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Maryknoll is the name of four religious institutes and a lay ministry within the Roman Catholic Church, which include Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Maryknoll Society), Maryknoll Sisters (Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic), Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and Maryknoll Affiliates, each of which are independent entities with a shared history and mission. Founded by Thomas Frederick Price, James Anthony Walsh, and Mary Josephine Rogers, the organizations were created in 1911, and named for a hill outside the Ossining, Westchester County, New York, where all three organizations are headquartered. Members of either of these organizations are known as Maryknollers. Particularly active in East Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, and Africa, the Maryknollers have a reputation for moving into rough areas, living with indigenous people, and learning their language, as they work fight poverty, provide health care, and advance peace and social justice issues. They have also built several primary schools, secondary schools, and orphanages. In recent years, their activities have been characterized as liberation theology, an interpretation of theology that carries an emphasis on liberating the oppressed. The Christophers and the Maryknoll Affiliates are associated with the Maryknoll Movement, as well. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States was a significant mission area for the Vatican, as there was heavy migration of European Catholics to the United States, and a cultural hostility to Roman Catholicism. Father James Walsh and Father Thomas Price obtained permission from Pope Pius X to found a new society in 1911. Mary Josephine Rogers was already assisting Walsh with a mission magazine that would later Maryknoll, so she joined them later that year to continue her work on the magazine. By 1920, the organization had begun a mission to China, and other missions in the Asian Pacific area soon followed.

 

 

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