Two themes abound in this issue of Maryknoll: hope and opening doors. Hope is central to Christianity and embodies the very essence of Jesus’ message. In this issue, as always, we bring you a variety of examples of Maryknoll missioners manifesting hope.
Pope Francis renewed hope when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of this Jubilee Year, signifying passage into the fullness of divine Grace. We feature the event in our photo meditation. Other Holy Doors have opened in cathedrals and shrines around the world for the Jubilee.
Maryknollers open doors in mission — sometimes, quite literally. In this issue we visit the jungles of Guatemala, where Maryknoll priests have constructed a dozen chapels, and Hong Kong, where a school founded by the Maryknoll Sisters celebrates its centenary.
Of note, too, in this issue is our tribute to Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, who died in October. Dominican Father Gutiérrez, considered the father of liberation theology, opened doors by approaching theology from below, from the perspective of the marginalized and the oppressed. Father Gutiérrez’s groundbreaking seminal work, A Theology of Liberation, published in English by Maryknoll’s Orbis Books 52 years ago, profoundly impacted Catholic social teaching and Church leaders, including our current pope.
This approach to theology from the perspective of the peripheries has come to epitomize mission — and Maryknoll — in the post-Vatican II era.
Lynn F. Monahan
Editor-in-Chief
