A Bold New World

Nikki Gamer: Hi, everyone, this is Nikki Gamer for Catholic Relief Services. And thanks for tuning into Behind the Story, a podcast series that gives you a backstage pass to putting your faith into action for global impact. In this episode, we’ll be talking to Sean Callahan, president and CEO, about his decades-long commitment to making a difference in some of the world’s toughest places. Sean shares his special relationship with Mother … now Saint … Teresa of Calcutta and some stories of her getting things done in sometimes surprising ways. And Sean will be talking about his bold new vision for the future—and about being at the precipice for creating transformational change for the world’s poorest people. Sean, welcome. It is so great to finally have you with us.

Sean Callahan: Thank you. Wonderful to be here.

Nikki Gamer: All right. Before we talk about what the future holds, I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes about some of your experiences. And you’ve been working for CRS for most of your career in the field. I don’t know how you would choose what to highlight—but, tell me, when you think about your career at CRS, what stands out?

Sean Callahan: Well, certainly working with Mother Teresa and some other Nobel laureates like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu and Oscar Arias, some people like that. But Mother Teresa, I spent several years working with her in Calcutta and she was always very bold and wanted us to be bold in what we do. And so one of the occasions she called me up and said, “We need some trucks and supplies to go to Bangladesh.” And I said, “I can get you the supplies, but I can’t send them to Bangladesh because they were sent for India, and we need permission from the government.” So she said, “What do I have to do?” And I told her, and so she said, “Meet me at 2 o’clock.” So I loaded up the trucks, got down there at 2 o’clock, and there’s Mother waving these pieces of paper and saying, “Let’s go!” But she did something strange. She had six sisters with her, and put one sister in the first six trucks. And I thought, “Well, that’s a little strange, but if Mother wants to put a sister in the truck, great.”

Sean Callahan: It turned out, I found later that when they got to the border, there were 1,000 trucks. And as they got to this line of trucks, the first truck was going to pull behind the other ones. And he looked over at the sister, and the sister gave a hand motion, just said, “Keep going.” And he looked at her again, and she did it again, said, “Keep going.” So he passed the trucks, and the other trucks followed him, and they went down a little ways. And then the other truckers stopped them and started pulling out the driver because he was cutting in line, and they were a little bit upset. And he pointed over at the sister, and then they all got out of the truck and just waved them through. And so …

Nikki Gamer: Brilliant.

Sean Callahan: … there it goes. So one of her first miracles, you know.

Nikki Gamer: Brilliant. I love it. How do you bring your experiences to the vision you have for the next phase of our work?

Sean Callahan: You know, I must say, you stand on those who came before you. And I think the mission of CRS has just been an unbelievable mission, and I think we’re now poised to do even greater things and reach to the next level. And so, when I talk about us trying to be bold, you know, I reflect on Mother Teresa. She never said there was something she could not do. It’s just, how do we get it done? The other thing that Mother Teresa always taught me was humility. We need to be a little bit humble in what we do.

Nikki Gamer: Is there a danger in