Maryknoll Society's Century of Mission 

Lay missionaries reflect on overseas experiences at local celebration for Maryknoll Society's Centennial

The young mother sat in her small home in a mountainous region of Bolivia, knitting a sweater for her young daughter.

Lydia wept, but not from the joy that accompanied the recent birth of her second daughter.

She was consumed with loneliness and despair.

She was not alone, though. She had as friends Felicia and Jason Gehrig, Maryknoll Society lay missioners working in El Alto, formerly a suburb of the capital city of La Paz now struggling to meet the demands of being one of Bolivia’s fastest-growing cities.

"I said ‘Lydia, are you OK? This is such a joyous occasion, celebrating the birth of your daughter. She’s beautiful and healthy."

Lydia had no money to feed her girls, no clothes for them, and no family to watch the children so she could find work.

"I don’t know what to do," Lydia cried. "I don’t know what to do."

Lydia’s walk of life stands out for Felicia and Jason Gehrig, who recently recalled their seven years as missioners in South America at a diocesan event recognizing the Maryknoll Society’s 100th anniversary at St. George Parish in near Northeast Fort Worth Oct. 30.

"We knew she wasn’t alone," Felicia Gehrig said. "There were so many other families in her situation."

Caring for the least among us

The Gehrigs, who met as students at Texas A&M University and married in 1997, brought their talents to Bolivia in 2000 — she as a teacher, and he as an engineer.

Their calling to walk with the indigenous population of El Alto followed in the great tradition of the Maryknoll Society missioners founded in 1911 by Father James A. Walsh and Father Thomas F. Price, who led the first group of four newly ordained priests — among them, Father James Edward Walsh — to China in 1918. (The founding priests bought a farm near New York City and named it after the Blessed Virgin Mary.)

The priests were joined in China a few years later by the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, founded in 1912 by Molly Rogers and recognized as a religious order in 1920. The Maryknoll Lay Missioners were formed in 1975.

The three work as partners today to serve 27 countries all over the world.

Bishop Kevin Vann, celebrant of the 100th anniversary Mass at St. George, said the Maryknolls "captivated" and "inspired" him and his classmates as a boy in Catholic school in Illinois.

In particular were the stories of James Edward Walsh, who was forced to go underground to continue his ministry when the communists took over the Chinese mainland in 1949 and began harassing and persecuting Catholic clergymen and women.

When then-Bishop Walsh was asked by his Maryknoll superiors about his safety, his faith and courage were on full display.

"To put up with a little inconvenience at my age is nothing," Bishop Walsh, by then in his 60s, is said to have replied, according to an account some years ago in Our Sunday Visitor. "Besides, I am sick and tired of being pushed around on account of my religion."

Eventually, he was arrested, and in 1959 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He served 12 years before being suddenly released.

Bishop Walsh’s experience is a prominent example of the uncertainty and danger sometimes involved in mission.

Perhaps the most notable tragedy was the abduction, rape, and murder of Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clark, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and Maryknoll lay missioner Jean Donovan in El Salvador, in 1980 in the midst of that country’s civil war.

The Maryknolls, Bishop Vann said, "still inspire me, and their lives reflect some of Pope John Paul II’s writings, especially [in regard] to our task to always proclaim the Gospel."

Ken Eppes, a lay missioner and organizer of the 100th anniversary event here, discovered the Maryknolls while working as a missioner in Peru in the mid-1970s.

"They quickly became my heroes," Eppes said. "I thought to myself, ‘They do mission right.’"

Maryknoll Father Gerald Kelly, director of Maryknoll’s Southern Region for Mission Education and Promotion, said in his homily at St. George: "We are all missionaries, all called to bring the good news to all ends of the earth."

Answering the call

The Gehrigs began their journey to mission with a short-term, seven-day mission trip through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging soon after their marriage in the late 1990s.

"That sealed it for us," said Felicia, who called her husband the catalyst for hearing the call. "We both felt the Holy Spirit calling us to do something, to be with the people."

In Bolivia, where each of the Gehrigs’ three children were born, Felicia used her talents to teach in El Alto’s public school system, as a high school English teacher and also in an elementary setting.

"We went there with the idea ‘what are the needs of the people?’ not about what ‘I’ want to do," Felicia Gehrig said.

The parish pastor pointed out the need for a new library to serve the needs of 15,000 parish youngsters.

"We talked to the neighbors, and we included them," Felicia said of the new book repository and study center eventually built. "The parishioners helped build it. We (through donations and the like here in the States) provided the financial resources. They provided the labor."

And in doing so, the community claimed ownership to its new gemstone.

Jason Gehrig’s water projects had the same Maryknoll mission blueprint, including one in which the villagers were required to contribute financially to the materials.

The projects had dual objectives, of course. They needed to not only be finished, but safeguards were necessary, too, to ensure sustainability. That included educating the people on maintaining the infrastructure. That sustainability is, Jason Gehrig said, "what makes me most proud."

The Gehrigs moved to Fort Worth in 2007, but mission is their way of life. Jason serves as a member of the Water Engineers for the Americas, a small group of engineers who advise Third World countries on water projects.

Felicia has continued her vocation as a teacher, at St. George.

"They’re still doing great work," Eppes said. "They still see their lives as one of mission."

The work and accomplishments of building in Bolivia were significant, but, Jason said, the ultimate motive was to proclaim and live the Gospel in solidarity with the people.

The most important element — especially with the teenagers they encountered — Jason said, was to "help them realize that someone loves them. Remind them of that relationship with Jesus."

And so it was that way when the Gehrigs found their friend Lydia.

The Gehrigs stood by Lydia, and in doing so extended help to so many others in her predicament.

A child study center in the community now serves 100 children ages 6 months to 4 years old. It provides food and education and is affordable for parents, who can feel good about leaving their children there.

Lydia, too, was able to get a job there.

"For me, mission is about relationship," Felicia Gehrig said. "It’s about being a good neighbor.

"Jesus was a good neighbor. Jesus was the ultimate missionary. He walked with people living on the margins, accompanying them in their day-to-day lives.

"We’re all called to mission. Some give by going on missions — some of us are called overseas, and others local, and some both. Some give financially.

"But together we can all bring about the Kingdom of God on earth."

Anyone with an interest in learning more about the mission of the Maryknoll Society should contact Alfonso Mirabal, a mission educator at the Maryknoll Mission Education Center of North Texas. He can be reached at (214) 821-4501 or by email at mkldallas@aol.com.

Copyright © 2011 by North Texas Catholic