Dear Maryknollers,
As you may know, I will be leaving my position as director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns next week. For over 22 years I have had the great privilege of working for Maryknoll – first for the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and Maryknoll Lay Missioners in the Justice and Peace Office, then for all of you when the collaborative office was established in 1997.
It is impossible to express adequately my gratitude to each of you for the gift of this experience. In these years I have had the great privilege of visiting most corners of the Maryknoll world. What I have seen there – the witness of your lives and the deep commitment of Maryknoll to bring the Good News to a broken world - have nourished my own faith and formed the bedrock for our work for you in New York and Washington and beyond.
Often in these years I have experienced Maryknoll's credibility in the public arena. Time and again, we have been told by national and international leaders how much they respect Maryknoll efforts to establish systems and structures that uproot poverty, promote human rights, respond to the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS, ensure access to food and water, recognize the dignity of women, make peace, respect Mother Earth, and on and on. They recognize that Maryknoll advocacy is not self-interested – that it is based on your long experience in local communities around the world.
I will continue to work for peace, social justice and ecological integrity through Pax Christi International and look forward to continued interaction with Maryknoll in many different ways, including as a member of the Maryknoll Affiliates. I also will remain at Assisi Community in Washington D.C.
Thank you, thank you, dear friends! I will carry you and the people you accompany on the margins of our world in my heart and in my prayers as I take next steps on this journey of life. May you be especially blessed in these centenary years!
In peace,
Marie
