Maryknoll Sisters

By Mary Ellen Manz, M.M.

From Maryknoll Magazine: When Susan Wanzagi took her first vows as a Maryknoll Sister last August, her vocation journey came full circle—back to her baptism in Tanzania. Presiding at the Mass for Sister Wanzagi’s profession was the very same priest who baptized her 30 years earlier: Father Edward Dougherty, superior general of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers for the last six years.

While neither remembers the exact celebration of the sacrament, their entwining paths seem like, … well, providence.

Recently in Africa for a meeting of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers serving there, Father Dougherty learned that two young Tanzanians had expressed interest in joining the Maryknoll Sisters. “The missioners were excited, exclaiming that ‘two of our girls’ from Musoma are going to be Maryknoll missioners,” says Father Dougherty, who served in the Musoma Diocese of Tanzania from 1976 to 1986.

A short time later, when he was visiting Chicago, he met another future Maryknoll Sister from Tanzania, Susan Wanzagi, who comes from the Zanaki parish where he had served. She was in her canonical year—the last stage of preparation before taking her first vows as a Sister.

As they greeted each other, Sister Wanzagi surprised Father Dougherty with the news that he had baptized her when she was 4 years old!

Both had to admit they didn’t remember each other. Father Dougherty says he and the four other Maryknoll missioners then working in Zanaki spent most of their time visiting mission stations in the African bush, where they ministered to thousands of people.

“It was my first parish after ordination. I loved that mission,” says Father Dougherty. “It was huge, taking in at least 50 villages. That area was later divided into four or five parishes.”

It was Sister Wanzagi’s mother, Joyce, who had remembered him.

Sister Wanzagi says she owes her faith and vocation to her mother’s desire to provide her nine children with a solid religious upbringing. Peter Wanzagi, the new Sister’s late father, was a Catholic and her mother was a member of the Anglican Church. But Maryknoll Sisters had taught both of Sister Wanzagi’s parents and her mother decided to become a Catholic so the family could worship together. Susan’s mother was received into the Catholic Church and four of her children were baptized in the Zanaki parish in 1984.

“When I was young, I felt that I would like to be a religious Sister,” Sister Wanzagi says. “But then I was busy studying in schools away from home and the thought left me for a while.” One day in 1999, Maryknoll Sister Connie Krautkremer visited Susan’s high school and spoke about the missionary work of the Maryknoll Sisters. She invited the students to think about their own lives and what God might be calling them to do. “It was then that I decided to be a Maryknoll Sister,” Sister Wanzagi says.

After finishing secondary school, she went to the University of Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, earned a bachelor’s degree in education and taught high school while she discerned her calling.

On Jan. 6, 2012—the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Maryknoll Sisters—Susan was welcomed by the Sisters in Tanzania to begin her journey with the congregation by experiencing its prayer life and various ministries, sharing in the household duties and getting to know the Sisters and herself a little better. As she learned about the history and missions of the Maryknoll Sisters throughout the world, she says, “I was very moved to see the suffering of people and it helped to make my choice to be a Maryknoll Sister very strong.”

On Aug. 10 of this year, the spiritual relationship begun 30 years ago at baptism marked a milestone as Father Dougherty presided over the eucharistic celebration at which Susan Wanzagi pronounced her vows in the Maryknoll Sisters Chapel at Maryknoll, N.Y.

“It’s really exciting the way things develop,” Father Dougherty says, alluding to how the Holy Spirit has worked not only in Sister Susan’s life but also in the entire Wanzagi family. Sister Susan’s brother John is a priest for the Musoma Diocese and studying in Rome, and her sister Felista is following in Susan’s footsteps. Felista is in her first year of orientation with the Maryknoll Sisters in Tanzania.

“Mission is continuing through Susan, her brother and her sister and so many others where we served in mission years ago,” Father Dougherty says. “Truly, what goes around comes around and we are privileged to be a part of it.”

By Steve Lalli

Graduation day will be held in November for seniors at St. Paul Catholic High School (Colégio São Paulo). As they receive their prized diplomas, the newly graduated members of the Class of 2014 in Aileu, East Timor, will have plenty of memories of lessons learned in the classroom. A Maryknoll Sister, though, will never forget what her students taught her.

“They led me out of the classroom and into villages, beaches, boats, marketplaces, kitchens, and mountain trails in the name of ‘teaching,’”Sister Julia Shideler said of the students who have risen from the poverty of their country to graduate.

“They taught me that a teacher is first of all a person who cares, gives of herself, practices what she teaches, models behavior rather than preaches it, has infinite patience, and offers all that she’s learned in life as living wisdom for a new generation.” Since arriving in East Timor six year ago, Sister Julia has taught subjects as diverse as geology, human origins, and English. Lately, she’s had lots of time to think about the students she said goodbye to for several months this year as she discerned professing Final Vows in September.

In addition to her preparation for Final Vows, Sister Julia, 36, has spent the last five months training to run a half-marathon race near Seattle. For each mile she completed in the Snohomish River Run on October 26, supporters are pledging to donate to the scholarship fund she created for her students back in East Timor. The teens’ fervent desire is to graduate from college, a dream that most of their families cannot afford.

“I was not a trained teacher when I left for East Timor, but what I learned about teaching came from my experiences with these beloved ones,” Sister Julia said of the teens, who have become more than ordinary students. Throughout the half-marathon, held in Snohomish, WA, the young people were on her on mind with each sprint she exerted. Sister Julia was happy with her success in the 13.5-mile race–she crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 59 minutes and 17 seconds. That translates to about 9 minutes per mile! To all of her students back in East Timor, she says, “Thank you.”

Sister Julia is one of four Maryknoll Sisters who serve the economically poor in the island nation of 1,201,542 people (CIA World Factbook) just north of Darwin, Australia, with Indonesia as its neighbor. Education remains a challenge following years of war as the nation struggled for independence. Over 70 percent of children leave school before reaching the ninth year, according to the country’s Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030. In 2004, when a comprehensive census was completed, less than one in two people graduated from high school.

Celina Saldanha is among the lucky ones. A young woman in high school, Celina has eight young siblings and a single mother who suffers from back injuries. Celina was sent to Aileu to live with an uncle, Sister Julia said, but he can’t afford the school fees. ”I agreed to pay her tuition at the Catholic high school until she graduates. Otherwise, she may be forced to drop out.”

Francisco Martins also has a dream. Francisco was orphaned at a young age, losing both parents during the Indonesian occupation. Raised by an uncle, he was left alone after finishing high school. “I knew he was bright and capable,” Sister Julia said, “so with our support, he enrolled in mathematics with the dream of becoming a math teacher.”

“This ministry is ongoing,” she said, “as I try to follow up and stay in touch with the students.”  During these months serving in the United States, while visiting family in the state of Washington, Sister Julia is preparing to return to East Timor with news of the scholarships she will be offering, raised in part from her half-marathon in October.

In giving educational scholarships to more young people in Aileu District, including deserving members of the Class of 2014 at St. Paul’s, Sister Julia is hoping they learn a fundamental message of mission—and of life: “I want them to feel like God is there for them, working through other people, and that God will use them in the future to help other people.”

Thirty-four years ago, four churchwomen were slain in El Salvador, simply for daring to walk in love and life with the poor.  The lives of those four women – Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, along with Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missioner Jean Donovan – as well as other Maryknoll Sisters, including Sister Carla Piete, who gave her life to save Sister Ita’s, were commemorated in a moving Mass, held this past Sunday, November 30, 2014, at Maryknoll Sisters Center.

Family and close friends of Sisters Ita and Maura attended the Mass, which has become an annual observance made the first Sunday of Advent at the Center, gathered with the congregation to once again pay tribute to sacrifices made and to contemplate those who, even in the present day, face death in the course of missionary endeavors.

“The violent and sudden deaths of our martyrs remind us that we do not know the manner of our death or the time,” commented Maryknoll Sisters President Janice McLaughlin, MM, in her welcoming remarks prior to the beginning of Mass. “We are advised to prepare ourselves, to be ready. Ita and Maura had just come from a regional meeting in Nicaragua, only a few months after Carla died.  In the company of their Maryknoll Sisters and friends from Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador (some of whom are with us today), they were strengthened in their resolve to return to El Salvador in spite of the danger. They were prepared. They were ready.”

“Martyrdom is not a thing of the past; a phenomenon that took place hundreds of years ago under Roman Emperors, or under Stalinist, Nazi or Communist governments,” Sister Janice was quick to add. “It is very much a reality of our own time.

“A few weeks ago the Eastern Fellowship of Professors of Mission ‘Christian Mission in Times of Persecution’. We heard the witness of Christians from Pakistan, North Korea, Syria and Iraq who barely escaped death themselves; whose friends, neighbors and family members were brutally murdered because of their faith.

“More people than ever before are dying because of what they believe – an estimated 100,000 per year.[1] In an article called “Flashpoints for Future Martyrdom”, historian Eric Hanson states: “This new vocation of the global religious-based international servant of humanity could inspire a new generation of young people to live out their faith in situations that would be more, rather than less, demanding than that of facing the lions in the Roman Coliseum…  True peacemakers will not have to look for martyrdom… it will easily find them.”[2]

Martyrdom found our friends, Ita, Maura, Carla, Jean and Dorothy – as well as all the Maryknoll martyrs whose photos are placed around this chapel and those yet to come. We know the stories of how they suffered and died…. Their lives make a difference. So should ours.”

The four churchwomen will also be remembered in a prayer service to be held Tuesday, December 2, 2014, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.  The public is invited.

By Mary Ellen Manz, M.M.

From Maryknoll Magazine: I believe religious life has a prophetic voice for the world and that we need to proclaim this from the heart of who we are,” says Sister Antoinette (Nonie) Gutzler, the newly elected president of the Maryknoll Sisters.
She  and a three-member team of Sisters will for the next six years lead their Congregation to continue to proclaim God’s love to the world. This, says Sister Gutzler, means discerning where the greatest needs are and how God is calling the Sisters to respond. The new leadership team brings to this task vast experience in mission overseas and in the United States.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sister Gutzler entered the Congregation in 1964. She took education courses at the Maryknoll Sisters Rogers College and earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from Mundelein College in Chicago in 1971.

That year she also received her first overseas assignment, to Tanzania, where she taught religion and helped establish a Christian center for high school students.
In 1975 she returned to the States to do mission education in the New England area. In 1978 she was assigned to Taiwan. For the next 10 years she was director of the Sodality of Young Workers Center, founded by the Maryknoll Sisters for factory workers to find support and learn leadership skills.

Called back to Maryknoll, N.Y., in 1989, Sister Gutzler became director of the Sisters personnel office, which, she says, gave her the opportunity to meet many Sisters she didn’t know. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D., both in systematic theology, from Fordham University

and returned to Taiwan in 2001. Since then, she has been teaching in the theologate at Fu Jen University and giving lectures in theology throughout Asia.

Sister Gutzler says she remains inspired by her Taiwanese sisters and brothers. “Many,” she says, “live their faith in the midst of a multi-religious family, where they are the only Catholic.”

As for her Congregation, she says, “I hope we continue to grow in our contemplative awareness of what is happening in our world, with an ever deepening passion for Christ’s mission by being witnesses of God’s loving presence in all of creation and in all people.”

Sister Numeriana (Norie) Mojado, vice president, was born in the Philippines. After graduating as a nurse from the Marian School of Nursing in Manila, she worked in emergency rooms for 13 years in the Philippines, the United States and Canada. “However,” she says, “I needed something more. That’s when I saw Maryknoll magazine and applied to join the Sisters.”

She studied theology at the Maryknoll School of Theology and became certified in clinical pastoral education. In 1976, she received her first mission assignment: South Korea, to work in a psychiatric clinic in Seoul.
Sister Mojado was part of an integrated community of Maryknoll priests, lay missioners and Korean religious and laity, offering pastoral counseling and spiritual direction among the urban poor. Maryknoll Father Russell Feldmeier was also on the team.
Back in the States, Sister Mojado earned a master’s degree in religious education, with concentrations in pastoral counseling and spiritual direction, at Fordham University. She then returned to Seoul and ministered to women involved in prostitution and migrant workers.
She has served her Congregation as admissions co-director and personnel director. In 2013 she was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters contemplative community.

Regarding her new work on the Sisters leadership team, she says, “I believe it was all those experiences I’ve had that prepared me to accept this new ministry.”

Sister Anastasia Lott, team member, was born in Landstuhl, Germany, where her father was stationed as a member of the U.S. Air Force. The oldest of nine children, Sister Lott expressed a desire to be a Maryknoll missioner while still in high school in Santa Ana, Calif., but her parents encouraged her to finish her education first. She graduated from the University of San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
She spent two years with the Jesuit Volunteers Corps and then joined the Maryknoll Lay Missioners. Assigned to Venezuela, she did community organizing and pastoral ministry in urban areas.

In 1986 she joined the Maryknoll Sisters and was assigned to Bura-Tana, a rural area in northeastern Kenya, for eight years. Then she worked in the capital of Nairobi as a community consultant with Jesuit Relief Services. She later moved to Namibia and did pastoral and leadership training for the Rundu Vicariate. During her last year in Namibia, Sister Lott served as human resource development officer for Catholic Health Services and volunteered with Criminals Return Into Society, teaching business management and computer skills to former inmates.

In 2003, she was called back to Maryknoll, N.Y., to be director of Planned Giving and later, the Development Department. “I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to serve my community,” she says, “and to work with and know our donors, who are really the bedrock of our work.”

Now, she says, “I plan to do the best I can on the leadership team to work together to serve the mission of God.”

Sister Teruko Ito, team member, was born in Kyoto, Japan. Seeing the Maryknoll Sisters in mission there inspired her. She decided to join them in 1968 after she graduated from Maryknoll College in the Philippines with a degree in math. Her first assignment took her to Tanzania, where she taught math in secondary school.

Returning to New York, she worked in the Congregation’s Development Department while earning a master’s degree in religious studies at Maryknoll School of Theology. In 1978 she was assigned to Japan, where for almost 10 years she assisted a Maryknoll priest in establishing and expanding the Alcoholics Anonymous program. “I was there not as a therapist, but as a friend for whoever wished to have a conversation with me to deepen their understanding about a Higher Power,” Sister Ito says. By the time she left, there were 10 AA centers throughout Japan.

In 1989 Sister Ito was assigned as co-director of the Sisters’ orientation house for new members. She remained there for five years and after studying pastoral counseling at Fordham University, she went to Guatemala to work with indigenous Mayan women, assisting them with potable water projects, medical aid and building self-esteem. “Now they are in charge of various projects and have become proud of who they are,” says Sister Ito.

As a member of the Sisters’ leadership team, she says, “I hope to be able to share my experiences, where I witnessed miracles happening in the lives of others because they surrendered themselves to a Higher Power.”