by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 12, 2026
In the rural community of Villa 14 in Chipiriri, Bolivia, the Catholic faith remains a vital source of hope and unity despite significant economic hardship. Most families in the area are small-scale farmers who work hard simply to meet their daily needs, leaving little margin for major construction projects, even ones as important to community life as a permanent church building.
Despite these constraints, parishioners have made remarkable sacrifices over time to advance construction of a church that reflects their strong faith and commitment to their community, contributing what labor, materials, and funds they could manage. Maryknoll is helping complete the construction and furnishing of the church, along with supporting the ongoing development of parish ministries that serve the wider community.
Sacrificial contributions of labor and materials from local farming families reflect the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Solidarity, a community pooling its limited resources for the good of all. Completing this church also carries forward Maryknoll’s charism of accompanying communities toward self-sufficiency, helping bring to completion a project the parish began and sustained largely through its own determination and faith.
Gifts to this project help complete construction and furnishing of the Villa 14 church, creating a permanent spiritual home where families can gather for prayer, the sacraments, and community life.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 5, 2026
Kenya’s university students represent a generation with significant energy, education, and potential, yet many have limited opportunity to put their skills directly in service of communities beyond their own. At the same time, some of Kenya’s most remote and underserved regions lack sufficient healthcare workers, teachers, and catechists to meet basic community needs.
Maryknoll’s Mission Outreach Program bridges these two realities by helping university students take part in structured mission experiences in far-flung communities. Over several weeks, students live and work alongside local residents, contributing their emerging skills in fields such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and catechesis, often the first hands-on service experience of this kind in their academic careers.
Grounded in the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Solidarity, this program forms young Kenyans in the truth that we belong to one human family, responsible for one another across lines of geography and circumstance. It is also a direct expression of Maryknoll’s founding charism as a missionary sending society, forming a new generation of Kenyan Catholics who carry the spirit of mission service into their own country’s most overlooked communities.
Gifts to this project cover the transportation, housing, and program costs that make these mission experiences possible, forming a new generation of missionary disciples while extending practical help to communities that need it most.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
The Gospel reaches people in many forms today, and increasingly, digital and broadcast technology plays a significant role alongside traditional in-person parish life. For homebound parishioners, young adults with busy schedules, and others who may not regularly attend Mass in person, technology offers a meaningful way to remain connected to their faith community.
Maryknoll is helping expand parish outreach in Brazil by supporting livestreamed Masses, digital faith formation programs, and broader digital evangelization efforts. Improved communications technology allows the parish to maintain a consistent connection with parishioners who cannot regularly attend in person, whether due to illness, mobility limitations, distance, or scheduling constraints tied to work or family responsibilities.
Expanding parish outreach through digital tools reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, ensuring that homebound and distant parishioners remain genuinely connected to their faith community rather than gradually drifting away. This project also carries forward Maryknoll’s evangelizing charism, adapting the Church’s oldest mission, spreading the Gospel, to reach people through the communication tools of the present day.
Gifts to this project support livestreaming equipment, digital faith formation resources, and evangelization efforts that extend the reach of the Gospel and keep parishioners connected to their faith community, both online and in person.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
Young people in Chipiriri, Bolivia, like their peers in many communities, face pressures that can leave them feeling disconnected from their faith and from a sense of purpose and community. Without structured opportunities for engagement, adolescence and early adulthood can become a period where young people drift away from parish life at precisely the time they most need guidance and belonging.
Maryknoll helps youth in Chipiriri grow as disciples and leaders through a range of programs, including retreats, educational workshops, sports activities, faith-sharing events, and leadership development opportunities. These varied formats are intended to meet young people where their interests lie, whether that means athletic competition, small-group faith sharing, or hands-on leadership roles within parish activities.
Forming young disciples and leaders reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, inviting young people in Chipiriri to take an active role in shaping their parish’s future rather than remaining passive observers of it. This project also carries forward Maryknoll’s charism of forming missionary disciples, cultivating leadership and faith together so that today’s participants become tomorrow’s catechists and community leaders.
Gifts to this project support retreats, workshops, and leadership programs that help young people in Chipiriri build confidence, deepen their faith, and grow into the next generation of leaders for their parish and diocese.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
Bolivia’s vast rural geography, spanning highland altiplano, mountain valleys, and remote lowland villages, makes it impossible for priests to be regularly present in every community they serve. In many of these villages, lay catechists carry primary responsibility for sustaining parish life between the priest’s periodic visits, teaching the faith and preparing parishioners for the sacraments largely on their own.
Maryknoll provides structured training and ongoing formation for these lay catechists, equipping them with the theological knowledge, teaching skills, and spiritual grounding necessary to serve as effective evangelizers and local leaders. Through ongoing education and mentorship rather than a single training session, catechists build the confidence and competence to handle the wide range of pastoral situations that arise in daily parish life.
Training lay catechists across Bolivia’s vast rural geography reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, entrusting ordinary believers with responsibility for sustaining the faith of their own communities. This project also carries forward Maryknoll’s evangelizing charism, recognizing that the Gospel travels farthest when carried by local leaders equipped to teach and witness long after any single missioner has departed.
Gifts to this project support the training and formation of lay catechists across Bolivia’s rural regions, helping ensure the Gospel and the sacraments reach even the most remote communities in the country.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
In the rural community of Chipiriri, Bolivia, many families have long lacked consistent access to pastoral care and structured opportunities for faith formation, a gap that leaves parish life fragile even where the desire for spiritual community runs deep. Responding to this need, Maryknoll reached out to the Parish of Señor de Exaltación de la Santa Cruz to serve local communities and help revitalize the region’s spiritual life as shepherds of the community.
Through sacramental ministry, pastoral outreach, faith formation programs, and broader community engagement, the parish provides a welcoming spiritual home for individuals and families seeking to deepen their relationship with God. As a growing parish, it continues to require ongoing support to maintain its facilities and expand its capacity to serve the community.
Working in this parish reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, giving a previously underserved community its own spiritual home and pastoral leadership. It also embodies Maryknoll’s founding charism of building up local Church structures where none previously existed, planting the institutions that allow faith to take permanent root rather than depending indefinitely on outside presence.
Gifts to this project help maintain and grow this emerging parish community, bringing consistent pastoral care, sacramental ministry, and faith formation to families throughout the Chipiriri region.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
Devotion to the Blessed Mother holds deep spiritual significance in many Bolivian communities, shaping both individual prayer life and broader parish traditions. Yet many parishes lack a dedicated space that reflects and supports this devotion, one set apart specifically for prayer, pilgrimage, and reflection centered on Mary’s intercession.
Maryknoll is helping create a Marian grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, designed to serve as a lasting place of prayer, pilgrimage, and celebration for the parish community and visitors alike. The grotto will provide a physical, dedicated space where parishioners can come for quiet reflection, special devotions, and communal celebrations tied to Marian feast days throughout the liturgical year.
A dedicated space for prayer and devotion reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, gathering the parish around a shared spiritual tradition that spans generations. In supporting this grotto, Maryknoll continues its charism of honoring and strengthening the popular piety already alive within the communities it serves, rather than imposing devotional practices foreign to local culture and history.
Gifts to this project help construct a Marian grotto that will provide a lasting spiritual home for prayer, pilgrimage, and devotion, inspiring generations of Bolivian Catholics through Mary’s intercession.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
In Bolivia’s rural communities, families often face significant hardship and geographic isolation, with limited access to consistent pastoral care, social services, or economic opportunity. In these settings, faith frequently serves as one of the primary sources of stability and mutual support that holds families and neighbors together through difficult circumstances.
Maryknoll is helping establish and strengthen Christian Base Communities, small groups where families gather regularly for prayer, Scripture reflection, faith formation, and mutual support. These gatherings serve a dual purpose, deepening participants’ spiritual lives while also functioning as a practical support network for households facing poverty and isolation, an approach rooted in the long tradition of Christian Base Communities across Latin America.
Small faith communities gathered for prayer and mutual support directly embody the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Solidarity, a tradition with deep roots throughout Latin America, affirming that no family should face poverty or isolation alone. This project also reflects Maryknoll’s founding charism of walking alongside the poor in their daily lives, forming Church not from a distance but from within the ordinary rhythms of rural community.
Gifts to this project help establish and sustain Christian Base Communities that combine prayer, faith formation, and practical assistance, building stronger, more resilient rural communities rooted in shared faith and solidarity.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
For small-scale farming families throughout the Kibwezi region of southeastern Kenya, a successful harvest often determines whether a household will have enough food and income for the year ahead. Recurring droughts, increasingly unpredictable rainfall, and the broader effects of climate change have made traditional crop varieties less reliable, leaving many families more vulnerable to crop failure than in previous generations.
To help communities adapt, Maryknoll provides drought-resistant seed varieties specifically selected for arid and semi-arid growing conditions. These improved varieties of maize, beans, and green grams mature more quickly, require significantly less rainfall, and produce higher yields than the traditional seeds many farmers have relied on for decades. Several of these varieties are also richer in essential nutrients such as iron and zinc, offering a secondary benefit in the fight against childhood malnutrition.
This project reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Care for God’s Creation, working with the land in ways that build resilience rather than deplete it, alongside the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, since smallholder farmers bear the earliest and heaviest costs of a changing climate. It also carries forward Maryknoll’s charism of practical, on-the-ground response to the needs of rural communities, meeting farmers where their livelihoods actually begin, in the soil itself.
Gifts to this project provide drought-resistant seed to farming families in Kibwezi, helping them increase harvests, improve nutrition, and build lasting resilience against the recurring droughts that have long threatened their livelihoods.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
For years, Catholic families in the small community of Mutoma have gathered for Mass under difficult and often makeshift conditions, without a permanent building large enough to serve their growing congregation. Like many rural communities in Kenya, Mutoma’s parishioners have limited disposable income, and construction materials and skilled labor represent a significant expense relative to what the community can raise on its own.
Despite these constraints, families have contributed what they can in money, labor, and materials over several years, determined to build a lasting home for their faith. Maryknoll is helping bring this long-held dream closer to completion. Once finished, the chapel will serve approximately 300 families, providing a proper space for Mass, the sacraments, faith formation classes, and community gatherings that currently have no adequate venue.
A parish church stands as a physical expression of the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Community and the Call to Family, reminding believers that faith is lived not in isolation but gathered together as the Body of Christ. In helping complete this chapel, Maryknoll continues its charism of building up local Church leadership and lasting faith communities, rather than simply passing through, so that the community’s spiritual life can take firm and permanent root.
Gifts to this project help complete construction of a permanent, dignified worship space where the Mutoma community can gather to pray, celebrate the sacraments, and pass their faith on to their children.
