By Luisa Callahan Heffernan

Since childhood, Jim had known he was the great-grandnephew of Bishop James Anthony Walsh. In fact, Jim's full name, James Anthony Walsh Heffernan, is a continual reminder of his connection to the co-founder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Jim's great-grandfather, Timothy Walsh, was a prominent Boston architect who designed the original buildings at Maryknoll as well as a number of churches throughout the country. Jim and I were married in one of them, St. Leo's in Leominster, Mass.

But it wasn't until after our marriage that I found out I had a Maryknoll relative too. My grandmother's cousin was Mollie Rogers, who would become Mother Mary Joseph, the founder of the Maryknoll Sisters. It was my grandmother, Anna (Rogers) Callahan, who convinced Mollie to attend Smith College, where her interest in mission was sparked. (See story, page 13.) That led her to meet Father Walsh, then director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and to begin their lifelong friendship in mission.

There is a story about Bishop Walsh and Mother Mary Joseph that we had heard years ago but were never sure was true, until we saw it printed in a 1955 Time magazine article.

In the early 20th century, the article reported, there was a climate of prejudice toward Catholic institutions in predominantly Protestant communities like Ossining, N.Y., which would have made it difficult for an Irish Catholic like Father Walsh to purchase land there. Mollie Rogers posed as a wealthy Bostonian planning to purchase a plot of land in Ossining while her "chauffeur" silently stood by during the real estate transaction...

"beneath his linen duster was a clerical collar. After the transaction was completed, she transferred the deed to Chauffeur Walsh in consideration of $1" [Time magazine, April 11, 1955].  The land that Mollie Rogers purchased that day would soon become the location of Maryknoll.

Though Jim and I took a much different path than our Maryknoll relations, we share their love of other cultures. We lived in Ghana, West Africa, during the 1990–1991 school year and taught at a boys' vocational high school.

In 2002, I traveled with our 13-year-old son Myles to Haiti to do a weeklong mission trip through our church. Two years later, our daughter Celia and I headed on another short-term mission trip to Mexico to build houses for the poor of Tijuana. Last year, Celia spent six months in Peru volunteering at an orphanage and school. When we visited her, traveling high into the Andes, Jim was particularly struck by the women herding llamas and wearing traditional colorful skirts and hats, just like those he had seen in the pages of Maryknoll magazine when he was a boy.

The spirits of Bishop James Anthony Walsh and Mother Mary Joseph Rogers live on in those of us who admire their leadership, their sense of adventure and their inspirational vision for the Church strengthened by their deep faith in God. Jim, our children and I never had the privilege of knowing our famous Maryknoll forebears, but we consider ourselves truly blessed to be part of their bloodline.