Author Immaculee Ilibagiza Addresses McAuley Community

On Thursday, September 10, Catherine McAuley High School had the pleasure of playing host to New York Times Best-selling Author Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, McAuley’s 2009 community-wide summer read.

Ilibagiza is a living example of faith put into action.  A survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Ilibagiza and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in a cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house, where she miraculously escaped the savage killings around her.  She credits her salvation mostly to prayer and to a set of rosary beads given to her by her devout Catholic father.  With the exception of her brother, who was studying outside of the country during the genocide, Ilibagiza lost her entire family.

In a morning presentation to the student body and in an evening presentation to the general public, Ilibagiza spoke of the importance of spreading kindness, peace, faith and forgiveness to everyone, everywhere.

As a token of the School’s appreciation, Ilibagiza was presented with a Peace Pole, an internationally-recognized symbol for the promotion of peace on earth.  Given by Student Council President Tori McAllister ’10 and Student Council Vice President Samantha Dedian ’10, the gift served as a promise for McAuley High School to consistently strive for a better world and live the ideals that Ilibagiza upholds.  A larger replica of the Peace Pole will stand in the School’s Mall, etched with ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’ in four different languages — English, French, Spanish, and Korean — a representation of the impressive diversity of McAuley’s student body.