Our cover features the two new priests ordained in June to the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Father Matthew Sim and Father Patrick Okok were both assigned to mission in Taiwan. The ordaining prelate, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, recounted during the ordination Mass how his own vocation to the priesthood was inspired in part by a Maryknoll missioner.
Bishop Seitz heads the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, and in an interview after the ordination he called out the current administration for its mistreatment of immigrants. Never in his “worst nightmare,” he said, could he have imagined how immigrants here could be rounded up and treated like criminals, when the vast majority are just hard-working people seeking the stability and opportunity of the American Dream.
Welcoming the stranger is a Gospel mandate, and this magazine regularly features the work of Maryknoll missioners serving vulnerable migrants, both in our country and abroad. Besides an interview with Bishop Seitz, this issue includes an article on a Maryknoll Affiliates couple assisting newcomers in Chicago.
For well over 100 years Maryknoll missioners have served the downtrodden, emphasizing the inherent dignity possessed by each person — made in the image of God. Our nation was founded upon the idea that everyone has “unalienable rights” that come not from the government but from our Creator, specifically rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” As a nation we are better than this, and there are better ways to address immigration.
Lynn F. Monahan
Editor-in-Chief
