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
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...
A Summer to Remember: Cooper Union Students at the Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center
For six weeks this summer the Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center is hosting three undergraduate engineering students from the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. The Guatemala experience is the newest element...
The Martyrs of Quiché
By Sister Mary E. Mc Cormick On April 23, 2021, in a moving ceremony conducted outdoors under a clear blue sky, ten men were beatified as martyrs in Santa Cruz, Quiché. The men, three missionary priests from Spain and seven native lay catechists, gave their lives for...
One Community February Dialog: Water and the Holy Spirit!
On Tuesday, February 23, from 7 to 9 pm in New York and 6 to 8 pm in Guatemala, 35 Sisters, Companions, Associates and friends gathered for a dialog on the effect of water in our lives. An excerpt from a water blessing video filmed at Lake Atitlán gave us a sense of...
One Community Working Group Meets a Second Time
On the afternoon of August 22nd, the Congregation’s “One Community Working Group” met via ZOOM for the second time. Thirty-one Sisters and Associates from both Guatemala and the United States participated. Our vision for unity between American members and those in...