Welcome to our website
Maryknoll Brothers are men who commit themselves
to lifelong celibacy, prayer, community living, and ministry.
Bringing a wide range of talents to the missionary endeavor,
they build missions and schools, work as teachers and
administrators, develop agricultural and other life-sustaining
projects with indigenous people, serve in health-related fields
and contribute in numerous ways to the ministry of Maryknoll.
In the early days of the Church, the Apostles realized that
they could not preach Jesus’ Word without the help of others who
ministered in various ways in early Christian communities (Acts
6: 1-6). Although they do not perform sacramental Church
ministries, Maryknoll Brothers witness to the Gospel through
lives of service and prayer, proclaiming the Word throughout the
world.
Brother Marty Shea
Marty Shea, is a Maryknoll
missioner from Chicopee Falls, Mass., who has worked with the
indigenous poor of Guatemala for over 50 years.
His
missionary journey since 1985 has taken him through massacres in the
jungles of El Peten, to exile in Mexico, to return with the people
to their homeland in 1998.
Brother Marty, has lived
with the people in Guatemala and in Mexican refugee camps. He knows
how happy the refugees are to have returned home now that civil war
has ended with a peace accord.
The
Guatemalan government promised to reestablish the people in their
home region—the Petén rainforest and savannas—over three hundred
miles from the capital, Guatemala City.
Brother Marty attests that the people arrived home
with nothing. They had to begin again to turn the jungle into
farmland. Until the government provides promised plots of land, the
peoplelived in temporary camps funded by international and nonprofit
organizations.
Marty lived with the people in a simple house built
for him by the returned refugees. He states that their joy is
tempered by immediate needs that must be met. When he first arrived
at the camps they lacked sufficient water and food. His major job at
that time was to help and to keep the people from becoming
disheartened. Today the camp where he lives is thriving and very
well organized. They have a clinic, radio station, school, and
cooperative.
Guatemala today is still a
dangerous place to live. Two percent of the population in Guatemala
owns sixty-five percent of the farmland. The struggle for land has
a long and violent history. In urban areas gangs control the
neighborhoods. Poverty, political violence, and malnutrition are
challenges for missioners dedicated to working with the poor.
Despite their hopes and dreams for their children,
the returned refugees find it hard for them to believe that each
family will actually receive a plot of land from the government.
Brother Marty gives them hope because even though he is now retired,
he still remains with the people. He lives in a small house in
Santa Rita, not far from Tikal, site of famous Mayan ruins.