Maryknoll in Central America, 1943-2011

In 1942 the Catholic Foreign Mission Society (Maryknoll) decided to expand its work from Asia to Latin America. In 1943 the first two Maryknoll missioners arrived in Guatemala. They eventually started work in the northwestern Maya highlands in the Department of Huehuetenango. The Maryknoll Sisters and Maryknoll Lay Missioners joined them in 1953 and 1975, respectively. In Guatemala Maryknollers attempted to reconcile orthodox Christianity with the syncretism practices of the majority of the Maya. Today all the clergy of the diocese of Huehuetenango are Guatemalan and over half are Maya. Later in the sixties Maryknoll expanded to El Salvador and then to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica. MARYKNOLL IN CENTRAL AMERICA, 1943-2011 chronicles the fascinating story of these North American men and women who first undertook traditional parish work, then under the influence of Vatican II (1963-67) and the Latin American Bishops' Meeting in Medellin Colombia, undertook to carry out the new approach of the "option for the poor." They worked in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua during the thirty long years of civil wars. Some were tortured and/or expelled; others were murdered by government forces. Maryknollers played a small but significant role in assisting the local Central American Catholic Church revitalize the life of its constituents. They assisted the local churches in their commitment to promoting social justice and a better life for the poor. They helped in the empowerment of the rural poor in their quest to improve their lives. They started schools, supplied basic medical care, and launched literacy education. Above all they helped develop local structures so that the Central American churches could become more self sustaining in personnel. This book is the first systematic attempt to chronicle the successes and failures of their work in Central America. Perhaps it will encourage others to write a more definitive study.