EPISTLES

Bishop Joseph Strickland visited one of the mission centers founded by Venerable Aloysius Schwartz, affectionately known as Fr. Al, the Sisters of Mary School Girlstown in Chalco, Mexico.

What he witnessed there offers a powerful vision for the renewal of the Catholic Church. He saw firsthand how Christ’s love transforms lives, a living testimony to the Gospel’s power to heal and inspire faith.

In a world often overshadowed by despair, the Sisters of Mary School stands as a beacon of hope, proving that true restoration is possible.

Fr. Al, a saintly priest from the United States, founded the Sisters of Mary and the Brothers of Christ in various countries, including Korea, the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, and Tanzania. Through their unwavering dedication to Christ, their care for souls, and their mission to free people from sin, suffering, and poverty, they offer a clear path forward for the Church.

I share Bishop Strickland’s message with particular joy because I am myself a product of the Sisters of Mary School in the Philippines. Having spent four years under their guidance, I have personally experienced the profound joy, deep faith, and life-changing formation the Sisters of Mary provide.

Let us reflect on Bishop Strickland’s account and draw inspiration from the example of these devoted sisters, whose mission of providing free education and steadfast commitment to Catholic values can illuminate our path and strengthen the Church in its call to evangelize the world.

Bishop Stickland’s Experience in the Sisters of Mary Mexico

“It was a great trip. It was the second time I’ve been there to the girls’ school there in Chalco, Mexico…

What I was just saying, because that was another beautiful sign that the truth that Jesus Christ, lived, died and rose to share with humanity, it hasn’t gone away. It hasn’t gotten confused. It hasn’t gotten diluted.

It is still powerful and wonderful for these young girls from about 12 to 16, 17, more or less middle school or in high school, we would call those ages. These are young girls that come from trouble past. They’re not orphans, but they come from being trafficked or being abused or being neglected in various ways.

The joyful atmosphere there shows what the light of Christ and His Truth brings to us.

One of the beautiful aspects of the time that I was there, these young girls, the older ones, were having the opportunity to go home for a home visit.

Like I said, they’re not orphans. They come from troubled homes, but they still have parents, or at least a parent and they were going to visit family for, I believe, a week or maybe a weekend, not a long time, but to have a family visit.

These girls were being instructed and strengthened in their faith to go home lovingly, to bring the gospel and to ask mom and dad, if for whatever reason their marriages aren’t blessed in the church, ‘Mom and Dad, you really need to take care of that.’ Or maybe, you know, whatever the situation.

If their family wasn’t living according to the Gospel, they were being catechized and strengthened to share that catechism. I thought that was a beautiful echo of what they’ve experienced. Their lives are joyful and ordered and meaningful. They go on to great careers after they finish at this school.

I think one of the best signs of the good work that the Sisters of Mary, that’s the congregation there, they’re all over the world, these schools, and you can read about it, like you said in Kevin Wells’ article.

But one of the great signs of the success and the importance of what they’re doing is a number of the sisters there were girls in the school themselves who have come back because they received so much value, and they’ve heard the Lord’s call of a religious vocation and so they’ve joined the religious community that is there,  the Sisters of Mary. Beautiful, joyful,  peaceful sisters guiding the young girls away from the darkness that they’ve encountered.

Really, it’s a microcosm of what the Church needs to do in our culture of not rejecting ever, but not saying, ‘come on, girls, go ahead and continue your sins, and we’ll give you a place to be’. No! To free them from the sin and darkness, whether it was their own sin or the sinful world that was imposed on them, but, this school is a place where daughters of God, sisters of Jesus Christ can really be formed to know who they are, to know their gifts and their talents and to transform the world.

Not all of them were turned to be religious sisters. Some become  educators, some become businesswomen, lawyers, doctors. I mean they go on to productive lives nurtured in the way of Jesus Christ.

So, to  me, that school was an inspiring place to be, and I would encourage if people are looking for hope and looking for a way to make a concrete difference in their lives.

I encourage them to organize a group. The sisters love for Americans to come and visit, and the girls have a beautiful love, they sang the Star-Spangled Banner as a group of 3,000 girls after the Mass we celebrated. Beautiful!

They also sang some popular songs like Take me Home Country Roads, but it was, yes, it was a beautiful experience of seeing what God’s plan is for us if only we will listen to His truth and be guided away from the darkness of sin.”

(An excerpt from The Wandering Bishop by the Crisis Magazine)