by Adam Mitchell | Sep 25, 2018 | Blog
Recently I read a letter from Br, Bill Firman FSC, the Executive Director of Solidarity with South Sudan. As you may be aware, conflict returned to South Sudan in late 2013 testing the resolve of the Catholic Church to continue the mission. As the South Sudanese Bishop Erkolano expressed so succinctly at a Solidarity With South Sudan Board meeting,
“If the missionaries leave, the people lose hope.”
This organization, Solidarity With South Sudan, is a collaborative effort by many religious congregations to send missionaries to live and work among a suffering people and identify even more with the Passion of Christ, and his challenge, ‘Could you not watch one hour with me.’
The facts are that, although they have only been able to maintain a presence in Malakal through Maryknoll priest, Fr Mike Bassano, working as chaplain in the UN Protection of Civilians Camp, their other enterprises are thriving: they have 123 students in residence following three-year programs to become registered nurses or midwives in their Catholic Health Training Institute (CHTI) in Wau where Maryknoll Fr. Tom Tiscornia serves; and they have 121 resident students in their Solidarity Teacher Training College (STTC) in Yambio where Maryknoll Lay Missioner Gabe Hurrish is serving. The quality graduates from these well-resourced institutes are highly regarded throughout South Sudan and are now helping their own people significantly.
Their Pastoral teams continue to offer many programs training local pastoral workers, including trauma healing facilitators, and provide two of the four permanent staff at the new Good Shepherd Peace Centre just out of Juba. Further, they have a thriving 50 hectare ‘model farm’ providing training in best self-subsistence agricultural techniques, and employing up to 80 workers daily, while providing food in support of their STTC and the 6000 Internally displaced people clustered around the Church in Riimenze.
In spite of the setbacks, Maryknoll has served with this organization, Solidarity With South Sudan, through these ten very productive years since the organization was founded.
Are missionaries really needed these days? We’ll let you answer that question. Contact Fr. Mike at vocation@maryknoll.org
by Adam Mitchell | Sep 11, 2018 | Podcast
It’s a beautiful September morning. Maryknoll Fr. Ray Nobiletti had just celebrated 8 o’clock Mass in Transfiguration Church in Lower Manhattan. The primary election for the Mayor of New York City was that day and the elementary school at Transfiguration was buzzing with the start of brand new school year. In fact it was the children’s 2nd day of school. The date is September 11, 2001.
After Mass Fr. Nobiletti received a phone call and was informed that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, a building he always enjoyed looking at from his bedroom window, and he was asked if he could go immediately to the burning building to help minister to the wounded.
Barely having time to collect his thoughts, let alone his stole, prayer book, and holy oils, Fr. Nobiletti proceeded into the chaos of what would become known as one of the worst tragedies the United States has ever seen.
As tens of thousands of people are trying to escape Lower Manhattan, Fr. Nobiletti is walking in that direction. With people grabbing on to him, screaming, and crying it didn’t matter whether you were Catholic or not that day. He didn’t know it at the time but his presence became a beacon of light in the blackness, dust, and tragedy of that day.
by Adam Mitchell | Aug 24, 2018 | Podcast
On September 7, 1918, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers sent four Missioners to China, including Maryknoll co-founder Fr. Thomas F. Price, Fr. James E. Walsh, M.M., Fr. Francis X. Ford, M.M., and Fr. Bernard F. Meyer, M.M.
This year as we prepare to celebrate 100 years of Mission Sending on September 7th, we had the privilege of sitting down with Fr. John Cioppa, M.M., an 86-year-old Maryknoll Missioner, who knew one of the original 4 Maryknoll Missioners to China – Bishop James E. Walsh.
In fact Fr. John was there in 1970 when Bishop James E. Walsh was released from a Shanghai prison after spending 12 years of his 20-year sentence primarily in solitary confinement. After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Bishop Walsh was arrested on charges that he had spied for the Vatican and the United States in 1958. It is believed that he was the last of 7,000 foreign Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries to have been expelled from China.
Most of Fr. John’s Missionary career was spent in Hong Kong, a former British Colony, and in 1978, he was the first Maryknoll priest to be able to re-enter China since the communist takeover.
Join us as we learn more about Fr. John’s adventures in Hong Kong and China in this episode of Among the People!
by Adam Mitchell | Aug 10, 2018 | Podcast
We’re joined in studio by Fr. Ed Dougherty M.M., former Superior General of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and representative of Maryknoll in Rome to the Holy See – Pope Francis.
Fr. Dougherty shares his story of growing up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia to riding motorcycles, learning Swahili, and how he would hunt for his own food in the rural region of Musoma, Tanzania.
He discusses his mission work teaching theology in Tanzania as well as his work in the United States including in Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
Fr. Ed was good friends with the late Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford, who was murdered in El Salvador on December 2, 1980. He shares his stories of their friendship and celebrations and how he received a letter from her just days after her death, a moment he takes as a Sign from God.
by Adam Mitchell | Jul 30, 2018 | Podcast
On this episode of Among the People we sit down with Heidi Cerneka, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner who’s career has been spent serving incarcerated women in the United States, Brazil and Kenya.
In this episode, Heidi shares how women are generally overlooked in prison policy and advocacy as well as the social and economic justice issues that are leading Women to be in prison in the first place.
Heidi defines the difference between Women incarceration versus Male incarceration and how when Women get out of prison there’s nothing to go back to; no family, no work, no life.
Heidi will also talk about her decision to go back to law school at the age of 49 and how that’s helped her ministry.
by Adam Mitchell | Jul 13, 2018 | Podcast
Today we’re here with Kevin Ahern, Orbis Books Author and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College.
In this episode we dive into the challenges and opportunities the Church offers from the perspective of young people as it relates to today’s social movements and the current political and religious divisions that exist not only in western society, but throughout the world.
As a young Professor, Kevin truly has his finger on the pulse of young people in the Catholic Faith. Not only from a domestic perspective but from a global one, with his extensive experiences with small Christian communities around the world.
Episode Notes
A Brief Bio
‘Kevin Glauber Ahern, PhD is an assistant professor of religious studies at Manhattan College. He defended his doctoral dissertation in theological ethics from Boston College in 2013.
His dissertation was entitled “Structures of Grace: Catholic NGOs and the Church’s Mission in a Globalized World.” From 2003 to 2007, Kevin Ahern served as the President of the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS-Pax Romana), an international network of students in over eighty countries. He continues to be active on the boards of several national and international networks, including he Catholic Common Ground Initiative, the board of directors of America Press and as a Vice-President of the ICMICA-Pax Romana, He has edited the Radical Bible and Visions of Hope: Emerging Theologians and the Future of the Church, both with Orbis Books.
When not teaching, writing, or going to international meetings, Kevin enjoys hiking, Cape Cod, and spending time with his wife.’
Manhattan College Website
Orbis Books Titles by Kevin Ahern
God’s Quad (Kevin Ahern and Christopher Derige Malano)
Structure’s of Grace (Kevin Ahern)
Public Theology and the Global Common Good:The Contribution of David Hollenbach (Ahern, Clark, Heyer, Johnston)
Connect with Kevin Ahern
Twitter: @kevin_ahern
Daily Theology
by Adam Mitchell | Jun 29, 2018 | Podcast
Today we sit down with Maryknoll Missioner, Fr. Rick Bauer. Fr. Rick spent time in Mission in Namibia and is now introducing palliative care – the care of the spiritual and emotional aspects of those who are sick and suffering – overseas.
After his residency and certification as a Chaplain from New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Fr. Rick is now in East Africa introducing palliative care to those with health issues including a large majority of those directly affected by HIV/AIDS.
Fr. Rick also talks about the transformative experiences he’s had in his Chaplaincy and how being an ordained, Catholic priest is aiding his ministry in helping patients understand that what’s happening to them is not a punishment from God and that it’s ok to be angry at God.
As well, Father Bauer explains how you don’t have to be religious to be spiritual and receive palliative care.
“Before my arrival, integrated spiritual care was not really part of medical care. Now it will be. And I will be able study how spiritual care impacts treatment and outcomes. This will take 18-24 months but I believe the results are going to alter the delivery of healthcare in Kenya, and maybe all of Africa.” Father Rick Bauer, M.M.
by Adam Mitchell | Jun 15, 2018 | Podcast
In this episode, Father Fred Hegarty, M.M. joins us to share his incredible story of mission in Chile during his 65 years as a missioner priest. At 91 years of age, Fr. Fred is able to take us back to his early days in Chile when he started out as a parish priest navigating dirt roads and mountain trails to share the Gospel with poor farmers and ended up becoming their advocate. Today, Fr. Fred continues to enliven the lives of all those around him.
If empowering people with God’s love is the measure of a missioner’s success, it’s safe to say, “Well done, Father Fred, keep up the good work.”
by Adam Mitchell | Jun 5, 2018 | Podcast
Reflections from a missioner’s life as a Cold War intelligence officer to his dedicated mission work serving the poor in Kenyan and Tanzania.
Today we sit down with one of the most recognizable and respected Maryknoll Missioners and U.S. Air Force Veteran, Fr. Robert Jalbert, M.M..
Fr. Bob heads the Church Engagement Division here at Maryknoll where he and his team are creating and supporting a “culture of mission” in the Catholic Community in the U.S.
During his Missionary career, Fr. Bob served in East Africa in both Kenya and Tanzania and today is actively involved in forming communities of missionary disciples around the world.
Fr. Bob, whose fluent in Russian, served in the Air Force in Italy and rural Turkey during the Cold War. What’s interesting is how his assignment and time overseas lead to his Vocational calling with Maryknoll.
Episode Notes
The following prayer is referenced by Father Bob toward the end of this interview. We want to share it with you here:
A Step Along the Way: Archbishop Romero’s Prayer
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.
by Adam Mitchell | May 4, 2018 | Podcast
Today we sit down with missioner, author and Maryknoll priest, Fr. John P Martin.
Fr. Martin shares experiences from his missionary work in Mexico and Bangladesh. He reflects on his struggles with his Vocational calling as a Missionary versus the traditional calling of being a Sacramental Minister. Father John also talks about his deep culture shock experiences during his time in Bangladesh, then in India where he fulfilled his dream of further understanding the Hindu Bengali culture.
“a transformative journey as a Maryknoll missionary with cross-cultural and inter-religious ramifications, into realms of spiritual growth beyond imagining.”
It’s hard to summarize this incredible episode of Among The People into a short intro, but we know you’ll be enriched by the life story of Fr. Martin and the many paths he has travelled.
John Patrick Martin was born of Irish immigrant parents in New York City in 1939, partaking of their Irish culture, proudly, along with his four sisters, Kitty, Mary, Maggie and Ellen.
At age twelve his inspiration to become a foreign missionary carried him through 11 years of seminary to ordination in 1966 and a first assignment to Mexico. He dedicated himself to his priestly ministry including a variety of social and spiritual developmental activities until 1975. He then answered his leadership’s invitation to join the new Bangladesh Unit for insertion, through Christian testimony, into the Muslim environment as brother and friend.
Through the influence of Father Bede Griffiths, he became enamored of the many opportunities for living dialogue with believers of other religious traditions in South Asia.
He relished the call to share the fruits of this rich life with folks in Mexico again for fifteen years, for more of the same as above, and at home through mission education programs, inter-religious forums, and his new career as a writer.
