The history of Maryknoll in Latin America is rich and deep. Our commitment to the promotion of social justice and peace in the region cost several of our missioners their lives during the years of oppression, including Fr. Bill Woods, MM in Guatemala (1976), and Sisters Ita Ford, MM, Maura Clarke, MM and Carla Piete, MM in El Salvador in 1980. Some, like Fr. Miguel D’Escoto in Nicaragua, have served in public roles in support of those who live in poverty. Countless others have accompanied the Central American people in their daily struggles for survival, for social justice, for an end to the violence that destroys their communities; for new life.
Among the particular concerns of Maryknoll in Latin America are poverty, its causes and consequences; migration and refugees; health care, especially holistic care that includes good nutrition and preventative care; access to essential medicines for treatable or curable illness; HIV and AIDS; the rights and dignity of women and children; the response of authorities to the growth in gang violence; mining concessions; just trade agreements; debt cancellation; small and subsistence farming and other work accessible to people who are poor; and environmental destruction.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joins other organizations and communities in issuing a statement calling for the international community to take immediate measures to protect Amazonian communities from the risk of COVID-19 outbreak.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns gratefully welcomes “Querida Amazonia,” Pope Francis’s Exhortation in response to the Synod on the Amazon.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns remembers Jakelin and calls on the U.S. government to end the inhumane treatment of migrants.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns released the following statement on the political crisis in Bolivia on November 27, 2019.
Dan Moriarty, an MOGC staff member and returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner who lived in Bolivia for 17 years, examines the political crisis and ways to restore democracy and protect indigenous rights in Bolivia.
Sister Roselei Bertoldo, ICM, offered the following comments on the concerns of women and indigenous communities in the Amazon just days before traveling to Rome to participate in the Synod on the Amazon.
Find resources on the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, which occurred in Rome October 6-27, 2020. Included here are links to our series of bulletins on the synod, entitled One Amazon, Many Voices.
Erica Olson, a returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner who lived and worked in El Salvador, writes this week’s reflection.
Ask your Representative to enforce the labor laws set out in CAFTA and to suspend military aid to Honduras.
Maryknoll Affiliate Claudia Samayoa and fellow Guatemalan Jose Martinez face false accusations of criminal behavior by the president of Guatemala’s Supreme Court for speaking out against corruption and impunity.
June 28, 2019, marked the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup in Honduras that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and unleashed a new chapter of violence in the Central American nation. Now, a decade later, Hondurans join waves of Central American refugees in fleeing the drug and gang violence that is plaguing their nation. The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 13 organizations in issuing the following statement to the governments of the United States and Honduras on June 27.
Download our two-page bulletins called One Amazon, Many Voices
Christine Perrier, a former Maryknoll Lay Missioner who continues to live and work in Peru, reflects on making meaningful connections in a global culture distracted by social media.
Take action for Honduras on the tenth anniversary of the coup.
Ted Miles, Executive Director of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, reflects on the power of love to heal our broken relationships and bind us together as God created us to be.
Support the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019
Maryknoll Father John Spain in El Salvador reflects on the lessons we can learn from the early Church.
Send a message to President Trump.
