Episode #30 with Michele Dunne, on Monday, July 28th This week I speak with Michele Dunne, director of the Franciscan Action Network. Michele is a professed Secular Franciscan (there are over 200,000 in the world) who has had a long career as a diplomat in the Middle East and then a scholarly researcher focused on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. From 2006 until 2021, she headed programs focused on peace, human rights, and democracy in the Middle East at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Atlantic Council. Over the years, she’s been a regular commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Before that, she served for nearly 20 years in the U.S. State Department, including assignments in Jerusalem and Cairo. She holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and lives in Washington DC with her husband. Michele shares with us what the Franciscan Action Network is, and does with its 17,000 members in the U.S., and why she is part of it. “Today, we've got this broken relationship between humanity and creation." Michele tells how Franciscans have been celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis’ poem/prayer to ‘Brother Sun, Sister Moon' and how it inspires her today: "St. Francis had an incredible kinship with all humanity, with all humans as brothers and sisters, and with all creation. We all need to find that kinship today." She asks the questions that make a difference to followers of the nonviolent Jesus: "‘What is God's will for me? What is mine to do?’ We all need to show up and find what's ours to do and do it.” Visit www.franciscanaction.org and www.beatitudescenter.org
