Voices of Compassion: Celebrating Maryknoll Lay Missioners’ Golden Jubilee

This past summer, I had the opportunity to visit Maryknoll Lay Missioners’ ministries in several Southeast Asian countries…some of which you’ll read about in this issue of Voices of Compassion. Invariably, the mission activities were relevant and inspirational. Included among my many stops was a home for children with AIDS, a massage therapy training center for the blind, and a center to receive and combat the trafficking of women and girls. In every case, I was reminded what a privilege it is to offer practical assistance while demonstrating faith, hope, and love in Jesus’ name.

This privileged service continues the Maryknoll tradition of meaningful mission service designed to meet immediate needs, while providing community benefits that continue into the future. As the newest of the Maryknoll entities, (we were established in 1974), we have learned an enormous amount from the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers and Maryknoll Sisters, and whenever possible we continue to working side-by-side with them in service to the world’s poor and disenfranchised.

Upon our arrival in Africa, we spent ten days in Nyumbani Village near Nairobi. Nyumbani means “home” in Kiswahili and this village currently holds nearly 400 orphans living with or affected by the AIDS pandemic. Eventually this village will be a home for 900 orphans and their grandmother/caretakers.

We were asked by Archbishop Lele of Mombasa to coordinate the creation of a similar village in the Mombasa Archdiocese, and Nyumbani has been a model for us.

Tsavo Children’s Village (TCV) has been picked as the name for the AIDS orphan project we are coordinating. Since the 1,000 acre plot is virtually surrounded by Tsavo National Wildlife Park, its name recognition has the potential to attract the attention of Tsavo safari visitors from around the world.

In these uncertain economic times, we want to be sure that TCV will have a self-sustaining financial component so that the project will not have to be perpetually and solely funded by donors to stay in existence. Therefore, we are designing an agro-forestry business that will help ensure self-sustainability for TCV. The business is currently referred to as “Trees for Children”.

The school began with only pencils and paper outdoors under a canopy in September, 2011. Today the school resides in a beautiful building which represents a visible exterior transformation of our ministry. But what really animates and brings life into a ministry are the people in the community. Art can be a tool for social change by engaging youth and families for positive social and personal transformation.

During my first days in the city of Sao Paulo, where ten Maryknoll Lay Missioners live and work, I visited several prisons and inside each I witnessed a variety of ministries taking place. In fact, in my 9 days in Brazil I spent 2 full days in prison!

Early in the week I observed Kathy Bond and Carolyn Trumble minister to pregnant women who were incarcerated, mostly for robberies or drug trafficking. Heidi Cerneka reviewed the sentences of various women in the general prison, while Sirikit Noronha and Katie Coldwell attended to the legal processes. Catherine Heinhold and Joanne Blaney worked with male prisoners and guards in the huge and overcrowded (an understatement for sure) “temporary” prison.

Each experience had a very strong impact on me but I want to focus on the last. The men’s prison is just one of the many places where Joanne Blaney… has initiated processes of restorative justice. In a nutshell, restorative justice is a process to help people get in touch with their own anger, recognize its origins and, in the end, work for a conversion of heart. The goal is for the individual to look at oneself, at others and at the world in a very new way.

In my work at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage, I get to know many little “cherubs” or “screaming engines,” depending on the time of day or mood they are in at that moment… There are no official systems or services in the villages to address the needs of individuals with mental illness or drug addiction. The families of these individuals lack the knowledge and resources to cope with them. Too often their own families and communities shun these individuals. As appalling and disturbing as Naruth’s story sounds, it is not an isolated or unique incident. The orphanage has other children who come from different villages and provinces sharing very similar background narratives.

In many aspects, the children at the orphanage are the lucky ones. It is through God’s grace and the good will from helping organizations and individuals that Naruth and her sister have been saved. They have escaped the vicious cycles of abuse and neglect and have been transplanted into a nourishing and caring environment that will enable them to develop to their full potentials. These children now have a better chance for a brighter future.

I have been a Maryknoll lay missioner for 21 years and served in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for 18 years, and for the last three years, as Director of Mission Services in New York. I have learned to see from multiple perspectives and hope to continue to do so as I now return to mission in Brazil. I am inspired by the MKLM call to be a compassionate presence in service and to join with others in working to change unjust structures. My deep sadness in seeing the disparities in our world, where more than 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day) and over 65 million people are displaced from their homes because of war, famine and violence, motivates me to continue in mission.

… I am grateful for my years with the dedicated staff of MKLM in New York, and look forward to rejoining the Brazil Maryknoll community as we work together to bring more peace and justice to our world. I am so blessed by the incredible witness of so many men and women in our world who, in spite of so many difficulties and sufferings, continue to hope and work toward a better world for all.