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 over 40 U.S.-based faith, human rights, foreign policy, humanitarian, immigrant rights and border-based civil society organizations in a statement to express deep concern over the Trump Administration’s latest actions on Central America including the wholesale cutoffs of assistance to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns condemns President Trump's emergency declaration and calls on Congress to enact immigration policies that protect human rights.
We call on Congress to reverse the course of the Trump administration.
A call for compassion and transformation.
As the leadership of the Maryknoll Sisters, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, we denounce the cruel and immoral “zero-tolerance” immigration policy enacted by the Trump Administration which has resulted in the separation of over 2,300 children from their parents, the criminal prosecution of anyone who crosses the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, and severe restrictions on asylum applications.
The Trump administration announced plans to renegotiate NAFTA.
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
Take action for Honduras on the tenth anniversary of the coup.
Support the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019
Send a message to President Trump.
Write to U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo.
The drumbeat for war has been growing louder in recent weeks. How alarmed should we be?
Listen to voices on the border.
In the past few months, Guatemala has seen dangerous efforts to rollback key human rights protections instituted after the Guatemalan Civil War.
CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic social justice organizations which includes the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, issued the following statement after the collapse of a mine waste dam in Brunadinho, Brazil.
Speak out against the Honduran government’s attacks on human rights and environmental defenders.
Since February 7, protests have erupted across Haiti over allegedly misappropriated government funds and a massive devaluation of the Haitian currency, the gourde.
The words and actions of Jair Bolsonaro as president-elect and on his first day as president paint a dark picture for Brazil.
The following reflection, written by former lay missioner Larry Rich, was published in A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year B, available from Orbis Books.
The following reflection was prepared by Kathy McNeely, who was a lay missioner in Guatemala and then served with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
Fr. Dennis Moorman has served as a missioner in Brazil for a number of years.
Fr. Paul Masson has served as a missioner in Chile and on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Kathy McNeely served as a Maryknoll lay missioner in Guatemala in the 1990s. She subsequently worked with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
Br. Marty Shea has served the people of Guatemala for many decades.
Bob Short, who served as a lay missioner in Ecuador in the 1980s, now coordinates the Maryknoll Affiliates, an international community.
Fr. Dan McLaughlin is a Maryknoll priest who has served in Brazil for many years.
After serving as a lay missioner in Guatemala in the 1990s, Kathy McNeely was a member of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns staff for many years.
Dan Moriarty is a former Maryknoll lay missioner who works with Maryknoll's immersion program in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
This week's reflection is written by Angel Mortel, who served along with her family as a lay missioner in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Maggie Fogarty and her family lived as Maryknoll lay missioners in Bolivia.
Br. Marty Shea has lived for years amongst the people of Guatemala.
This week's scripture reflection was prepared by Kathy Seib Vargas, who served as a lay missioner in Mexico.
Gerry Lee, who spent 10 years in Venezuela as a Maryknoll lay missioner, now serves as director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
