Since our foundation, Maryknoll Sisters have focused on ministries that promote peace, justice and the integrity of creation. This task is even more crucial today because deforestation, the overexploitation of earth’s resources, trafficking in wildlife, and other unhealthy practices continually increase human suffering, especially among poor people.
In June, the United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, addressed these issues to protect humanity’s source of sustenance. We, as Maryknoll Sisters, share these concerns as we continue to witness the effects of forest degradation, desertification, and environmental pollution, and poor people continue to suffer because of past practices that have damaged their lands, making them infertile.
Since action begins at home, we Maryknoll Sisters are also called to continue concretizing our agenda for the care of the earth. Every tree, every bush on our grounds is an oxygen factory that preserves our health and for which we must care. As we grow in the awareness of our interconnectedness with nature, we begin to realize that it is our duty to care for the earth as God’s precious gift to us and not an object to be exploited. We must join hands in order to change the attitude of dominance that is destroying our planet and over-exploiting its finite resources. The example of groups from around the world who have participated in shaping the UN’s post-2015 development goals inspire us as Maryknoll Sisters. With the help of those who share our vision for mission, we can “make God’s love [truly] visible.”
At the environmental assembly in Nairobi, the UN Secretary General said, “Protecting humanity’s life support system is integral to sustainable development. And it is a duty for all. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil that grows our food are part of a delicate global ecosystem that is increasingly under pressure from human activities.” Ecosystem degradation affects not just human life but all of Earth’s bio-systems. Therefore, the Earth’s community, including Maryknoll Sisters and all those who share our mission values, is called to find effective solutions to today’s problems. Restoring a clean environment, providing sufficient clean water for consumption, and growing sufficient food requires the effective collaboration of all sectors that, together, are able to advocate for more effective environmental policies.
In Africa and other developing areas, many people continue to depend on solid fuels, biomass and open fires for heating and cooking. Household air pollution from such fuels affects the health of children and of the elderly. Industrial, automobile and other air and water pollutants affect human health and their capacity to contribute to the development agenda. Air pollution now ranks as the world’s biggest cause of respiratory illnesses most prevalent in slums where people live in deplorable conditions. Our mission as Maryknoll Sisters is not only the elimination of poverty but to address its root causes and a development agenda that has created a new kind of waste.
Technological progress has created a new kind of trash, electronic waste, which is a health hazard for those who go through the garbage looking for objects that they can re-sell for a living. Electronic waste is a danger to children who play with it and are exposed to such heavy metals as mercury, lead and arsenic among other hazardous substances. E-waste also infiltrates the soil, drinking water as well as the air we breathe.
September 23 is the beginning of the United Nations Climate Summit which will bring together heads of state, civil society leaders, and other stakeholders. This will be a time to link with other groups as well as a time to lobby government officials for effective policies on climate change, and UNEA can provide the overarching policy guidance needed within the UN system.
Our commitment to the promotion of justice, peace and the integrity of creation calls us to urgent action to engage in earth-preserving practices. True collaboration is imperative if we are to succeed in eradicating poverty and in promoting a life of dignity for all God’s people. Jesus said, “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10), which for us means promoting the dignity and integrity of life for all peoples.
From Maryknoll Magazine: In his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis says, “Throughout the world, let us be in a permanent state of mission.” Maryknoll Sister Elizabeth Roach creatively puts those words into practice. Combining her experience as a teacher in Latin America with her passion for writing children’s stories, she brings God’s love to children worldwide through modern technology.
After a 50-year mission career that included teaching children in Bolivia and Peru, working with street children in Hawai,i and doing pastoral work in Panama, the Maryknoll Sister from Pittsburgh, Pa., was not ready to retire in 2002. She took a correspondence course in writing books for children.
Three of her books have been published in paperback and on Kindle. If I Am Worthy tells the story of Maryknoll Father William Kruegler, who gave his life to protect children in Bolivia. Secret Melody, she says, “is a gripping story about child immigrants.”Seven Stories is a collection of tales to be read to children ages 2 to 8.
“My stories are about children, animals and history,” says Sister Roach. “They are written to entertain children. Characters, of course, practice Christian values.”
As soon as Facebook and Twitter appeared, she saw them as other means to reach out with her stories to children whose parents cannot afford to buy books. Sister Roach considers it vital for children to have good stories in a world where so many children suffer. “Stories can lift them out of that suffering even for a short time and show them love and goodness and let them know that somebody cares,” she says. “That is Good News.”
She now has a blog called My Story Hour, where, she says, “I can tell stories to children all over the world because people are accessing the blog in so many places. I’ve had over 11,000 views since I started to put stories on my blog. Some weeks I have Iran, Latvia and Beijing. They can bring stories up in their own language and the translation can be made in about 80 different languages.” (
Sister Roach’s latest discovery is “Skype in the Classroom.” Again she had to learn the technology, but nothing daunts this missionary, who has been a Maryknoll Sister since 1946. “Skype in the Classroom” is a global classroom that has more than 78,000 teachers signed on to it.
With this program, she talks to a class of students who see her and she sees them. She shares her stories with the students and helps them develop skills to write their own stories as they ask her questions.
“In Catholic schools, grades K–2, I add a finger play about how Jesus teaches us to love everyone,” she says. “In public schools I cannot speak of God, but I believe the Gospel is proclaimed by reaching out to everyone in loving ways.” She cites as examples Pope Francis sending chocolate eggs to children with cancer and phone cards to street people. “Those are ways to make God’s love visible in our world,” she says.
She has given three storytelling sessions to kindergartners and first-graders in Ohio and New Jersey and lessons on “The Wonderful World of Writing” to fifth- and sixth-graders in Washington, Alabama and Iowa as well as New Zealand and Canada. She proudly shows thank you notes and drawings she received from one fifth-grade class. She marvels at the brightness of the questions of many and chuckles at the frankness of the remarks of others. One boy wrote, “Thank you for ‘skyping’ us. You sound like a good writer, but I have not heard of you.”
Sister Roach sees technology as a great means of extending mission to the farthest ends of the earth, and the wonderful thing about it, she says, is we can do it from home.
“I always want to be in mission,” she says. “I enjoyed showing children how God loves them during all my years in Bolivia, Peru, Panama and the United States. So, when I discovered cyber-ministry, I knew I could reach even more children as a global cyber missioner.”
Footage and imagery from 1965’s “Bloody Sunday,” the first attempt African-Americans made to march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, in an effort to pressure President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to enact a new national voting rights law, are by now iconic, emblazoned on the minds of millions of Americans for the horror and heroism displayed that day.
For Sister Madeline Dorsey, it was a day in which she and another Maryknoll Sister were placed on the front lines of that march, representing the Black doctors who worked with them at Queen of the World Hospital, the nation’s first interracial hospital, located in Kansas City, MO.
Sister Maddie, now 96, still vividly remembers that regular evening meeting with doctors at that hospital, when the doctors urged them to go to Selma and represent them. She explained that Maryknoll already had plans for two of their Sisters – one from their work among Chinese people in Chicago and another from their ministry among the Japanese in San Francisco – to attend and represent them. “But Sister,” one of the doctors, a “big, burly” fellow, responded, “we are scared! We want you there to represent us!” Sister Maddie said she’d talk to Mother Superior Coleman, assuring the doctors, “I’m sure she will agree to it.” She did.
That Friday morning, March 7, 1965, Sisters Maddie and Christine Donnelly, along with two Sisters from another congregation, a Presbyterian minister and a few others flew to Selma, arriving there in the afternoon for what was expected to be a weekend event.
She recalls what happened next as if it were yesterday:
“As soon as we arrived, the Jesuit priest who had come from one of their colleges in the Northeast grabbed us three Sisters – the Charity Sister from Kansas City, KS, and Sister John Christine Donnelly and myself, Maryknollers – and put us in the front line. Well I think Father thought that having us there would be further evidence that the Church was with them.”
From their front line position, the Sisters and black men with them were face to face with law enforcement officials. “So we had to face the troopers with their ‘whack-em’ sticks – terrible looking things, almost bigger than a baseball bat – so that if you made any move at all, you got whammed. They no doubt had guns on them, but what you were facing were these blue eyes filled with hate for the supporters of the Blacks. I have never before or since seen hate like that in eyes – ever! But you could read it, and it just made me mad to see these blue eyes!
Despite the frightening circumstances, Sister Maddie said they didn’t feel afraid. “We all sang. We’re singing, “We shall overcome!” All that. And some of the really beautiful “Negro spirituals. It was very friendly. We had our arms crossed and linked right across, row after row, all like that, and singing away. And the Negro spirituals were all so beautiful. They’re easy to catch on to. But the “We Shall Overcome” was sung over and over.”
Today, considering her participation that day as just a natural outgrowth of the work they’d been doing in Kansas City for the past 10 years, bringing integration to the schools and hospitals, she is also aware that the job of bringing full equality and social justice for all people to this country is far from over. Sighing, she considers the present-day headlines of police vs. people of color, and commented, “It’s disheartening what’s happening still.”
I’d like to share with you how the birthday of Sister Cecelia Wood and the 33rd anniversary of Our Lady Of Victory Training Center for handicapped youth was celebrated in the Philippines.
There were celebrations all day on September 17 to let Sister Cecelia know that everyone was happy that her 93 years were appreciated. On September 20, it was Homecoming Day, with former residents joining those now living at Our Lady of Victory, to Celebrate the Anniversary. Sisters Cecelia and Sister Maria del Rey (RIP) began this work.
Word from Our Lady of Victory said that ”resident-clients, past and present, honored Sister Cecelia by symbolizing what she has meant in their lives. Diana looks at Sister Cecelia as the key who opened many doors of opportunity toward self-reliance. Lyn Valerio had a Philippine flag to symbolize Sister Cecilia’s long service to the Filipino people. Danilo likened Sister Cecilia to a candle who brought light to his darkened world. Many chose sunshine and sunlight to symbolize Sister Cecilia in their lives.
Some chose a house to symbolize the gift of shelter which Sister Cecelia has provided them, having been homeless before. Archie compared her to a compass always pointing north to show his direction. Inday chose a flat globe to express what Sister has given her: a widened and broadened world. Juliet picture herself as a tree now bearing fruit symbolizing the skills that she has so far acquired from Our Lady of Victory.
Songs, dances, and birthday wishes also were dedicated to Sister Cecilia.”
During the day, other groups came to be with Sister Cecilia. It is wonderful to see and hear about what God has done through one person’s life (and is still working in and through her life). In giving thanks, I also remember the many people who have made this work possible. Through these 33 years, the support has come.…enough for today but never enough for the “tomorrows.” However, when tomorrows turned into a “today,” God provided, through generous people. To all these Partners in Mission with handicapped youth, “THANK YOU.”
Please add your prayers for Sister Cecelia and this amazing work.
The call to be “wholemakers” was emphasized to Maryknoll Sisters at a special Mass held this past Sunday, February 15, 2015, to honor members of the congregation celebrating their 75th, 70th and 60th jubilees with Maryknoll Sisters at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Referencing Bible passages from the day’s Mass, which told of Jesus healing a leper, despite the fact that He would be considered “unclean” by the religious authorities of His day simply because He had touched him, Sister Suzanne Moore, one of the jubilarians, drew an analogy with the work they, as Maryknoll Sisters were called to do. Like Jesus, the Sisters were called to reach out to those who were broken or rejected in society and do what they could to make them whole.
“We Maryknollers are welcomers,” Sister Suzanne said. “We try to make people feel whole. We are wholemakers. Those who come to us we strive to receive warmly. Our smile, our touch becomes their understanding that we care, just as theirs does for us. … It takes faith and courage to welcome the outcast, to bring that person the clarity that they matter to God and to us, to love and assist them.
“Oppression doesn’t fit today,” Sister Suzanne further commented, alluding to scientific discoveries of an ever expanding universe and teachings of theologians such as Teihard de Chardin that have led to wider, more embracing understandings of our cosmos and what it means to live as Christians in today’s world. “We hear the voices of those in need. Lepers, immigrants, the abused, human traffickers, children robbed of their childhood, people of every land are our sisters and brothers, deserving of and asking for recognition, justice and inclusion. According to Ched Meyers in his book, Binding the Strong Man, the lepers represent the presence of life-long oppression, and Jesus took steps to annihilate that… and brought us to a greater understanding of the great love God has for each creature… none to be left behind. What a challenge! Yes, we have embraced it and we will continue to do so.”
A separate Mass for Sisters celebrating 75 years with the congregation will be held in the Fourth Floor Chapel of Maryknoll Sisters Center next Sunday, February 22, 2015, at 11 a.m.
Ten other Sisters, each marking half a century of service with Maryknoll, will celebrate their milestone at another Mass, to be held August 2, 2015, at the Center. Three Sisters marking a quarter century of service will do so on Sunday, September 13, 2015, in Japan.
Those Sisters celebrating 60, 70 and 75 years with the congregation in 2015 include:
75 Years
Sister Alice Regina McGinn of Providence, RI. Sister Alice Regina has served as a principal, teacher and catechetics instructor in Bolivia and Peru. She also has been involved in pastoral ministry at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and other parishes in Providence. She holds a B.S. in education from Maryknoll Teachers College.
Sister Mary Naab of Passaic, NJ. Sister Mary is a social worker who has served most of her time with Maryknoll in the Pacific. She has been in management with Catholic Social Services in Hawaii and California, and helped establish a CSS program in American Samoa.
Sister Vivian Votruba of Minneapolis, MN. Sister Vivian is a medical doctor and has spent most of her 75 years in Bolivia and Peru. She also served in a hospital on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and gave public health service at St. Catherine’s Mission in Minnesota, and currently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY.
70 Years
Sister Camille Marie Black of Andover, NY. Sister Camile Marie served as nursing supervisor of medical, surgical and pediatrics at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Manapla, Philippines; assistant director of Colegio Monte Maria boarding school, Guatemala City, Guatemala; and nurse in a clinic, then hospital, also in Guatemala.
Sister Louise Bullis of Brooklyn, NY. Sister Louise served in Hawaii, as a teacher and religious education coordinator, for 55 years. She has made her home at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining since 2007, and was active in coordinating special events for the congregation’s 100th anniversary in 2012.
Sister Cecile Therese Burton of Washington, DC. Sister Cecile Therese was an educator, then religious education coordinator, in Hawaii for 38 years. She then worked with women in prisons and shelters in Hawaii from 1991-1999.
Sister Maria Rosario Daley of Albany, NY. She was a teacher, then guidance counselor, and finally sacristan and Eucharistic minister in Hawaii, where she currently makes her home. She also taught mathematics at Mary Rogers College, Ossining, NY, and served as personnel coordinator of lay employees at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, also in Ossining.
Sister Noel Chabanel Devine of Philadelphia, PA. Sister Noel taught at St. Therese’s School in Chicago’s Chinatown from 1959-1969 and 1983, serving also as religion coordinator for both school and parish from 1985-1991, directing the parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program. She also taught at Maryknoll Sisters Secondary School in Hong Kong, where she also established a guidance and counseling department, from 1969-1972, and in the congregation’s Archives office from 1980-1983. She presently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Sister Doretta Leonard of New York, NY. A graduate of Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School, Brooklyn, NY, Sister Doretta taught and did catechetical and parish work in China for 54 years. She has made her home at the Maryknoll Sisters Center since 2005.
Sister Marie Morgan of Pittsburgh, PA. A pharmacist with a certificate in clinical pastoral education, Sister Marie worked at Queen of the World Hospital, one of the nation’s first interracial hospitals, in Kansas City, MO; doing leadership training, catechetics and facilitating a weaver’s cooperative in Jacatenango, Huehuetenango, Guatemala; worked in AIDS preventative education in Guatemala and El Salvador, and pastoral ministry in Mexico. She currently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Sister Joan Ratermann of St. Louis, MO. Sister Joan served in Chile for 49 years. During that time, she work as a teacher, principal, catechetical trainer, Bible study group and retreat leader, as well as in pastoral ministry. She now lives at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY, where she worked in the Development Department from 2005-2009, and, since then, is dedicated wholly to prayer for the Chilean people.
Sister M. Katharine Razwad of Boston, MA. Sister Katharine taught in the South Pacific for 18 years, then, after earning a master’s degree in counseling and psychology at Boston College, worked as a counselor from 1973-1975 and in preventative counseling on the elementary school level in the Boston Public School System from 1976-1983. She also served as a substitute teacher for the Boston school system and as a guidance counselor for St. Brigid’s School, Boston, from 1990-1995. She currently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Sister Maria Rieckelman of Cincinnati, OH. Sister Maria is a physician and psychiatrist. She worked in Asia, first Korea, then Hong Kong, for 13 years, then embarked upon 27 years of itinerant ministry to other missioners and leaders in 30 different nations, helping them face issues of interpersonal growth, leadership, trauma and stress through workshops, retreats and individual counseling. She currently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Sister Gloria Ryan of Brooklyn, NY. Sister Gloria served in the Philippines for 19 years, first as a teacher then working with the poor in Filipino barrios. She then returned to the United States where she worked with runaway girls at St. Brigid’s Convent, New York, NY, and taught in the adult education program of the Rochambeau School, White Plains, NY. She also worked with Salvadoran refugees out of St. Brigid’s Convent, Westbury, NY. Sister Gloria currently resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.
Sister Kathryn Shannon of Oconomowoc, WI. Sister Kathryn has taught in New York, Hawaii, and Tanzania, where she also worked in primary evangelization, religion, literacy, leadership traing, adult education and community development. She also served in Zimbabwe, where she taught at the Danhiko School for former Freedom Fighters and at St. Alphonsus Parish, where she was also involved with community development. She also served as a teacher and catechist trainer in Southern Sudan, and was involved with justice and peace issues via the Maryknoll Sisters’ Center Cerns Committee at their Center in Ossining, NY. She presently makes her home at Maryknoll Sisters Convent, Monrovia, CA.
60 Years
Sister Theresa Baldini of Brooklyn, NY, has been part of her congregation’s contemplative community since 1963. During that time, she has not only served in the congregation’s contemplative community near Ossining, NY, where she presently resides, but founded such communities among the Navajo people in New Mexico and in Sudan.
Sister Mary Edna Brophy of High River, AB, Canada. A medical missioner, Sister Mary Edna has spent most of her 60 years in Hong Kong, where she has train others in nursing and provided administration at hospitals and clinics. She has also provided health care to the elderly and infirm of her own congregation near Ossining, NY.
Sister Joyce Burch of Memphis, TN. A medical technician and nurse, Sister Joyce has served at Queen of the World Hospital, Kansas City, MO, the first interracial U.S. hospital, then in Tanzania and Kenya, finally working to care for the health of ill and elderly Maryknoll Sisters at its Center near Ossining, NY, where she currently resides.
Sister Elizabeth Burns of Hartford, CT. A medical missioner, Sister Elizabeth has provided health care in Korea and the United States. Now residing at the Sisters Center near Ossining, NY, she became recipient of Distinguished Managerial Service Award from the State of Connecticut in 1987 for her work with the Connecticut State Health Department from 1973-1999. During that time, she served first as a hospital inspector and consultant, then as Chief of Licensure and Certification of Medical Facilities, then as Director of Hospital and Medical Care, and finally as Chief of Staff of the Health Department.
Sister Anne Callahan of Lowell, MA has served two terms as Treasurer of her congregation, located near Ossining, NY. She has served as an educator and principal in Hawaii, as well as a pastoral worker in Mexico and Guatemala. She currently lives in Baltimore, MD.
Sister Marlene Condon of Montevideo, MN. Sister Marlene is a medical missioner who served at Queen of the World Hospital, the nation’s first interracial hospital, in Kansas City, MO, as well as Chile and Guatemala. She is currently director of St. Mary’s Hospice, Pajapita, Guatemala.
Sister Kathleen Kelly of Chicago, IL. Sister Kathleen most recently served at Mujeres Latinas en Accion, a bilingual social service agency in Chicago, and, previously, at the Institute of Human Promotion, working for human rights and the welfare of families and communities in Nicaragua. She has also taught commercial subjects in Nicaragua.
Sister Vera Krass of Jamaica, NY, has served in Tanzania, Kenya and the United States. Her work has including teaching high school in East Africa, working with the homeless in Honolulu, HI, and with senior citizens in California.
Sister Josephine Lucker of El Paso, TX,has spent much of her missionary life in Africa, first as a teacher, then headmistress, at schools in Tanzania, then providing catechetical training throughout East Africa, followed by work with refugees in Zimbabwe and El Salvador.
Sister Suzanne Moore of Burlington, VT, a social worker for more than 50 years, coordinates immigration services at Maryknoll Sisters Center near Ossining, NY, and works with immigrants under the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Life Center at St. Ann’s Parish, Ossining, and other Westchester County locations.
Sisters Janice McLaughlin and Antoinette Gutzler, the exiting and incoming Presidents of Maryknoll Sisters, each reflected on the past and future of their congregation at a Mass held January 4 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, during which Sister Antoinette, along with Sisters Numeriana Mojado, incoming vice president, Anastasia Lott and Teruko Ito were installed as the new Congregational Leadership Team for Maryknoll Sisters. The new team, which were elected to serve by representatives of their membership at the congregation’s 17th General Assembly this past September, will serve their community in this capacity for the next six years.
“We Maryknoll Sisters have embraced many dawns and navigated many shifts since that winter day in 1912 when the first three women arrived at Hawthorne to participate in a new missionary venture,” Sister Janice noted in her opening remarks, referencing the congregation’s theme for the coming six years: Embrace the Dawn; Navigate the Shifts. “They had no idea how this venture would unfold…. In our new mission statement, we pledge to be ‘wholemakers,’ to engage our energies in mission by promoting the free flowing of God’s love to those most affected by the critical issues of our time…We are aware that new issues will continue to emerge. They will call us to leave our comfort zones, to nourish wholeness of being in one earth community, wherever that takes us….” (See PDF)
Sister Antoinette reflected that the Star that hovered over the stable in Bethlehem was the same Star that drew Mollie Rogers, their beloved Mother Mary Joseph, into her religious experience at Smith College, when she was drawn to the excitement of the Protestant girls who had just signed the student pledge to go to China.
“As she prayed in the church across the street, she[Mother Mary Joseph] measured her faith and her expression of it by the sight she had just witnessed, and she began to embrace the dawn of this new desire taking root in her heart, the desire for Catholic women to also be a part of the missionary endeavor of the Church. The Star that captivated our first women to Maryknoll is the same Star that we hold close to our hearts as we embrace the dawn of this new moment and navigate the journey of mission today, for we too are stewards of God’s voice.” (See PDF)
During the Mass, the exiting Congregational Leadership Team exchanged gifts of painted stone, symbolic of spiritual gifts they passed on to the new team. One of fire, symbolizing transformation, was bestowed on Sister Antoinette; another, of earth, symbolizing nurturing and grounding, was given to Sister Numeriana; a third, showing water, symbolizing cleansing and healing, was given to Sister Anastasia, and the final one, depicting air, a symbol of discernment, was given to Sister Teruko.
The new leadership team comes to their roles from various levels and modes of experience, talents and abilities.
Sister Antoinette Gutzler, President. Born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in Queens, Sister Antoinette is a 2001 graduate of Fordham University, Bronx, NY, with a Ph.D. in systematic theology. She has taught in both Tanzania and Taiwan during her 50 years with Maryknoll. Her recent publications include: “Internalization and Globalization of Women’s Homelessness: A Taiwan Perspective” (2010) and “Navigating the Tradition: A Christian Feminist Perspective on the Power of Creedal Language to Shape the Lives of Women” (2008). She is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), The American Academy of Religion (AAR), and consultant to the Ecclesia of Women in Asia (EWA).
Sister Numeriana Mojado, Vice-President. Born in the Philipppines, Sister Numeriana is a 1998 graduate of Fordham University, Bronx, NY, with an M.S. in Religious Studies and an R.N. from Marian School of Nursing, Manila. During her nearly 40 years with Maryknoll Sisters she has ministered among the urban poor in Korea and migrant workers. She is a member of the Maryknoll Sisters Contemplative Community.
Sister Anastasia Lott, General Secretary. Sister Anastasia is holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of San Diego (1979) and an M. A. in African Studies from the Maryknoll Institute for African Studies of St. Mary’s University. She has done pastoral, leadership development and health work in Venezuela, Tanzania and Namibia. For the past 11 years, she hasI served in the congregation’s Development Department, first as director of planned giving from 2003-2010, then as Director of Development from 2010-2014.
Sister Teruko Ito, Team Member. Sister Teruko, a native of Japan, is a 1995 graduate of Fordham University, Bronx, NY, with an M.A. in Religion and Religious Education. She has served in Tanzania, where she taught high school mathematics, and in Japan, where she did social work for alcoholism-related programs from 1978-1988. She served as a member of the Congregational Orientation Program in Newburgh, NY from 1989-1994. She was also involved in the Ministry of the Promotion of Women for the Diocese of San Marcos from 1995-2004.
As I write this, I was immediately brought back to my recent time in Bangladesh. I have never seen such poverty in all my years, which includes service in East Africa and the Middle East. There are families who make their homes on the street.
As I walked each day, I saw a blind man with his 10- or 11-year-old daughter begging. Most of the time, the girl was so tired she just fell asleep in his arms. There we saw a blind man (with a young girl asleep on his lap) begging for help.
Another frequent sight I saw was of a 5- or 6-year-old girl who sat begging with her baby brother (about 8 or 9 months old) asleep in her arms. The girl had a tiny little skirt on with a bare chest while the baby was naked.
When I walked on the crosswalk in order to cross the road, I saw families who were claiming their space after a night on the street. I was told that they sleep there each night and also gather there when the rains come.
In the face of this poverty, Maryknoll Sisters Miriam Frances Perlewitz and Claudette La Verdiere are doing their best to educate as many Bangladeshi students as possible. Sister Miriam Frances began an English Medium School and is now in the process of training young graduates of the school to take over the administration and teaching in the school. The children in the school are being trained to think critically, using values taught in their classes, as they continue on their journeys through life. Hopefully, these will be the leaders of Bangladesh sometime in the future and the values instilled in them in their education at the Bacha School will produce leaders who will help in the development of the country.
Sister Claudette is also teaching at the seminary in Dhaka. She is helping to train leaders for the church of Bangladesh.
This experience in Bangladesh taught me much about resilience in the face of the difficulties that life gives us. They smiled, put on their best sari’s, and looked magnificent as they strolled along the crowded sidewalks. Is grace something that comes in the soul, so that nothing can take that grace from us?
Thirty four years ago just around this time, our Sisters heard urgent news… the disappearance of our Sisters Maura Clark and Ita Ford. We knew if anyone disappeared in El Salvador it meant they had been killed by the military death squads. It turned out that our Sisters had been on an incoming evening flight and their two friends, Dorothy Kazal and Jeanne Donovan drove to the airport to pick them up. As they started home, they were stopped just outside the airport, taken away, murdered and buried, just like so many of their beloved people. This was ordered and done by men associated with or trained by the United States at the School of the Americas… the SOA. Every November, at the Annual SOA Vigil at Fort Benning Georgia, their names are now sung, bringing back the sorrow of what happened thirty four years ago. … Still things have not changed for the better as has been made plain as we see the floods of children fleeing the threat of violence in El Salvador and other Central American countries. This is an introduction to my blog which follows. I ask you to sit down and read it in honor of my two friends and their co-workers, four who were so young, courageous and generous; who died December 2nd, 1980. ‘Presente’ and ‘Presente’ to the 75,000 with whom they died.
2014 SOA VIGIL– A PLACE TO BE
In the Biblical story of Noah after the floods began to subside Noah sent out a dove and because she could not find a place to ‘put her foot’ she returned to the Ark…
We are like this dove in the middle of a flood: violence in our cities that is exacerbated by police killing unarmed men… if they are black; corruption of electoral systems; wars without end; corporations hell bent on destroying our land, our water and our weather…for profit of course; Immigrants being swept up by Immigration and Border Police who then disappear them before our very eyes; vicious racism still alive and well… If this is not a flood then we are really in denial, big time.
The problem for us is there is no Ark to return to! So, that leaves us with a choice… while we still have one: We either have to change ourselves and our society or live with the consequences! Who did this to us? Well, could I say, we were too busy watching football games? How did this happen when there really were warning signs… and prophets who warned us. Resist the evil of our institutions or we will inevitably come to unending violence. Martin Luther King said it specifically, the six Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador, our own Church Women testified to it by their lives.
I know one place to go before the floods get any worse. It has been a place where memories are held with loving respect and voices are raised in truth and prayer. It is a place where we can call those to be present with us who were massacred because their existence got in the way of power and wealth. This holy place reveals the ‘how did this happen’… and is itself a connector of causes of our present day flood. We call it the SOA. It is a name that we refuse to change as it holds such tragic memories. It is a school that trains foreign military personnel how to torture, how to perpetrate the successful overthrow of national governments, how to set up the military into power, and even how to massacre locals and get away with it. If we look at the history of the Central American nations now, the SOA has had a very big part to play in the present numbers leaving behind guns, fear… and man-made poverty. That the SOA has set off this movement of people is demonstrated by those who murdered the six Jesuits and their housekeepers… by those who both ordered and murdered our beloved Sisters and Church Women. The SOA connects directly to the coup d’état in Honduras and to the present military ruler. Thus this school and its graduates are the dots that actually tie this history to the immigrant children now flooding our borders.
So, we go to the SOA year after year… Whom we met there this year, were people from all over the U.S. and beyond, two thirds of who were there for the first time. They felt the need to connect the dots, to stand with people just like themselves and with those who were struggling against the flood. This year those gathered were able to reach out and ‘touch’ one of the ‘dots’ connecting the escaping ‘undocumented’ immigrants.
Leaving Ft. Benning we drove through beautiful but empty countryside to a little town called Lumpkin. From there we walked together* the mile and a half to THE detention center… the largest in the nation, made to hold 16,000 immigrants, more people than live in the town. The first thing we saw when we arrived was the huge sign over the entrance of the facility, “CCA”, the company runs it: As their website says: “Welcome to CCA, America’s leader in partnership corrections. We provide solutions…” In other words it is a for-profit industry. This is why ICE is so busy collecting undocumented immigrants… CCA needs to fill this prison and others like it to make profit. Depressing? It reminded me of the Japanese concentration camps of the 1940’s!
The intention of our SOA Group was to stand in front of this abomination of all we hold sacred. Here we prayed and sang and heard from a man who had been detained in that prison for one year and a half. Five of our March volunteered to do civil-disobedience to focus attention on this hidden ‘dot’ and to do penance for our selfish and racist politics and policies, our Industries that negotiate in human lives.
Returning to the gates of Fort Benning we all gathered again to greet those who came to protest ‘The School’ right there on the grounds of this military base. On the street, music and talks had already started and booths were ready for the crowd. We had our own table with Maryknoll pamphlets magazines and books, all hand carried! Within a very short time all the books were gone. The crowd, though small, was searching and found something to help ground themselves. In the evening our Maryknoll Gathering reflected the larger group. The people in our circle came just to be with us as we shared our Maryknoll reality together with our faithful prophet, Roy Bourgeois, Founder of the SOA Movement
Then on Sunday we joined together in the solemn Vigil procession honoring, by name and song, the so many killed by former SOA trainees in El Salvador, Columbia, Guatemala and now Honduras. All held high white crosses and as the choir sang the names we lifted them up with our sung prayer, ‘presente’. We planted these crosses on the fence that surrounds the Entrance of Fort Benning and returned a second time to tie black ribbons on them. Thus we came full circle to the precious ‘dots’ that are our own Sister Martyrs along with the many whose names and ages we hold in precious memory.
The SOA Vigil is a holy place place to be… maybe from among those who companioned us, some might even be able to hold back the flood we experience rising around us. Where is your ‘place to be’… the solid and safe ground ‘to put your foot’?
Friends, this time my blog is dedicated to Steve Lalli who is responsible for all of my blogs! It is he who is always after me to do one… on some urgent topic we are concerned about, or one about another important action we have joined. Well, he is in the hospital recovering from a terrible accident that happened on a snowy day just before Thanksgiving. Since then, his wife and family have been with him, literally, and so have we, but in a different way. Since that day Steve has been present in our urgent prayers, continually… non-stop. After the accident, I think heaven has been having its own snow storm… a big prayer blizzard… Our Sisters are really good prayers.
Recently, we were invited:” if you have a chance to visit Steve, you’ll see your prayers impact…!” General rejoicing! Steve is on his way back to us, and will be after us to write again… “People will want to know about this, Sister!”“When will you have that blog ready Sister?” Steve is always promoting the use of this media to make God’s love visible… literally. Thank God for Steve Lalli and for returning him to us…all.
I wanted you to share what suddenly happened to Steve because his misfortune affected so many, including us here at our Maryknoll Center. Using irony we could say: we were overtaken by real life… and real life has a way of happening to us all, un-expectantly and in various forms. I am sure you have experienced it yourself. If we look around us we can see so many overwhelmed by real life’s misfortunes.
We have had example after example in our newspapers and television… ordinary people being overwhelmed by tragedy… violence in Nigeria, in Paris, in Syria, in Palestine, even in our own neighborhoods real life has affected so many. Many of us are trying to deal with all that is happening… issues thought already resolved… facing unanticipated disasters. To focus on just a couple we could name our formerly ‘dependable’ weather and even our ‘reliable’ police.
Climate change is now a reality of life and the results are often experienced along our coasts & rivers, and even in our front streets or nearby highways. Last Sunday highway police were out in force turning people around and sending them home in order to get them off of icy roads. We had a meeting that morning with folks coming from all over the area… All got back home safely! Photos in the news showed not all were so lucky. Who would expect a film of ice under the rain could cause such havoc affecting so many? Climate has become for us, real life.
We have another tragedy affecting our streets… a social one. We have all had encounters with police. Maybe you can recall your own? For most people their experiences have been good, but limited to the U.S.. Most of us at Maryknoll however, have lived in other countries so we know police under various circumstances, not all of them good, some even violent.
In Japan, even Tokyo, police were ‘part of the neighborhood’ where they knew everyone and all could approach them easily. However, once when visiting another country, our driver got lost so I innocently suggested we ask a policeman for directions. The response was better than a lecture on conditions in that country… “We could never ask for directions from the police! We avoid the police!” And in Palestine I experienced myself Israeli police who are violent and whose presence brings tragedy to innocent Palestinian families and their loved ones. Suddenly police violence happens to them, and like Steve, their misfortune affects so many. Palestinian communities are terrified of police as are our black communities here. Their dread comes from real life, and for those of us who experience police quite differently it is almost beyond comprehension. However, what they experience is real and it our burden to be open to understanding real life as it happens to others different from ourselves. If we can do this, violence will subside, the healing will begin and heartbreak will change to… is it possible… general rejoicing!
The point I want to make is that Steve brought us all together… We learned first had what it means to understand what another is going through… to reach out in prayer, to do what we can. We are not meant to live as strangers, neither with our police nor with each other. We are not meant to live in such destructive ways with Nature and the Earth. When we come upon ‘real life’ intruding on our own lives in any way, we can struggle with the experience alone or we can experience hands reaching out to help us, or even our own extended to our neighbors.
Well, what happened to Steve has taught us a lot. Steve is more even than neighbor to us now. He has become part of our family and this family can hardly wait for him to return, the sooner the better.
Orphan – we know that reality: no parents. But in Zimbabwe, they use the phrase double orphanto describe a very hard reality. Having one parent is hard; having no parents, almost unbearable.
No one has suffered more than children as Zimbabwe was ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Many children have lost both parents to AIDS, and their relatives are often too poor or too sick to care for them adequately. As a result, these little ones spend their days trying to survive, and many of them don’t. Even if they do manage to stay alive, their day-to-day lives are filled with desperation, fear, violence and abuse.
But Sister Mary Frances Kobets, M.M., (above left) and the staff of the Orphans, Education, and Agricultural Support (OEAS) program in Zimbabwe are working hard each day to ensure that Emmanuel and hundreds of other orphans no longer have to fend for themselves. Recently, schoolchildren in the project benefited when their dilapidated classroom received new chalkboards from Sister Frances and the OEAS program.
“We want to make sure the children know that somebody cares about them, that God loves them, that no matter what has been put into their daily lives, they are not forgotten.”
As with so many other ministries around the world, the greatest challenge for OEAS of course, is funding. In almost every office and region, we have had to drastically cut budgets to make ends meet. As you can imagine, budgets don’t get cut without sacrifices. In this case, a sacrifice might mean a child in Africa doesn’t get the medical assistance he or she needs to survive, or a community in Latin America will not have access to clean water, or victims of human trafficking in Asia may never escape the violence and indignity that mark their daily lives. That is where you can help.
No one has suffered more than children as east Africa was ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Together with our partners, Maryknoll Sisters are there for these orphans.
Can you give our Sisters the resources they need to provide concrete assistance, practical support, spiritual guidance, and unconditional love to the people they serve? For those in need — an orphaned child, a lonely widow, a frightened woman, a man trying to support his family — hearing a message of love and hope and possibility is the greatest gift they may ever receive. You can send that message.
“When a donation comes in, it is used right away. It goes to the greatest need. The gifts we receive keep children in school.”
Since our foundation, Maryknoll Sisters have focused on ministries that promote peace, justice and the integrity of creation. This task is even more crucial today because deforestation, the overexploitation of earth’s resources, trafficking in wildlife, and other unhealthy practices continually increase human suffering, especially among poor people.
