Dedicated to helping people
Published Thursday November 12th, 2009
Sister Eleanor McCloskey learned she is this year's YMCA Peace Medallion recipient in June when she met Rick McDaniel for lunch.
McDaniel is the manager of the YMCA's International and Social Development Committee and the award's founder. He presented her with the list of all of the names of past recipients.
"He said, 'Well yours will be the next name on the list.'"
The news came as a bit of a surprise. She sees herself as a gentle peace activist who doesn't seek attention.
But she does encourage others to think of ways they can bring about peace in their lives, in the lives of their family and friends and in their local communities.
McCloskey says she had never considered what she does to be peace work.
"But Rick explained that they want to single out people who do what they can, where they can, how they can, to make even a little difference."
Peace has many dimensions. It is not only a state of relationships among nations, it is also the connection between individuals, family, friends and communities.
She is being recognized for the generosity of spirit she has demonstrated in her work with women who have experienced breast cancer and for her work in promoting inclusiveness at all levels of society.
McCloskey devoted herself to being an educator througout her career. When she taught at St. Thomas University, from 1980 to 1996, she met many students who spoke about the ways they felt that they had been excluded from various aspects of campus life and activities as a result of their gender, religion, race, culture or sexual orientation.
"The whole thing about labelling and diversity came to me through the students. They told me about the ways in which they felt excluded because of their sexual orientation. It was a church thing but it was also a cultural thing. Women certainly felt excluded. It opened my eyes."
This led to her commitment to work for inclusiveness for all, starting in her own church. Her master's thesis at Assumption University was titled Same-Sex Couples: Pastoral Ministry to Homosexual Persons in Committed Relationships.
When she finished her degree, she returned to Fredericton and presented inclusiveness workshops.
She says she feels it is important to consider one's words carefully before speaking because our choice of words can label others. McCloskey dislikes labels and the stereotypes people place on others.
Often, when people meet for the first time, they ask one another about their occupations. But when she introduces herself to others for the first time, she doesn't refer to herself as Sister McCloskey because she says she thinks this can shut the conversation down immediately, due to people's perceptions of nuns.
We all have various lifestyles, faiths and experiences and no one, she says, has a corner on what's right.
McCloskey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. When she recovered, she knew she wanted to do something to help others who have had the same experience.
She got involved in a local breast cancer support group as well as the New Brunswick Breast Cancer Network.
She is a board member of the Atlantic branch of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and has helped to develop an annual retreat for breast cancer survivors.
These local support groups and retreats are a time to share stories and talk about the ways in which women cope with the effects of their treatment about life after cancer and all of the possibilities that exist for them.
She is also an active member of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality. In all of her projects, she says, she has been generously supported by other sisters in the freedom to use her time and resources to minister to and with those she's met in her journey.
Sister McCloskey will be honoured at the YMCA World Peace Day award ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 28 at the Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre at 7 p.m.
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