Yesterday I attended a White House Summit on International Development and found myself in the company of the unlikeliest of duos – punk rock pioneer turned political activist, Bob Geldof, and the President of the United States, George W. Bush (known inside the building simply by the initials of his title, POTUS).

They were together to stress the urgency of international efforts to address hunger, disease and disadvantage in the developing world, particularly in Africa, and particularly at a time of a global financial crisis.

Geldof made a name for himself before you were born – in 1984 he mobilized rock stars for Band Aid to record a song in response to the plight of starving children in Ethiopia. He and a friend wrote the touching song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in order to raise funds and awareness and the song was recorded by a chorus of celebrity musicians including Bono and Sting (add it to your ITunes if you haven’t already).

Seven years later he organized simultaneous rock concerts in Wembley Stadium in London and RFK Stadium in Philadelphia under the umbrella of Live Aid. He has continued to organize musicians in the service of the continent of Africa and its suffocating international debt. You might remember the Live 8 concerts held three and a half years ago – Geldof and his friends organized those as well.

Yesterday President Bush praised him as a man “who has used his fame to help others in need.”

Who could have thought that a man who left his job canning peas to form his breakthrough punk group, The Boomtown Rats, would be shoulder to shoulder with African heads of state and the leader of the free world?

My favorite fun fact on Bob Geldof is the name he gave one of his daughters: Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa (she’s now 19). When Peaches joins her sister Fifi Trixibelle and step sister, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, they must have a lot to talk about!

Anyway, yesterday in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Geldof met privately with POTUS and then sat with the five member delegation from Liberia whose president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, introduced President Bush. President Bush may be very unpopular in America right now but he is hugely admired in Liberia. President Johnson Sirleaf thanked him “on behalf of a continent of 950 million people” and said he would be remembered “for his generosity in increasing assistance exponentially.”

The statistics she cited should make every American proud: the AIDS treatment and prevention initiative provides life-saving care to 1.3 million in sub-Saharan Africa, the Malaria Initiative has helped 25 million, and the trade initiatives (half of the trade pacts signed during his presidency have been in the Third World, including several African nations) have provided sustainable growth. She concluded, “What a legacy, Mr. President.”

She spoke with emotion because it was not long ago that in her own country, chaos and violence ruled. But in 2003, after an estimated 250,000 Liberians had been killed, America intervened. Today, Liberia is an emerging democracy.

The reason I was invited is because of my past work with the Faith-based Initiative that sought to treat religious charities and faith-filled volunteers as partners, not rivals, of government as both labored to abate poverty and mitigate misery. President Bush made repeated references to these “armies of compassion” and if you want to read the transcript, go to  http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/10/20081022-1.html

I learned a lot yesterday at the summit. For example, I did not know that malaria kills 1 child every 30 seconds. Nor did I know that there are children’s merry-go-rounds connected to water pumps and so as children furiously play there is potable water pumped and delivered (they are called “play pumps”). And if you would have asked me what matters more to a developing country – foreign assistance or foreign trade – I would have been shocked to learn that the latter is 40 times greater than the former.

Now Bob Geldof is 54 and is committing most of his free time to lessening suffering and augmenting hope.

Who at Saint Vincent is going to follow in his path? I don’t mean as a rock star – I mean as an agent of compassion.

As you open your eyes to the world beyond your dorms and classrooms, you will discover, if you haven’t already, the masses of hungry, sick and hopeless people who live at our mercy all over the world and even in our own back yards.

The faces of the hungry children and the lonely elderly, the disabled and sick, reflect the same God-given human dignity that we have. They invite us to love and to serve. We have more in common with them than we think. Indeed, in light of how they teach us much about life and our need for each other, one could say that we actually need relationships with them.

Take advantage of our Service Learning office and its programs – drop by their offices (they are next to mine) on 2nd Alfred. Or go by Campus Ministry and learn about mission trips to Calcutta, Brazil and elsewhere. Each of our clubs has at least one exciting service project so sign up and serve.

You may not become a celebrity like Bob Geldof, but in the eyes of those whom you help – and in the eyes of God – you will have fame.