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.
About the Author: Lawrence A. Egan was ordained a Maryknoll priest in 1964 and assigned to Guatemala. After studying Spanish, he started working in the indigenous parish of San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán. Later he worked in the cathedral parish in Huehuetenango. In 1987 he was transferred to parish of La Resurrección in San Salvador. In 1971 he became the executive secretary of the newly formed Pastoral Commission, which was attempting to develop an overall pastoral plan and approach for the archdiocese. He worked closely with Mons. Ricardo Urioste and Bishop Arturo Rivera y Damas. In 1973 he was assigned to the Maryknoll Research and Planning Department. There he helped develop a short- and long-term planning process for the Society. He was also instrumental in finding new commitments for Maryknoll in Bangladesh, Brazil, Nepal, Sudan, and Western Samoa. He resigned from Maryknoll in 1977. He then worked in bilingual education for the State Department of Education in Colorado. In the eighties he started working with an international nongovernmental organization, International Development Enterprise (IDE), which worked in the transfer of low-cost appropriate technology to developing countries. He served on the IDE board and as director of operations. Starting in 1991 he served as country director for IDE in Vietnam and later in Myanmar (Burma). He also helped IDE develope programs in India, Cambodia, Zambia, and Haiti. He has continued his association with Maryknoll as a member at various times of the Maryknoll Joint Committee. He has also collaborated with the Maryknoll Development House in Denver where he lives with his wife, Theresa.