Maryknoll: a glorious page in American church history The MaryknoU missionary order, whose prints and brothers have
written a glorious page in American church history, is celebrating its 75th birthday. Formally known as the Catholic Foreign MissionSrn::iety of America and approved by the U.s. bishops and by Pope St. Pius X in 1911, i.t was followed in 1912 by the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominicand in 1975 bya program for lay
missionaries. both men and women. who make a limited commitment, which may be renewed, to mission
service. The humble beginnings of America's first mission society were in a
frame building in Hawthorne, N,Y. Ils rounders. Father James Anthony Walsh of Boston and Father Thomas Price of North Carolina,
took their leap of faith at a time when the United States itself was
still considered missio'n territory. Soon the priests' effort wasjoined by Mary Josephine Rogtrs, who had earlier assisted Father Walsh with Propagation of the Faith activities and who was to become foun· dress of the Maryknoll Sisters. The seminary and administrative headquarters for both the women and men were moved to a hilltop overlooking the Huds,on River in Ossining, N.Y., from. which the Maryknoll missionen began their global travels. The first MaryknC)11 missions were in China and Hong Kong. The priests opened parishes while the sisters started schools for handicapped children. Early Maryknollers in Asia allo established an orphanage and a residence for the elderly. By the beginning of World War II, Maryknollers were working in
FATHER CONSfDINE
FATHER BREEN
FATHER MULLEN,
fATHER KELLEY
FATHER MURRAY
China, Hong Kong, Korea, the Pbilippines, Hawaii and Japan. During the war, many missioners were imprisoned in China and the Philippines by the occupying Japanese forces. Curtailed in the Far East, Maryknoll began opening missions dur· ing the 19401 in Central and South America, as well as East Africa. In the 1950., Maryknollen, along with other missioners, were forced to leave China and they began serving Chinese refugees on tbe Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. They also bepn work on Taiwan and Bokkaido. Although Maryknoll's work is primarily overseas, Maryknollers have worked in the Chinatown sections of New York and Boston and with underprivileged blacb in Tucson, Arizona, and Mexican migrants in Texas." In the 1970s Maryknollers branched out to Indonesia, Ecuador, the Sudan, Venezuela and Bangladesh Most recently, they have gone to Zimbabwe, Brazil, Egypt, Nepal and Thailand. As well as sacramental ministry, their fields of action include community and ramily development, teaching, public health, farming, lay leadership, development, and refugee work. Together with the rest of the Church, Maryknoll has been affected both by the far-reaching changes that followed the Second Vatican Council and by changes in society. The latter include the passing of the colonial era and with it the day when Third World people gaveautomatic deference to Westerners.
FATHER MORRIS
FATHER WALSH
A sharp decliDe in numbers offers especially vilible Sip of chanse. This year, only four priests are belnl ordained, And the classes of sisters that once numbered from SO to 100 or more now averale fewerthan 10. But Maryknoll leaders say they're not aeriously dis· turbed. "Heavens nol" says Sister Louise Ahrens, elected presid~nt of the Maryknol1silters in 1984. Deploring the "statiltics game," she expresaed confidence that "if we are faithful to the vision, there will be people to join that. " Maryknoll is also supplemented not only by its lay missioners but by associated priests and members of other religious orders who want to scrve abroad but cannot be placed by their own communities. Counting all categories, the Maryknoll fathers and brothers now have 970 missioners - nine bishops, 692 priestl, 93 brothers, 31 students, 30 priest associates, one brother associate and I J4 associate lay missioners. There are 936 sisters, plus about 25 associates from other communities. Maryk noll's anniversary celebrations this year have been tied to three key events in Ihe society's first year of existence. The jubilee observance began with a Mass and luncheon last April at Catholic University in Washington to mark the 1911 approval by the U.S, archbishops. It continued with a celebration June 29 at Maryk.noll on the 15th anni· versary of papal approval. And it will conclude nellt Jan. 6 when Maryknoll marks Ihe arrival 75 years earlier of the first three women who were to be among the pioneer Maryknoll Sisters. One of the most delicate issues at Maryknoll now centers on Maryknoll Father Miguel D'Escoto, the foreign minister of Nicaragua who was suspended from the priest· hood by the Vatican for refusins to give up his political office. So far, however, Hollywood-born Father D'Escoto remains a member in good standing of Maryknoll and a plan proposed by New York Cardinal John O'Connor to regularize his status is under Vatican study. Father D'Escoto was also a founder of Maryknoll'S publishing arm, Orbis Books, which published the English translation .of Peruvian Father Gustavo Gutierrez's pioneering work in 1973 on libera· tion theology. Such publications, plus social
BISHOP DONAGHY
activism amons MaryknoUers in Latin America hal drawn critici.m from writen luch as William F. Buckley and Michael Novak, But Father William Gilliaan, who does promotional work, said the criticism. has not seriGu,ly affected support. In 1985, the fathers and brothers had income of $54 million, about half of it from contributions . . and the other,from legaCies, Investments and sourees like book .sales. On-e coDitant theme for memben of Maryknoll has been danger. A tombstone in tbe Maryknoll burial ground, for instance, records that Father Gerard A. Donovan was "killed by bandits" in Manchuria in January 1938. Two of the four miasionary women murdered in EI Salvador in 1980 were Maryknollers - Sisters Maura Clark and Ita Ford. Despite the danger, MaryknoUers have alway. been determined to go where the people are and to find out what they would like to have done. From Our DlocHe Among the hundreds of Maryknollers past and present have been many from the Fall River diocese. Three have been particularly in the spotlighl during tbe 75th anniversary celebrations: Father John E. Morris. 97 and 72 yean a priest; Bishop Frederick Donaghy, retired bishop of Wuchow, China; and Bishop Joseph W. Regan, retired bishop of Tagum, Philippines. Fatber Monl. Father Morris, the oldest livins Maryknoller, was born January I, 1889 in Fall River. He was ordained for the Fall River diOcese in 1914 and entered Maryknoll in J921. He received his first overseas assignment to Korea in 1923, two years afterjoiningthe Maryknoll Society. He was named Prefect Apostolic of Peng Yang in 1930 and after 13 years of work in Korea, was transrerred to Kyoto, Japan.
With the outbreak of World
War II, father Morri5 was interned by the Japanese and was repatriated to the U.S. in 1942. Prevented by war from returning to mission work in Asia, he Was assigned to Los Angeles to WOrk with the Korean population there. In 1944 he was assianed to the missions of Hawaii where he served 12 years. Returning to tbe United States in 1948, he was appointed director of the Maryknoll Brothers. The followins year he returned to Hawaii. Returning once more to the U.S. mainland in 1956, he was appointed regional director of Maryknoll activities in the North· WCiI, with his residence in Seattle. In 19S9 he received his second assignment to Korea where he worked the next three years. During Ihe 1960s he worked in promotional activities for Maryknoll in Buffalo and New Orleans and in 1970 retired to St Teresa's Residence at Maryknoll. Bishop Dona.hy Bishop Donaghy was born Jan. 13,1903 in New Bedford. Ordained in 1929, he began his mission work in Kayins City, South China. After 10 years he was appointed prefect, then vicar apostolic of the adjoin~ ing Wuchow mission region. He was consecrated a bishop in New Bedford on Sept. 21, 1939. In 1950 Bishop Donaghy was jailed by the Communists until Juneofl951, whenhewasreleased. Finally expelled from Wuchow to Hong Kong in 1955, Bishop Don-aghy was appointed regional super_ ior of the Maryknoll Fathers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. In 1963 he was reappointed resional superior of the Taiwan region and he directed mission activities in these areas until the late 60s. Bishop Donaghy was assigned to Maryknoll's Special Society Unit in 1979 and presently continues to serve in Taiwan.
THE FIRST MARYKNOLLERS, who went to China in 1918. From left, seated, Fathers James Walsh, who later became a bishop and was imprisoned in China for 12 yean; Thomas Price and Francis Ford, who also became a bishop and died- in a Chinese jail in 1952; standing, Father Bernard Meyer. (NC/UPHReuter photo)
Bltlhop Rel.n
Bishop R~p1\ WIS born t\pril~,
di..eminating news of milt.ion activ_
itie&.
1905, in Fairhaven. He was ordained in 1929 and wall usisned to Wuchow, China, that same year. Five years later he was assigned to the KweHn area as vicar delegate of Wuchow and (rom 1938 to 1948 also served as Maryknoll superior in the area. Bishop Regan remained in China during World War II and during the postwar Communist revolulion was placed under house arrest for six weeks. Released and sent to Hong Kong, in 1951 he was appointed superior or the first mission team to work in lipa, the Philippines. In 1936 he became vicar superior of the Phi· lippinesand in 1958 regional superior. Named bishop of the Tagum diocese in northern navao, Mindanao in 1962, he was consecrated there on April 25 of that year. Known as a defender of human rights, Bishop Regan along with 53 clergy and laity, was questioned before a military trib.unal in 1977. Although he was accused of being a "'subversive" and a "communist", he was never tried. At that time he said, "If we really live our Christian life we can expect persecution. These arrests can be seen as a compliment t6 the people of the Church here." In 1980, at age 75, Bishop Regan retired as Bishop ofTagum, but he continues working in the Philippines. Asister, Sister Rita Marie Regan, is a Maryknoll nun, presently serving in Miaoli, Taiwan. Father Comldlne Father John J. CClnsidine, who died May 4, 1982, was an outstanding Maryknoller and a memberofa New Bedford family which gave two other sons to the diocesan priesthood, Msgr. Arthur G. Considine and Msgr. Raymond T. Considine, both now retired. In 1960, at the request of U.S. church officials, Father Considine organized the Latin America bureau of the U.S. Catholic Conference. He was its director until 1968 and also founded Papal Volun· teers for Latin America, a program for lay workers in Latin American missions. Father Considine was a consultant to the Vatican Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and was appointed by President J ahn F. Kennedy as the only priest member of the Peace Corps advisory council. In 1927 he founded the multilingual Fides News Serivce in Rome, still engaged in its work of
After II years as Maryknoll procurator general, Father Considine was named to the congregation's governing board. In 1946 he became editor of Maryknoll Pub· lications and director of public relations for the comlllunity. Father Bo....ri Wareham native Father Alan Borsari made congreption history in January 1983, When he bacame pan of a tum establishing an .experimental agricultural project incorporating modern techniques and are conducting health education programs in villages and a nearby refugee camp. Father Borsari, ordained in 1974, spent II years in Taiwan, including time as a seminarian, before beginning his present assignment. There he worked at a Maryknoll
BISHOP REGAN
SISTER DURY
activity center in the capital cilY of
, Tai~ei which served young migrant workers new to urban life. From Taipei he moved to Taichung, also a large city, where he directed S1. Christopher's garage, an undertaking tbat provided school and home life for young prage apprentices, in addition to training them as auto mechanics. Father Breen Falher John M. Breen, a Fan River native, entered Maryknoll in 1944 and was ordained in 1951, serving in Guatemala, El Salvador and now in Honduras. His duties have included serving for many years as regional superior of the Guatemala area of the Maryknoll missions. His life as a mi~sioner has been far from dull, ranging from duty In Guatemala City to service in what the Maryknoll magazine des-
cribe~
as "what is perhaps the loneliest, most isolated outpost in Central America: Sayaxche in the jungles of Guatemala's northern Peten region." While in Sayaxche, Father Breen trained local leaders in frontier colonies. serving families as they settled along a new road thrOUgh the jungle." Today he is workins in Honduras, where his immense parish includes miles of banana plantations and an extensive mountainousarea reaChable only by jeep or on muleback. He thinks the population of the parish is about 80,000 but "we don't really know." ' Father Kelley Father Raymond H. Kelley was born in Attleboro in 1931, the son of John S. and Ethel(Holt) Kelley, Turn to Page Fifteen
SISTER FELIX
SR. LOUISE GALLIGAN
SR. MARY GALLIGAN
SISTER HfGGINS
SiSTER MATHIEU
SISTER POWERS
SiSTER REGAN
SHEILA MATTHEWS