At 51, Maryknoll Sister Hyunjung Kim is both youthful-looking and committed to religious life. Yet, in East Timor — a small nation on the island of Timor, north of Australia — people address Sister Hyunjung as a grandparent. “They call me Avo Malae,” she says. “Foreign Grandmother!” A social worker by profession, Sister Hyunjung has ser...
Winter 2024
Borders of Hope
When Border Patrol agents dropped off Miguel Soto and his family at a shelter in El Paso, Texas, the family had already spent all their money on their monthlong journey to the U.S. border. They had a contact in Utah, but no means to get there. El Paso means “the pass-through” in Spanish — a name that defines the nature of the city for migrant...
A Rich Poverty in Bangladesh
Maryknoll Father Robert McCahill’s room holds few possessions. There’s one cup, one plate, two spoons, a knife, a vegetable peeler, one pot and a small kerosene stove. He owns three shirts and one pair of pants. There’s a baseball cap and a small bag with what he needs to celebrate Mass. A rough wooden shelf holds a missal and a tattered brev...
Missioner Tales, Winter 2024
The 25 or so prisoners gathered in a cell at the men’s detention center in São Paulo, Brazil, where I served as a Maryknoll lay missioner, watched me patiently, with puzzled faces. I placed four construction paper “candles” on the table and held up a yellow construction paper “flame,” asking for a volunteer. One of the men raised his han...
From the Editor: Life’s Purpose
To start, let me wish every one of our readers a most joyous Advent. As we enter into this period of anticipation of Christmas, preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we tend to focus on happiness and cheerfulness, family and friendships, gift giving and generosity, and look to decorate our surroundings with the symbols of the season. Wit...
Readers’ Responses, Winter 2024
NAÏVE APPROACH This letter is in response to the World Watch column in your Fall 2023 issue, “What’s Next for Asylum?” These people are illegal aliens entering this country to do criminal acts — sex trafficking, drug trafficking, etc. These aliens are not “fleeing persecution.” Quite the contrary. Yes, innocent children are involved an...
Opening My Eyes and Heart to Migration
WEB-ONLY: When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, I was 7 years old. My family’s home in rural Opelousas was, thankfully, unaffected, but a mass exodus took place of Louisianans forced to seek higher ground in other cities and states. My family met Ellis, a young person whose family had to flee their New Orleans neighborhood. ...
Partners in Mission: Christian Charity in Action in Taiwan
It was the spring of 2019, and I was about to finish my undergraduate studies in philosophy and theology at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. I could recite lines from papal encyclicals and regurgitate Greek words for different forms of love. In short, I knew Christian charity from a chalkboard in a seminary classroom. All that changed when the ...
Orbis Books: A Generous Lap
This book will speak to your desires to love more generously — and to be open to such love in return. — Mary Stommes Do you have grandchildren? Are you a grandchild? If so, Kathy Coffey’s new book A Generous Lap: A Spirituality of Grandparenting is for you or for someone you love. In her charming and inspiring reflections, Coffey reflects on ...
Climate Action: Loss and Damage
The year 2023 has shown us that climate change can be very costly, and often leaves irreversible damage — especially affecting those who contribute the least to causing it. Around the world, consequences border on the incomprehensible. In Libya, more than 15,000 people died or were missing after a single flood that scientists estimate was m...
Spirit of Mission: Mistletoe at the Manger?
My fondest memory of celebrating Christmas as a boy is midnight Mass. The church smelled of fresh pine, melted wax and incense. The highlight began when the priest intoned Gloria in excelsis Deo — then stopped! That was the signal for the altar servers, candles lit, to line up before the altar. Under a purificator, a statue of the Baby Jesus rest...
Pope Francis: Care for Our Collapsing Home
Pope Francis warned the clock is ticking on the dangers of climate change — and both a paradigm shift and practical action are critically needed to avert looming disasters in nature and human society. The pope released his new apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) Oct. 4 as a follow-up to his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: O...
