The commonly shared name, Maryknoll, which refers to a family of U.S. based missionary movements, provides an excellent example of how difficult it can be to maintain clear distinctions between religious institutes, secular institutes, societies of apostolic life, and lay movements. This is true even when the origins of such organizations are recent and well-documented, as is the case with Maryknoll. Although popularly thought of as one religious community, Maryknoll in fact includesfour separate but complimentary groups, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and the Maryknoll Affiliates.
1.
| The official name of the Society of Priests and Brotehrs is “The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America”. But it is commonly known as “Maryknoll”, which was the name given to a hill (Mary’s Hill) within the property of the society, where its headquarters were built. It is located just outside the small town of Ossining, 50 km north of New York City on the Hudson River. Maryknoll was founded by two diocesan priests: Fr. James Anthony Walsh of Boston and Fr. Thomas Frederick Price of North Carolina.
1a.
| Fr. James Anthony Walsh was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1867.
He began his college program at Boston College, interrupted it to study bookkeeping, transferred to Harvard College as a “special student”, and completed his studies at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. He was ordained on May 20, 1892, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston.
After ordination, Walsh was appointed curate at St. Patrick's Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he directed sodalities and organizations for both the young men and women of the parish. In 1903, he was appointed Diocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and in 1907 founded “The Field Afar” magazine, a monthly publication about the foreign missions of the Catholic Church. His interest in foreign missions and his vision of inviting the whole American Church to share in the Church’s universal mission to evangelization, led him to cooperate with Fr.Thomas Frederick Price, who had a similar vision, in founding the American missionary society.
| 1b.
| Fr.Thomas Frederick Price was born in Wilmington, North Carolina , on August 19, 1860. His parents were converts to the Catholic faith, and he was raised as a devout Catholic in the midst of Southern apathy toward Catholicism. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1886. Both of Price’s parents had died prior to his ordination. Price was the first North Carolinian to be ordained to the priesthood, and he was assigned to missionary work in the eastern section of his native state. |
| 2.
| Fr. James Anthony Walsh and Fr. Thomas Frederick Price: the two cofounders of Maryknoll.
These two diocesan priests, who shared a common missionary vision for the American Church, had the opportunity of meeting at the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal (Canada) in 1910 (7th -11 September). They immediately began to formulate plans for the establishment of an American seminary for foreign missions, which was established in 1911 by the Catholic hierarchy of the United States, as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, with the commission to recruit, send and support U.S. missioners in areas around the world. Brothers).
Price made an around-the-country tour of the United States to gain support for the new endeavor. By 1918, three young priests (Frs. James E. Walsh, Francis X. Ford, and Bernard F. Meyer) were ready for the foreign missions in China. On September 7 of the same year, Price went with them as superior to the new mission. From the time of the foundation of Maryknoll, Price had understood that Walsh was the one capable of administering and directing the seminary itself. Price himself had always hoped to be chosen as one of Maryknoll’s first missioners, and his dream was realized.
Because of his age, Price had great difficulty learning the Chinese language. He also suffered from physical ailments. On September 12, 1919, he died in Hong Kong as a result of a burst appendix. In 1936, his body was exhumed and transferred to the cemetery at Maryknoll, New York. In 1955, his remains, together with those of Walsh, were finally interred in the crypt below the Maryknoll Seminary Chapel.
Walsh served as Superior General of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers until his death in 1936. During the founding process and in his service as Superior General, Walsh made trips across the United States, to Rome and to other places throughout the world.
In 1912, he acted as spiritual father and co-founder, with Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, of the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic (now called Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic).
In 1912, the society was incorporated under the seal of the State of New York. In 1915 the Society was brought under the immediate jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples which approved the rule of the society for ten years. In 1918, Walsh sent the first detachment of missionaries to China. At first under the Canton Vicariate, the Maryknoll mission field became independent in 1926 with three missions in China
Wuchow, Kaying, and the Prefecture Apostolic of Kongmoon, erected, 1924. In 1922 Propaganda Fide assigned to Maryknoll a large area in Korea, in the Vicariate of Seoul. In 1925 Maryknoll took a mission in Manchuria. In 1933, Walsh was named to the episcopacy and he was consecrated in Rome on June 29, 1933, in the College of Propaganda Fide by Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi. He died at Maryknoll New York, on April 14, 1936.
| 3.
| The second Superior General and a great missionary: Bishop James Edward Walsh.
James Edward Walsh entered the first class of Maryknoll in 1912 and on December 7th, 1915 became the second priest ordained in the society. Three years later he was assigned to China. That first remarkable mission group consisted of Fathers Frederick Price, Francis X. Ford, Bernard Meyer and James Walsh. They departed for Kwong Tung, China on September 8th, 1918. A year later, after the death of Fr. Price, Fr. Walsh became the Superior of the Maryknoll Mission in China. Pope Pius XI named Father Walsh, at age 36, as the first bishop of the Vicariate of Kongmoon.
Bishop James Edward Walsh returned to Maryknoll, N.Y. in 1936, following the death of Bishop James Anthony Walsh. In April of that year, he was elected the second Superior General of Maryknoll. During his ten-year term, he supervised Maryknoll’s first mission efforts to Latin America and Africa. At the Vatican’s request after his term of office, Bishop Walsh returned to China in 1948 as head of the Catholic Central Bureau in Shanghai to coordinate the Church’s missionary efforts throughout the country.
When the communists came to power in 1949, all foreign clergy were harassed and pressured to leave. The government ordered Bishop Walsh’s Bureau closed in 1951.
When the Maryknoll superiors expressed concern for his safety, Bishop Walsh betrayed a trace of his Irish temper: “To put up with a little inconvenience at my age is nothing.
Besides, I am a little sick and tired of being pushed around on account of my religion.”
He was arrested October 18th, 1959, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. During those years in jail, he received no news reports and only one non-Chinese visitor. His brother, the late William C. Walsh, former Maryland State Attorney General, was allowed to visit him in 1960. Without advance notice, he was freed from Shanghai’s prison hospital after serving almost 12 years of his sentence. Clad in rumpled khaki trousers and a faded checkered shirt, he walked across Hong Kong’s Lo Wu Bridge to freedom on July 10th, 1970.
On his return to the states, Bishop Walsh stopped in Rome where he was received in an emotional audience by Pope Paul VI. The Pontiff told the veteran missioner:
“You have been a witness, authentic and simple, in joy and in sorrow, then in suffering and humiliation and finally in separation from the people you loved so much. For all of this, We thank you on behalf of the entire Church of Christ.”
Bishop James E. Walsh died peacefully at Maryknoll, NewYork on July 29th, 1981.
| 4.
| Conclusions
The “Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America” (Maryknoll) is the expression of the missionary spirit of the Church of the United States. The fact that the founders were two diocesan priests and that the Bishops of the United States recognized it as the concrete expression of the mission ad extra of their Church, is a sign of the times: mission ad extra belongs to the nature of the whole Church and it is not the monopoly of any particular religious congregation.
4a.
| Maryknoll priests and Brothers do not take religious vows. Instead, they take an oath of obedience to the Constitutions of the Society.
| | 4b.
| As a society of apostolic life, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers is defined by its character as a society of apostolic life with a specific missionary mandate, emphasizing service of the poor and marginalized. This is underlined by the fact that, since 1975, the Society has come under the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide), rather than the Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
| | 4c.
| All Maryknoll priests and Brothers are from the Church of the United States.
Additionally, American priests and Brothers from dioceses or other religious communities may become Maryknoll Society Associates by making a commitment to spend a minimum of three to five years in missions overseas.
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| | 4d.
| At first the territory assigned was East Asia, especially China and Korea. During World War II, Maryknoll priests began to be sent to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, to supplement the shortage of native clergy.
Today there are over 550 Maryknoll priests and Brothers serving in countries around the world, principally in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Throughout their history, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, Maryknoll missioners played a large role in the Catholic church in China, Japan, and Korea, where some missioners still work. Maryknoll also has extensive connections with many Latin American countries, where it has long worked to help alleviate poverty and bring constructive changes to the life of Latin America’s poor.
| | 4e.
| Maryknoll Missioners include Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (“the Society”), Maryknoll Sisters (“the Congregation”) and Maryknoll Lay Missioners (“the Association”). The three entities are canonically separate but work in partnership. The headquarters for all three entities are located just outside the town of Ossining, 50 km north of New York City on the Hudson River.
| | 4f.
| In 1920, the Congregation of Maryknoll Sisters was recognized as a Diocesan Religious Congregation, “The Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic.” They were the first U.S. women’s congregation founded specifically to pursue foreign mission work. Mother Mary Joseph was elected Mother General at the first General Chapter in 1925.
In 1954, the group became a Pontifical Institute. The congregation’s name was changed to “Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic”, but they are generally known simply as Maryknoll Sisters. They make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The Maryknoll Sisters are Dominicans and not only maintain connections with Dominican congregations but are part of the Federation of Dominican Sisters. They also follow the Rule of St. Augustine, as do the Dominicans.
The Maryknoll Sisters live a consecrated life in the Maryknoll Spirit, which was described by Mother Mary Joseph as “a reflection of the love of God, nothing more nor less than that.” Today there are approximately 600 Maryknoll Sisters serving in 30 nations. Almost one fourth of the members come from countries other than the United States.
While all Maryknoll Sisters are contemplatives in action, there is within the Congregation a group of Sisters whose life-style and ministry is contemplation. The Contemplative community is an integral part of the Congregation. From the beginning, Mother Mary Joseph considered contemplative prayer a necessary part of the missionary movement. The first U.S. Maryknoll cloister was founded in 1932. It was later followed by cloisters in Sudan, Guatemala, and Thailand.
| | 4g.
| The Maryknoll family also includes the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful, or Maryknoll Lay Missioners. This group provides opportunities for single people, couples and families with children to serve the poor in 17 different nations. Their mission statement reflects the essence of the Maryknoll tradition: “Maryknoll Lay Missioners is a Catholic organization inspired by the mission of Jesus to live and work with poor communities in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, responding to basic needs and helping to create a more just and compassionate world.”
Lay Missioners go through a 13-week orientation program, then language skills training, in preparation for living and serving in another culture. Some Maryknoll Lay Missioners serve abroad for as long as 20 years, using their occupational skills in a variety of ministries ranging from practicing law to teaching.
| | 4h.
| Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, and Lay Missioners also sponsor opportunities for short-term volunteering.
| | 4i.
| The newest members of the Maryknoll family are the Maryknoll Affiliates, founded in 1991. The four pillars of the Affiliates are global vision, spirituality, community, and action. Affiliates “participate in Maryknoll's mission primarily by building mission awareness within themselves and in their daily contacts in society.”
The Affiliates meet in local chapters which are independent and self-financing. These chapters meet at least three times a year for prayer, discussion, and actions related to poverty and social issues. There are also annual regional meetings and biannual national meetings. In addition to these gatherings, Affiliates are brought together by the bi-monthly newsletter Not So Far Afield.
There are approximately 900 Affiliates in 61 chapters, 10 of which are in countries outside the United States where Maryknollers work or have worked. Chapter members identify with the Maryknoll mission charism in their daily lives. Some affiliates also participate in short-term mission work at Maryknoll sites abroad.
There is a Maryknoll Affiliate Covenant taken by many affiliates. The covenant proclaims the Affiliate’s relationship to the Maryknoll Family and its “mission vision, spirituality, and work.” The relationship between Affiliates and Maryknoll’s global vision can be seen as Affiliates pledge to, “promote peace in the world by working for justice locally while seeing the relationship of our efforts to the global issues of justice and peace.”
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