Bishop O’Dowd students posed with Immaculée
Ilibagiza after the survivor of the Rwandan genocide and author of “Left
to Tell” spoke on campus.
josé luis aguirre photo
By Michele Jurich
Staff writer
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josé luis aguirre photo
Rowandan
message: “Listen to Our Lady.”
Before she spoke with the students
at Bishop O’Dowd High School on Sept. 28, Immaculée
Ilibagiza spent a few minutes answering a few questions for
The Catholic Voice. This is an edited version of that conversation.
What does it mean to tell your story to young people? And
how do young people receive your story?
So much more than anyone. Their hearts are so innocent; their
souls are without malice. When they hear truth, they want to
do it. . . . They’re so impressionable.
When they hear something that touches them, that hits home,
they take it the way it is. I am so grateful they connect to
my story. I have so many letters from schools; each student
sends me a letter, ‘I am sorry for what you went through.
Now I know there is God.’ Kids are sharing their stories:
They were abused. They thought their lives were over. Through
me, they can be themselves. They are so sweet. They say: I want
to say the rosary. To talk to guys who play basketball at school,
who come to hear my story: Really? The rosary is so important?
When you can convince them, it hits home, they really want to
do it. They say: Convince me. Tell me it did something to you.
A nearby school built a structure, the size of your hiding place
in Rwanda, and it has become a place of prayer for the girls.
Have you heard of others doing this?
I have heard it in many different places. The first time I went
back to Rwanda with a group of people, all they wanted to do
was go and see the bathroom. One lady wanted to say the whole
rosary, 15-20 minutes. She said: Everything will be fine for
me now.
Or they make a square the size it was. That touches me. I really
want to encourage the kids: Anywhere a sign leads you to God,
do it. Anywhere, a sign can lead you to God.
It’s not me they’re thinking about; they’re
thinking about God, who saved someone. That makes me very happy.
They offer their future, their prayers. And that makes you very
happy.
Tell us about your latest project.
There is a new book, coming Nov. 28, “The Boy Who Met
Jesus: Segatashya of Kibeho.” This is the story of a boy
who was 15 years old — he was a pagan — and the
interaction he had with Jesus: “You tell me I should love
you more, and I just met you. My parents have known me all my
life, how does that work?”
“I gave them to you as a protector.” Jesus said.
And: “Why did you create man with weakness?”
“Man will always be with weakness but he is strong and
can do all with his will.”
Nov. 28 is the 30th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady
in Rwanda, and the 10th anniversary of when the Vatican approved
it. The first time she appeared was Nov. 28, 1981. We are planning
to send a message on that day. I will be at St. Patrick in New
York, I am hoping we can have a feast and pray.
Remember, Our Lady wants us to hear her message and raise awareness.
She prepared us. She tried to prevent this (genocide in Rwanda).
She told us if we had done what she wanted us to do, this wouldn’t
have happened. If only we had listened.
— Michele Jurich |
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It’s a fairly safe bet that not many in Immaculée
Ilibagiza’s audience will be faced with what she was faced with
in Rwanda in 1994.
Her devout Catholic father placed his rosary beads around the neck of
the 24-year-old university student and sent her to the home of a minister
miles away from her own as killers were closing in on members of her tribe.
Ilibagiza lived hidden in a home for 91 days with seven other women. Often,
they would cram into a two foot by three foot bathroom to escape capture.
Outside, the women could hear people searching for them. A killer entered
the home in which she was hiding and called her name.
And still she survived.
Not just survived, but forgave the people who killed her family. That’s
the story she was “Left to Tell,” as her first book is titled.
She shares her message of faith and forgiveness in books, retreats and
talks across the country and around the world. She will be speaking at
Saint Mary’s College in Moraga on Nov. 1.
On Sept. 27, she spoke to more than 600 parents and other friends of Bishop
O’Dowd High School in Oakland. The next day, the more than 1,100
students filled the large gymnasium. The entire student body read her
book as part of the One Book, One Community program.
But before she spoke, she was greeted by the French Club. Clutching fresh-picked
garden roses, they were there to speak French, to let her know she inspired
them, and to give her an IOU for a French Club T-shirt that had not yet
arrived.
Front and center in the O’Dowd gym were Carden and Marian Smith.
Four summers ago, they had taken four grandsons — three of them
O’Dowd students, Jonathan and Andrew Richardson and Chris Seelig,
with a summer reading assignment — to Medjugorje, the shrine in
Bosnia-Herzegovina where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981.
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Students at Carondelet High School in Concord
gather in an exact-sized structure on the school’s quad replicating
the bathroom where Immaculée Ilibagiza hid with seven other
women during the Rwandan genocide.
CHRISTINA DITZEL photo/
CARONDELET HIGH SCHOOL |
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As one of the grandsons was reading his book, a woman walked over and
said to him, “Hey, that’s my book,” Carden Smith said.
And that’s how the young men were introduced to Immaculée
Ilibagiza.
The boys spent time with Ilibagiza, and invited her to visit their school,
which had been trying to schedule a speaking engagement. Her talk in 2007
motivated students to produce a play based on her story, and to dedicate
their mission fundraising that year to assist people in Sudan, which was
facing its own crisis that year. This year, students will also raise funds
for human rights.
And four years later, a new crop of O’Dowd students read the book
as part of the One Book, One Community program.
The O’Dowd students are not alone. At Carondelet High School in
Concord, everyone, from incoming freshman to board member, read the book
before school began this year, said president Sister Kathleen Lang.
A friend of the school constructed a shed, two feet by three feet, on
the school’s quad to duplicate the size of the bathroom in which
Ilibagiza hid. Students visit the small space as they pass by during the
school day, often taking time to pray, alone or in small groups, Lang
said.
For librarian Joan Tracy, the book’s impact on campus is not surprising.
“It’s an amazing book,” she said.
Even as the committee of teachers was meeting to select the year’s
book — the third in Carondelet’s One Book, One Community —
she could sense the interest among committee members. “Once you
see, as a librarian, such interest,” she said. “I could already
recognize: This is the book to go with.”
Students are leading discussions of the book on campus, and some departments,
such as history and modern languages, are incorporating it into classroom
activities. An African dance demonstration, planned for later in the school
year, also grows out of interest generated from the book.
“Her story is amazing,” Tracy said. “I think it’s
going to enter the literature as one of those books.”
Ilibagiza said she knows teens may never know the terror she faced, but
struggle with issues that can become overwhelming in their lives. Ilibagiza
told her audience at O’Dowd, “I want a promise in your heart.
Hold onto God. Remember there is always hope.”
After the talk, students stood 10 deep at a table, hoping to get her to
autograph their books before she left for the airport.
“She was very detailed,” said Olivia Waters, a freshman who
said the book she clutched had been her first assignment for high school.
“I want her to sign it.”
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