Our beloved Pope Francis guided the Church for just over 12 years (2013-2025), all filled with intense activity. As the 266th pope, he garnered many “firsts”: first to take the name Francis, first Jesuit and the first pope from the Americas. Pope Francis, clearly a “missionary pope,” visited over 60 countries and territories on internationa...
Fall 2025
Sent To Do ‘Many Wonderful Things’
On the vespers of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit brought forth two new Maryknoll priests. Matthew Sim, from Singapore, and Patrick Okok, from Kenya, were ordained on June 7 at Our Lady Queen of Apostles Chapel in Ossining, New York. In his homily, ordaining prelate Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, remembered the late Maryknoll Father John E. Ber...
Partners in Mission: Like Mother, Like Daughter
Raising two daughters with her husband on the outskirts of San Salvador, Clelia Estrada de Cruz instilled in them her own parents’ values. “They taught us to be generous with others, and to share,” Clelia says. The family belongs to Cristo Salvador, a resilient parish in the Zacamil neighborhood of Mejicanos, El Salvador, where Maryknoll Fath...
God Waited for Me
In school, asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, young Joe Everson drew a picture of a priest. In college, he envisioned a teaching career — and ended up becoming an attorney instead. These turns along the road were not errant delays, but part and parcel of his formation as a missioner. The youngest of 10 siblings in San Francisco, Maryknol...
Holy Ground in Kitale
Cornfields surround St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Centre, located on the outskirts of Kitale, a small city in western Kenya. This modest campus is home during the week to 59 children between the ages of 8 and 12. Some had never been to school before. Some had never even held a pencil. Maryknoll Lay Missioner Theresa Glaser, a veteran teacher who jo...
Planting Climate Justice in the Philippines
Near the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains that shield the heavily populated island of Luzon, Maryknoll Sister Marvelous “Marvie” Misolas continues the Maryknoll Sisters’ century of mission in the Philippines. She is helping rejuvenate a forest that will protect both the natural environment and the Indigenous peoples who make their home th...
Faith, Love and Missionary Zeal
Dear Friend in Mission, With hearts full of hope, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers joyfully welcomes the election of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. In this historic moment for the universal Church, we give thanks to God for the gift of a new pope — chosen to succeed Pope Francis and guide us forward in faith, love and missionary zeal. Pope Leo ...
Missioner Tales, Fall 2025
What an enjoyable morning I’ve spent! Unsure of the path to take to reach the home of a disabled boy — whose address I had lost both on paper and in memory — I lucked out at just the right time, encountering folks along the way to guide me for almost seven miles. A friendly villager led me the last steps to the family’s tin shed. Alameen, n...
Welcoming Migrant ‘Heroes’
Yahelis and José Flores’ hearts filled with joy when their children were selected as students of the month. Alfonso, 7, and Sarita, 5, were honored in April at their public school in Chicago.The family had arrived two years ago after a harrowing journey from their native Venezuela that took them through the jungle of the Darién Gap and across m...
Readers’ Responses, Fall 2025
I applaud the statement from the Maryknoll superior general published in the 2025 Summer issue. Rather than tens of thousands of federal workers losing their jobs, current available data suggests about 250,000 positions have been affected. While funding for PEPFAR is absolutely critical as described, its effective implementation requires many feder...
The Wisdom of the Mojeños
In our pastoral ministry in Santísima Trinidad parish in the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) in the Bolivian Amazon, we encounter companions in our mission journey: catechists. They oversee pastoral activities such as sacramental preparation, celebrations in the absence of a priest and the leading of processions and...
World Watch: Back From the Brink
Eighty years ago, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the terrible lesson of lives lost, tremendous destruction and chronic suffering and illnesses for survivors, the world is now dangerously close to a nuclear precipice. During the past year, Russian President Vladimir P...
