Sister Margaret Rose Ibe, M.M. celebrated her 50th Golden Jubilee on Sunday, September 24 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.
Sister Margaret Rose was born in Queens, New York in 1942. She entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1967. She worked at the Maryknoll Sisters Center from 1969-1972, in the treasury department, local bursar’s office, and on the switchboard; while studying for her Bachelor’s Degree in Adult Education, which she received from Mary Rogers College in Maryknoll, New York in 1972.
Sister Margaret Rose’s first foreign mission assignment was to Indonesia in 1972. After language study in Bandung, she taught short courses on home economics and budgeting in 1972. She then served as a staff member at KUPERDA, an organization for the education of village leaders, from 1974-1976.
She then returned to New York, where she completed her year of reflection, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from the Maryknoll Graduate School of Theology in 1977. Following graduation, Sister Margaret Rose became involved in literacy training and human rights group work and was a staff member of the Brazilian Bishops Program of International Study Days. She also worked several days a week at an outreach program sponsored by the Department of Community Medicine at Saint Vincent’s Hospital, in New York City.
In 1978, Sister Margaret Rose received her second foreign mission assignment to Peru. Following six months of language study in Cochabamba, she began work at the Ciudad de Dios Parish in Lima, where she worked in adult education and community organization with women. She also co-founded and worked on the Vicariate Commission of Human Rights for 18 years, until the vicariate was made into the Diocese of Lurin. At that time, she was named Director of the Diocesan Human Dignity Commission. The Commission operates four centers of justice for low- or no-income people, with a total of ten legal offices and four resolutions of conflict offices. They also have a multidisciplinary education team that gives workshops in leadership training for leaders in 47 parishes of the diocese. The training topics include: ethics and values, children’s and women’s rights, adolescent and women’s issues, and topics related to the family.
Sister Margaret Rose has worked in Peru since 1978 where she is still on mission today. She was involved with human rights advocacy on the local, metropolitan and national levels, both church and civic. She has been actively involved in the “building of the city of God” in the Lurin Diocese on the southern outskirts of Lima.