When asked about his experience in the Sisters of Mary School Girlstown in Chalco, Mexico, Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, gave the following response:

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It was a great trip. It was the second time I’ve been there to the girls’ school there in Chalco, Mexico. It just, it really, that’s a perfect question. 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. And 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. And 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. And 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! And 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.

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Audio source: The Wandering Bishop by the Crisis Magazine

Transcribed by: Jong Esto

Photo source: Bishop Strickland (Capture from Crisis Magazine YouTube video The Wandering Bishop); Sisters of Mary logo and photo (from worlvillages.org)