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Working for a Better World
Working For a Better World
Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo
CEO and President, Catholic Relief Services
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
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Copyright © 2015 by Catholic Relief Services. Published 2015.
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All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; [email protected]; 1-800-348-2440.
ISBN 978-1-61278-814-2 (Inventory No. T1620)
eISBN: 978-1-61278-374-1
LCCN: 2015931310
Cover design: John Lucas
Cover image: Shutterstock
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
By Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.
Part I: God Has Always Been There
“… I Would Get Down on My Knees and Pray”
“… Not Pros and Cons, but Joy and Fears”
Letting Go: From Hong Kong to America
Part II: God Sends Us to Neighbors
By Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.
Foreword
By Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.
Meet my friend. Dr. Carolyn Woo makes that easy as she visits us in the pages of her new book, Working for a Better World. It is difficult to be totally objective about one’s friends, and I don’t claim to be. I do want you to get to know Carolyn Woo, though, because she is courageous, competent, and committed. She is clearly led by the Holy Spirit: mind and heart. Meet a daughter, sibling, wife, and mother: a person who lives what she teaches and in the process has come to see all as neighbor.
When communism took over mainland China, Carolyn Woo’s parents left their ancestral homes for Hong Kong. Thus, she identifies with refugees because her family was displaced and had to start over. The efforts of Carolyn’s family and nanny were complemented by her education with the Maryknoll