I never heard anything about justice and peace or help for the poor. I began to realize that this was what passed for “religious” radio. I knew I had a halfway decent voice, so I decided to do something about it.

Maureen, third from right, as part of an interfaith panel in Fredericksburg, Va

I began by doing commentaries for WAMU, a large National Public Radio affiliate in Washington, D.C., and later for National Public Radio itself. One day, I called them up and said, “I’ve got a commentary. Are you interested?” The producer said, “Come and let’s hear what you sound like.” So I did a test commentary with them; they said, “Sounds good, we’ll air it.” I did several three-minute commentaries. Then, I thought: I need to do a complete radio show. So I met with some seasoned producers, and we started a commercial radio show called “Faith Matters.” We were heard on a grand total of four stations nationwide. It was a call-in show, live on weekends, but it didn’t work. In 2001, my producers and I decided, “We need to think about public radio.”

Then 9/11 happened. That was a Tuesday, and by that Saturday we had organized a three-hour test program on religion and terrorism. I had a number of multifaith guests 12 • Loretto Magazine

Maureen, center, and her Interfaith Voices staff with two Afghan clerics who Kwerel, far left, is senior producter, and Mallory Daily, second from left, is as

a., earlier this year. Photos couresy of Interfaith Voices radio.

visited the program at the behest of the State Department in March. Laura ssistant producer and a Loretto volunteer.

all evening. A rabbi named David Saperstein was a guest.

He came into the studio with a press release from himself and another rabbi. It summed up how I felt. He said, “We are Jews. We know what it is for a whole people to be blamed for the actions of a few. We see that happening to our Muslims brothers and sisters today, and we will not stand for it. We are here to say that we stand with them in this hour of trial.” I was moved to tears.

In fact, Rabbi Saperstein has been recently appointed by President Obama as U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom.

That was September 2001. By March 2002 we launched “Interfaith Voices.” It is an hour-long “produced” show.

We are currently the only public radio show exclusively about religion. We do not preach or proselytize and are not affiliated with any religious organization. We are an independent public radio program, which means we produce and distribute the show ourselves.

Q A

What specifically are you trying to accomplish with “Interfaith Voices”?

We strive to educate the public about the religious and ethical issues behind the headlines. We explore the mystery of spiritual experience by welcoming guests and listeners from a wide diversity of traditions, including those with no religion. We promote dialogue, especially on contentious moral topics, and present many faith traditions and points of view.

The program helps to spread interfaith understanding and an appreciation of people of all traditions or no traditions. As you look at the world today, nothing seems more important than learning and understanding the faith traditions of others. Religion does not cause war, but it is too often used as a weapon of war to alienate others, to make other people fearful of a certain religious group. So part of what we try to do on “Interfaith Voices” is to give a fair and balanced look at all the religious traditions of the world — their theology, prophets, scriptures, practices, ceremonies, etc. And the idea is to create a greater understanding and appreciation of the richness of the world’s faith traditions. We see this as essential to the work of justice and especially peace in the world today.

Q

How would you describe the size of your listening market today?

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We started out on just one station in Roanoke Va., in 2002.

Today we are on 82 stations across the United States.

Our largest market is in Washington, D.C. We are hoping — with the encouragement of our board — to move internationally. We know our podcast is heard in many countries throughout the world, and we think the show has potential abroad. Recently, we have been on the radar of the State Department, and — at their request — have hosted a group of Muslim Afghan clerics and a group of African religious leaders who had come here to learn about interfaith relations. Our weekly hour-long show airs on Sunday afternoon on WAMU in the D.C. market, but is broadcast at different times throughout the country.

Q A

How do you develop content for the show?

We try to have variety in stories and use the news as a guide. Recently, we’ve had a couple of segments on ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to explore the real motivation here.

Is ISIS Islamic or not? We hosted a debate. After the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, we also hosted a debate.

And after the horrific shootings at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., I interviewed two African-American women on the justice-centered tradition of that church and how forgiveness is “in the DNA” of the black church.

In 2011, I interviewed Marianne Budde who was consecrated as the ninth Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C. I’m always interested in interviewing women religious leaders and following their progress. In fact, I published a book of those interviews called “Breaking Through the Stained Glass Ceiling.” I have two staff members. Laura Kwerel is senior producer and Mallory Daily is assistant producer and a Loretto volunteer. For the last seven years, I’ve been blessed to have a Loretto volunteer work with me. Occasionally, we also have interns. If we can raise the money, we’re looking to expand the staff to include another producer and to deal with time-consuming demands of social media.

Q

What keeps you excited and interested in doing the show?

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A

I get to meet fascinating, fun and dedicated people: Jewish rabbis, Muslim imams, Hindu gurus, Buddhist monks, Sikhs, Christian pastors and theologians of all kinds, religious authors and historians, and people of faith with unique stories. I talk to people who treasure their faith.

I also talk to atheists and agnostics who share their own deeply held secular beliefs.

There is constant breaking news in the world of religion: Groups claiming to be religious misuse a religious tradition and foment violence somewhere in the world. Pope Francis issues an encyclical on climate change. Women make unexpected advances in religious institutions. Religious leaders debate the Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage. Clergy come forth to critique violence in our cities.

Recently, I interviewed Sister Megan Rice SHCJ, age 85, who was just released from two years in prison and is still going strong. She had been arrested for breaking into a nuclear storage facility. She’s an amazing woman in a religious world that is full of fascinating people. And when I say religious world, these are often ordinary people who practice their faith in an extraordinary way. There are also nonreligious but ethically driven people who share their values with our audience.

Q A

You were recently asked to speak at the famous Washington National Cathedral?

How did that come about?

The invitation came out of the clear blue sky.

I received a call from the National Cathedral School, which educates elementary and high school girls. They have a weekly service at the cathedral and usually have a speaker. They asked me to talk about the role of women in the church.

This was one of about six or seven speaking engagements I get each year. These have included programs at synagogues, a Muslim convention and a lot of different church settings. But this invitation was really special. The high pulpit in the Washington National Cathedral is called the Canterbury pulpit, usually used by the Episcopal bishop or dignitaries (see photo above). It was my privilege to speak from it, but most important, I had an opportunity to share my thoughts on the importance of gender equality with young women.