Guatemala Mission
“It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. Charity is certainly greater than any rule.”
St. Vincent de Paul
Serving those Living in Poverty and the Disenfranchised
Wherever We Are Needed…
The Sisters of Charity of New York serve those living in poverty and the disenfranchised…and we do so wherever we are needed. Our roots are in the New York metropolitan area, where a majority of our ministries are performed. However, we have also responded with enthusiasm to the call to serve God’s needy people in distant cities, states, and countries.
Guatemala (Novillero, Ixtahuacan, and Nahuala)
Today we have six Sisters ministering to the people of Guatemala. Our Sisters prepare lay catechists and Eucharistic ministers in Pacaxom, where the benefactors of the Sisters of Charity helped to build the local church and a preschool.
Diocese of Quiche
In the diocese of Quiche, Sister Virginia Searing has coordinated a mental health program for indigenous Mayan people to heal their memories of torture and the disappearance and killing of family members during the long civil war.
Updates from Guatemala
Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center: Charity Rises in Guatemala
By Luciano Laynez, Executive Director, The Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center The Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center is a non-profit Civil Association, established in the Republic of Guatemala in 2009 with the objective of promoting the integral human development of the...
One Community Dialog: Walking together as Church – Sisters and Associates in the US and Guatemala prepare for the Synod on Synodality
By Lisa Shay, Associate Zoom discussion on Synod 2021 – 2023. March 8, 2022 On March 8, 34 Sisters, Associates, and Companions of Charity gathered via Zoom to explore the “fundamental questions” of Synod 2021 – 2023, “For a synodal Church – communion, participation,...
A Double Celebration in Quiché
By Nora Cunningham, SC The following is from the Winter 2022 issue of VISION. The Feast of St. Elizabeth Seton was celebrated with much joy in Guatemala on January 4, 2022. It was a doubly happy and blessed occasion as we welcomed our new postulant, Mayda Alicia Pérez...
Heart of a Missionary — Sisters Missioned in Guatemala
The following is from the Summer 2021 issue of Vision. Since 1971, seventeen Sisters of Charity from the U.S. have served in Guatemala in the fields of health care, religious education, pastoral care, formation, and integrated human and spiritual development....
Health Care in the Highlands
By Sheila Brosnan, SC Expectant mothers wait to be weighed at Clinica Mariana, Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan. The following is from the Summer 2021 issue of Vision. When the Sisters of Charity arrived in Guatemala in 1971, the anticipated life span of...
The Guatemalan Mission — 1971 – 2021
The following is from the Summer 2021 issue of Vision. by Mary Mc Cormick, SC New York Sisters of Charity have always cherished Elizabeth Seton’s understanding of her desire to be known as a “citizen of the world.” Sr. Marie Immaculata Burke provided care to...