Serving the Poor and Disenfranchised
Wherever We Are Needed...
The Sisters of Charity of New York serve the poor and 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. Sister Marie Immaculata Burke, in Guatemala since 1971, administers health clinics in Novillero, Ixtahuacan, and Nahuala. She is also the health coordinator for the Diocese of Solola. Sister Marie Tolle arrived in 1981. She prepares 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 Eileen Judge, a geriatric nurse practitioner, is responsible for the healthcare of residents at Casa de los Ancianos, a home for the elderly poor in Santa Cruz del Quiche. Sister Mary Meyler developed a rehabilitation center for recovering alcoholics, and 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.
Sisters Virginia and Mary are currently building the Sister Barbara Ford Center for Peace-Building, where programs for spiritual development and for integral healing and transformation of individuals and groups will be offered to those working toward a peaceful future for Guatemala. Retreats and training programs are in development for youth, couples, church personnel and others interested in personal and social change.
Chajbal
Sister Gloria De Arteaga arrived in Guatemala in 2006 to accompany a group of young women who had requested to learn more about becoming Sisters of Charity. She is currently the Director of Postulants at our newly constructed House of Formation in Chajbal outside Santa Cruz. A team of Sisters in Guatemala and periodic visitors from New York assist in this work of building for the future of the Congregation and the Church in Guatemala.
The Bahamas
At the request of the New York Archdiocese, our Congregation established its first foreign mission in the Bahamas in 1889. The Sisters of Charity are proud of the many lay persons educated by them over the past one hundred years who are now actively involved in furthering the work of the Church in the islands of the Bahamas.
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