{"id":4381,"date":"2011-10-03T15:34:50","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T19:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/?p=4381"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:00:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:00:26","slug":"u-n-s-dag-hammarskjold-negotiating-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2011\/10\/u-n-s-dag-hammarskjold-negotiating-with-god\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N.\u2019s Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld: Negotiating With God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\n

\u201cIn our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld<\/span><\/strong>
\nU.S. Secretary-General, 1953-1961<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld. Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld. Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny how sometimes a childhood memory pierces through years of overlaid data and forces its way into the present.\u00a0 I was a young child\u2014in early elementary school, I suppose\u2014when I first learned the name of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.\u00a0 I learned to say his name and to spell it, complete with the umlaut, those two little dots over the \u201co\u201d which are common in words of Scandinavian origin.\u00a0 I remember repeating it over and over, listening as the unfamiliar syllables rolled off my tongue. \u00a0It was an affectation, I suppose\u2014a performance intended to amaze my friends and family with my mastery of the language.<\/p>\n

Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld came to mind again this week,<\/strong> because L\u2019Osservatore Romano<\/strong><\/span> published a tribute to the world leader on the 50th anniversary of his death in a plane crash believed by some to be an assassination.<\/p>\n

As leader of the United Nations,<\/strong> Hammarskj\u00f6ld worked tirelessly to achieve peace in troubled regions of the world. \u00a0When his plane crashed, he was en route to negotiate a cease-fire between \u201cnon-combatant\u201d U.N. troops and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe, in Northern Rhodesia. \u00a0For this and for other efforts on the world stage, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize\u2014which was then awarded after his untimely death.<\/p>\n

President John F. Kennedy,<\/strong> speaking of Hammarskj\u00f6ld after his death, said, \u201cI realize now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. \u00a0He was the greatest statesman of our century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Encouraging Prayer at the United Nations<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Hammarskj\u00f6ld had a visionary plan for the U.N., which he once described as a \u201csecular church.\u201d He believed in the efficacy of prayer, while respecting others\u2019 faith traditions; and he planned and supervised every detail of a \u201cmeditation room\u201d in the U.N. headquarters, a place dedicated to silence where people could withdraw into themselves, regardless of their faith creed or religion.<\/p>\n

The Measure of a Man<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

What, in Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld\u2019s eyes, was the most important quality<\/strong> in world leaders, civil servants and diplomats? \u00a0\u201cSpiritual maturity,\u201d<\/strong> he wrote in his spiritual autobiography, Markings<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Freedom for him, says L\u2019Osservatore Romano<\/a><\/strong>, did not equal unrestrained individualism, but the courage and humility to follow a vocation and live according to your conscience.\u00a0 L\u2019Osservatore Romano<\/strong><\/span> noted the strong similarity between this definition and that given by Pope Benedict XVI in his interview with Peter Seewald.\u00a0 In that interview, published in Seewald\u2019s book Light of the World<\/strong><\/span>, Pope Benedict called freedom of religion \u201ca way of peace\u201d; Hammarskj\u00f6ld would doubtless have agreed.<\/p>\n

The Noble Role of the United Nations<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Under Hammarskj\u00f6ld\u2019s leadership,<\/strong> the U.N. enjoyed the respect of the world\u2019s nations\u2014in no small measure due to his emphasis on its founding principles.\u00a0 In a statement to the General Assembly in October 1956, he reminded them of this fact:\u00a0 \u201cThe principles of [the Charter of the United Nations] are, by far, greater than the Organization in which they are embodied, and the aims which they are to safeguard are holier than the policies of any single nation or people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, the Vatican has expressed grave concern<\/strong> regarding some contemporary leanings of the U.N.\u2014specifically, the push to redefine gender and the omission of \u201cparental rights,\u201d particularly parents\u2019 right to choose the education for their children, including education about authentic human love, marriage, and the family. Hammarskj\u00f6ld, a member of Sweden\u2019s Lutheran Church, would certainly have raised his voice in support of Rome on this issue.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.\u201d \u2013Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld U.S. Secretary-General, 1953-1961 Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld. Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld. Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld. It\u2019s funny how sometimes a childhood memory pierces through years of overlaid data and forces its way into the present.\u00a0 I was a young child\u2014in early elementary school, I suppose\u2014when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,192,1],"tags":[404,2794,2925],"class_list":["post-4381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-dag-hammarskjold","tag-government","tag-united-nations"],"yoast_head":"\nU.N.\u2019s Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld: Negotiating With God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld, who died 50 years ago, had a visionary plan for the U.N., which he once described as a \u201csecular church.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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