Statements

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined statement condemning the assassination of Honduran Environmental Leader Juan López on Sunday, September 15, 2024 and calling for justice. Juan López was an outspoken critic of open pit mining and hydro-electric projects, he was shot multiple times in his car after he left church. Honduras remains the fourth most dangerous country in Latin America for environmental activists.

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined a group of 18 faith and human rights organizations in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlining areas of concern with the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti, specifically: that it support the development of Haitian democracy and autonomy; that it clearly state a priority for the protection of Haitian lives; and that there be concrete, public mechanisms for accountability.

Prior to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress in Washington, DC, more than 200 global bishops and Christian leaders, including Sr. Teresa Hougnon, president of the Maryknoll Sisters and Susan Gunn, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, call for world leaders to institute a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, halt of offensive arms sales to Israel, and prevention of a broader regional war. 

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 65 other organizations in a letter to the Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senators Christopher Coons and Lindsey Graham, requesting funding for peacebuilding, human rights, humanitarian aid, migration, international climate finance, poverty-focused development assistance in the upcoming Fiscal Year of 2025.

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined an interfaith coalition of 15 national organizations in writing to members of Congress in support of victims of U.S. nuclear testing, in particular, the extension and expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.