Articles (321)
Bob Doyle – Chicago Chapter
A pilgrimage in the desert. The desert should not be a death sentence, but the government knows the southwestern border is dangerous for migrants—and wants it that way. Some 8,000 people attempting to enter the United States have died in this region since the 1990s.
We invite you to the always engaging and often transformative international Maryknoll Affiliate Conference. It will be held June 25-28, 2020, at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison, NY – 17 miles north of the Maryknoll Center in Ossining. The theme is: Witnessing Love in the Interim Time. $350 covers tuition and room & board (a $20 reduction from the previous MAC!). Travel grants will be available as in past years.
The MAC 2020 Planning Committee has made great advances in designing the theme, content, and flow of this 3½ day event. The Keynote speaker is Nancy Sylvester, IHM, very sought after in the conference world, and most of the workshop facilitators have already been confirmed. We are also planning a first-time, unique segment to include young adults (18- to 39-year-olds).
A MAC website is being constructed; we anticipate that it should be ready in mid-September. It will provide an online registration form, travel grant application, schedule, and information you’ll need to know about the conference. Please mark the date and plan to be with Affiliates and other members of the Maryknoll family from throughout our global home.
Marie Wren – North Bay Chapter
On May 23, the North Bay Chapter hosted Vicki Simon, returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner to Kenya, to speak about her recent experience at the US – Mexico border.
Vicki spent two weeks volunteering in El Paso, Texas, at an Annunciation shelter in a La Quinta Inn. She told how she prepared for that experience by taking a Jesuit-sponsored five-day border immersion trip called The Encuentro Project. In addition, she took a Just Matters study module on migration, which brought home to her that migration is very extensive around the world even though we experience it mainly on the US - Mexico border.
We were captivated by her description of how the shelters are completely run and staffed by volunteers, how those two weeks were physically and emotionally demanding. She explained that between 50 and 120 asylum seekers would be referred to the shelter each day by ICE after having been processed as they came across the border. Generally, they were one parent and one or more children. When they arrived hungry, dirty, and often sick, they would be offered clean clothes, showers, meals , beds, and medical help. They would stay just long enough to have the volunteers contact their sponsor, who would buy a plane, bus or train ticket for them, and then the volunteers would accompany them to the airport or bus/train station. They were given provisions for the journey and a placard that said they didn’t speak English and asked for help finding their connections.
Is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner Coming to Your City?
Written by Paula SchaffnerPaula Schaffner – California Central Coast Chapter
A couple years ago, my husband, David, and I were contacted by Maryknoll Lay Missioner Sam Stanton and his wife Cecelia Espinosa, to see if we could help her with a church date in northern Santa Barbara County while he covered a church farther south. We had a wonderful visit with Cecelia while offering not only bed and board, but also transportation to a couple different Masses.
We saw that Affiliates could be helpful to the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in their promotional efforts, and the Hospitality Initiative suggested to Ted Miles, current Executive Director of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, that we may be able to offer Maryknoll Lay Missioners a place to sleep, possibly local transportation, and support at the churches where they are speaking. In late July, Ted shared the list of 2019 dates on which Lay Missioners will speak at churches to raise awareness and funds for all their mission needs. Offering this hospitality not only expresses our charism of welcoming, but it is a local short-term volunteer opportunity—a way to be of service to the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in their missionary efforts.
Please check the list of 2019 Church Dates and see if a Maryknoll Lay Missioner will be speaking near your home. Your hospitality will not only help further their efforts; you’ll probably make a lasting connection with a fellow missioner.
Sharing with our Chapter Companion
Written by Shelby Miller & Mary Williams
Shelby Miller & Mary Williams – NE Florida Chapter
Father Bob Carleton, our Northeast Florida Affiliate Chapter Companion, met with us via Skype on May 9th. We had requested that he speak to us about the Church in China. Fr. Bob has been on the board of the US–China Catholic Association for many years and lived in China for three years teaching English. The Association’s website includes a video with a brief history of the Catholic Church in China and vividly describes the deep and continuing faith of the people. China was one of the first mission fields for Maryknoll priests, dating back to 1911.
Our group gathered around the dining room table in the home of Mary and Bryan Williams; we used Skype to see and hear Fr. Bob. He spoke to us from his room at the Maryknoll retirement home in Los Altos, CA. During his time teaching English in China, Fr. Bob taught a class on, “Who was Jesus Christ?” He did this as students might continue their studies or work in the West and should know about Christianity. However, he was not in China to make converts. We could tell that Fr. Bob remembered his students and his time in China with much fondness as he told us about his ongoing correspondence with some of his students from that time.
Catholics Protest Immigrant Child Detention—71 Catholics Arrested
Written by Editorial StaffRose Marie Berger, peace activist and member of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, wrote in Sojourners magazine, July 25, 2019 (https://sojo.net/articles/cross-human-bodies),
I spent five hours as a guest of the US Capitol Police last week. It was hot, really hot. And those plastic handcuffs leave bruises.
I was one of 71 Catholics arrested by the US Capitol Police in the rotunda of the Russell Senate building in Washington, DC, for “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding,” while praying the rosary. My prayer was—and is—to end the warehousing of immigrant children in cages—63,624 of whom have been apprehended by border patrol at the southwestern border between October 2018 and June 2019, and seven of whom have died after being in federal custody since September. More than a dozen Catholic orders and organizations sponsored the event. Seven Catholic bishops sent letters of support.
Dan Moriarty’s article for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, “Building a Movement to End Child Detention,” tells of his and other religious leaders’ involvement, describing it as “a privilege to participate in civil disobedience, to be arrested, to stand with detained families…” Others from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the Westchester Affiliates, and other Maryknollers also participated. Pax Christi USA was one of the organizers and had distributed colorful flyers nationwide, that said,
Rose Marie closed her article with a challenge:
I spent five hours as a guest of the Capitol Police. Detained migrant children are spending five weeks or five months in Border Patrol camps. What increased risk will you take to say “no”?
Maryknoll Affiliates have put their homes on the Maryknollers Hospitality List. The list catalogs Affiliate households that are available to offer hospitality for Maryknollers and Affiliates who are visiting a geographic area. To date, 28 Affiliate households have been listed.
The geographic areas covered are:
- Phoenix, AZ
- Arroyo Grande, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Petaluma, CA
- Denver, CO
- Littleton, CO
- Salem, CT
- Jacksonville, Fl
- Orange Park, FL
- Weeki Wachee, FL
- New Orleans, LA
- Columbia, MD
- Hatfield, MA
- Oneonta, NY
- Brooklyn, NY
- Clifton Park, NY
- Hartsdale, NY
- Rochester, NY
- Raleigh, NC
- Portland, OR
- Southampton, PA
- Houston, TX
- Des Moines, WA
- Lacey, WA
- Appleton, WI
- Hudson, WI
When Maryknollers request hospitality in a given area, they will contact Bob Short. Bob will assess the details of the request and then have the Affiliate member who is offering the hospitality contact the interested Maryknoller. In addition to the practical benefits of this hospitality, it provides an opportunity to get to know other members of the Maryknoll family.
Offers of hospitality continue to be accepted. To add your home to the list, please email Bob Short (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Mary Moritz – Southeast Regional Coordinator
In May, my husband, John, and I were blessed to spend a few days at the home of Rich and Denise Lessard in Albany, New York. Rich and Denise invited some of the members of their Albany Affiliate Chapter to meet with us one evening. You may remember the Albany Chapter as the energetic sponsors of the 2014 Maryknoll Affiliate Conference.
During a wonderful supper prepared by Denise, and spurred on by John Moritz, we had a lively discussion about symbols. John had recently given a meditation on symbols at the Affiliate Board Meeting and they were still on his mind.
As the leader of the Northeast Florida Chapter, I enjoyed comparing notes with Chris Minnear, the co-leader of the Albany Chapter. We noted some differences between our groups. They have a large chapter of 30+ people and we are very happy if eight can make it to a meeting.
Despite the size difference, a lot of the challenges are the same. We both hope to have Chapter meetings where people can be revitalized and helped to grow. Albany often reads a book together and reviews it at a meeting. Northeast Florida has never read a book together; but our most avid reader, John Moritz, reports at each meeting about the newest Orbis-published books and we have an active lending library.
John and I thoroughly enjoyed both the hospitality of the Lessards and meeting Albany Affiliates. It is good to know that one of the new initiatives of the Affiliate Board is developing a database that will inform us about where there are Affiliates who are happy to host or otherwise connect not only with Maryknollers but also with other Affiliates. I applaud this initiative and am eager to see it developed.
I know our Northeast Florida Chapter will try hard to extend Maryknoll hospitality to any of you who come our way!
Vicki Simon – Returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner
Participate in a border immersion experience: Learn about life at the Border in a 4-5 day immersion experience.
- The Encuentro Project, a Jesuit sponsored immersion program in El Paso/Juarez, considers groups of 12-15. Contact Fr. Rafael Garcia, SJ (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), for more information and your group’s interest and needs.
- The Loretto Community’s Latin American and Caribbean Committee (https://www.lorettocommunity.org/) coordinates a Border experience trip each year out of Tucson, AZ, to Nogales.
There are many other such programs offered throughout the US.
Volunteers: Volunteers who can stay two weeks or longer are needed. Spanish is helpful, but many jobs do not require Spanish. If you decide to apply, go in good health and well-rested as the days are intense and long. Log on to Annunciation House of Hospitality (https://annunciationhouse.org) for up-to-date information, the application process, and forms.
Financial donations: Financial donations are needed urgently, rather than specific items, so they can buy exactly what they need, responding to the changing needs of our guests. Make donations payable to Annunciation House and mail to 815 Myrtle Avenue, El Paso, TX 79901, or donate via their website.
Local opportunities: If you cannot travel or volunteer at this time, get involved locally in organizations working with recently arrived refugees and migrants.
Write and contact: Send letters to your state representatives. Send letters and post on social media, sharing what you know about Immigration matters and current anti-immigration bills.
The Shoelace Project as a Means of Communication
Written by David SchaffnerDavid Schaffner—California Central Coast Chapter
Our chapter has organized a “Shoelace Project” for the months of June and July in St. Patrick’s Parish, Arroyo Grande. The idea for this campaign came from an NSFA article, “Compassion and Hospitality on the Border,” (March/April 2019). In this article, Jerrie Drinkwine mentioned that the detention center removes shoelaces and belts from asylum seekers as they are processed by ICE. When they are delivered to a respite center, they receive replacement shoelaces. Thus, the Humanitarian Respite Center operated by Catholic Charities in McAllen, Texas, and similar facilities along the border, need a constant supply of shoelaces.
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Mary and Manny Hotchkiss – Portland Chapter
Maryknollers, including Affiliates, have been attending to the needs of migrants at the US-Mexico border. (Affiliates have written about helping at McAllen, TX, and on page 8, Don Gonzalez tells about El Paso.) Sr. Lil Mattingly, MM, responded graciously to our email when we arrived in El Paso in April. She arranged for us to meet the Maryknoll sisters working at the US Border near El Paso and hear their stories. Sr. Lil and Sr. Maggie Sierra are both working with immigrants in El Paso. Sr. Susan Nchubiri, MM, who is based at Maryknoll, NY, is working with them for a month responding to the massive increase in refugees from Central and South America.
Don Gonzalez – Hawaii Chapter
Last November I volunteered at the refugee center located within the grounds of the Diocese of El Paso. It is a good-sized room with its own kitchen and eating facility. The bishop of El Paso and seminarians reside nearby, and most volunteers stay in the seminarians’ sleeping quarters, where they are comfortable and have a regular bed unless there is a lack of space; then volunteers might sleep on a cot.
Volunteers learn how to perform a number of functions, then do what is requested as needed.
Mary Ryan-Hotchkiss – Portland Chapter
On our annual road trip, I met briefly with Heidi Cerneka, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, in El Paso.
Heidi said she was inspired to join the Lay Missioners while she was still in college and heard about the church women being martyred in El Salvador. Rather than being frightened, their dedication excited her. As a Lay Missioner, Heidi worked many years in Brazil with women in prisons, but at 50 years of age she decided to go to law school. Now she works for a nonprofit, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, as an immigration lawyer. Most of her work involves asylum cases. In this part of Texas only about 3% of asylum applicants are successful. She said that in other jurisdictions, e.g., parts of New York or Portland, Oregon, about 50% of asylum applicants are eventually granted asylum.
The Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy center needs volunteers and interns. Besides the obvious need for workers with legal expertise, Heidi specifically mentioned that social workers or counselors could interview clients. The organization’s website—Las-Americas.org—includes two pages requesting interns and volunteers and listing needs.
I asked Heidi her message for Affiliates. She emphasized, “Walls and detention centers are not the answer. Central America needs to be a place where people can stay if they want, with job opportunities, fair wages, and security. The US needs to be a place where people can come with fair immigration policies. … All the people that leave the government’s detention centers are now documented; they’re not undocumented or illegal!”
A little preparation can lead to a lively meeting.
In preparation for a chapter meeting just before Earth Day, Matt Rousso, New Orleans Chapter contact person, sent two questions to the members of the Gulf South New Orleans Area Chapter:
- What is one thing you do to combat Climate Change?
- What is something you could do that challenges you?
Since they’d been discussing and studying Laudato Si and Care for Creation, these questions resonated with the members. Sixteen people attended the meeting and everyone had something to say.
