Volume 26, Number 1    April 2004

Marylu Langan Zobel: One woman's idea to perpetuate the CTA legacy

“The key is being connected to something bigger than yourself.” Marylu Langan Zobel is dying. She knows that. She has been living with emphysema for the past 11 years. Last year at this time, she entered hospice care. But she told the program she hopes to break their record for longevity.

“The Young Christian Workers movement shaped me. When I discovered Call To Action it was so reminiscent of that same spirit – the same desire to look at the problems of the world, see how they don’t reflect the Gospel and decide to do something about the disparity. I am so grateful to give anything back.” When she signed up for hospice Marylu called the Call To Action Development Office and asked for cards that could be used for gifts to CTA at the time of her death. You see the result in the illustration (right).

Formation: YCS and YCW

From her introduction to Young Christian Students at the Ursuline School in 1947 in the New York suburbs, she was totally involved. They worked with Baroness de Hueck at Friendship House in Harlem, and with Dorothy Day (“my patron saint for combining the personal works of mercy with systemic change”) at the food kitchen in New York City. After high school she went to work at the U.N. (1952-55) in New York and became head of the N.Y. YCW Federation. In 1955 she was asked to join the YCW national staff in Chicago, where she served as National Vice President until 1960. “Those years were so flourishing, so vibrant, so alive.” There were dinner meetings with Msgr. Hillenbrand at the Crowleys, where the heads of the movements (YCW, YCS, and Christian Family Movement) would gather. After Chicago she returned to work at the U.N. “What an exciting time with all the new nations joining from Africa and around the world. I would spend all my lunch hours in the General Assembly taking it all in.”

Parish justice ministry

For the last 28 years, Marylu has been an active parishioner at St. John Fisher Chapel, a university parish in Auburn Hills, Mich. She’s part of a dedicated core of the justice and peace ministry that meets monthly at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. “It is a wonderful parish. We’ve been able to work on sweatshops, the death penalty and globalization.
“I admit to a bias that Call To Action needs to keep a large portion of its agenda on justice in the world projects. I’ve always thought: ‘Let the Holy Spirit take care of the ecclesiastical changes’. Call To Action is critical as a support group at times when so many people are discouraged. I knew if there were 5,000 people at conference, there were another 10,000 who wished they could be there. Community is number one in all we do—building up the body of Christ to do what needs to be done.”

Still “doing what I can”

“It is so critical even as we’re nearing the end of life to be in solidarity with the Church and the suffering world. Over the years as I’ve learned what I can’t do, I’ve always looked for what I am able to do. I’m five years beyond my doctor’s expectations for my life. He says he closed the book on me. Now he’s learning from me. I am blessed to have a community around me. Because of this wonderful Justice Committee who are in and out of my house frequently, I still have a prominent role to play, even in my final days. It is a real joy to be connected to something bigger.”

Marylu is living with her daughter and son-in-law, Claire and Fred Harig, and two granddaughters, Alex, 10, and Adrienne, 5. “Living with this family is full of grace,” she says. “They are loving caregivers.” Her many friends throughout the years can send cards to her there: 5881 Wright Drive, Troy, MI 48098. She apologizes that she has trouble writing back. Most days she’s able to talk on the phone at (248) 879-1430.