Watch recordings below of recent Maryknoll Monarch Initiative speakers. You can also view them on our YouTube channel. Subscribe to the YouTube channel to receive notifications when recordings of future workshops are posted.
CARE FOR THE EARTH webinar series - juLY 2025
“Protecting the Earth from industries of Extraction and Energy: A Perspective from Asian and Aymara Indigenous Communities” - Prabindra Shakya and Sr. Patricia Ryan, MM
Prabindra Shakya is a human rights activist belonging to Indigenous Newar community of Nepal. He has been engaged in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. He has extensive working experience at global, regional and national levels with the Secretariat of United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) among others. Prabin is currently the Convenor of Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE). He also leads the Community Empowerment and Social Justice Network (CEMSOJ) in Nepal that he founded.
Sister Patricia Ryan, a member of the Maryknoll Sisters, is a renowned human rights and environmental advocate who has spent decades working with the Indigenous Aymara/Quechua people in Puno, Peru. She has empowered local communities through education, legal advocacy, and grassroots organizing. As co-founder of DHUMA (Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente), she has led efforts to protect Indigenous land and water rights, notably confronting the environmental damage caused by mining. Her commitment earned her national and international recognition, including Peru’s Human Rights Award and the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award. Her life embodies a powerful blend of faith, justice, and solidarity.
“The Guardians of Creation: Indigenous Spiritual Paths to Environmental Stewardship” - Sister Dr. Birgit Weiler, MMS
In this webinar Sister Dr. Birgit Weiler presents the main dimensions of the cosmovision of the indigenous peoples in the Amazon region, their specific understanding of the place as human beings in the cosmos, and the connectedness between all living beings. While doing this, she explores what the indigenous cosmovision communicates to all of us. She explores through myth-telling, as well as through some indigenous religious songs and symbols, indigenous spiritual paths to caring for the Earth. She also shows how their wisdom knowledge and spiritual insights invite others to a deep ecological conversion of heart and mind.
Sister Dr. Birgit Weiler, MMS, is a German missionary and theology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. A scholar of synodality and the Catholic Church in Latin America and in the Amazon region, Weiler is a member of the Congregation of the Medical Missionary Sisters. She has lived for 37 years in Peru, where she collaborates with the Episcopal Conference of the country. She also works as a theologian with the Episcopal Council of Latin America (CELAM) and the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon Region.
“One Earth, One Spirit: A Call to Action” - Sister Joan Brown, OSF
Our religious traditions, spiritualities, science and ancestral wisdom converge in this poly-crises moment affirming that we are one in a very sacred universe. We are inspired by deeper understanding to work in prophetic ways as we learn to be engaged mystics. This webinar explores these intersections and what they look like on the ground through work on climate justice, extractivism and advocacy with local communities in New Mexico.
Joan Brown, OSF is a Franciscan Sister from the Rochester, Minnesota community who is rooted in farm origins in Kansas. She has worked for decades in the Southwest United States and New Mexico with communities affected by economic disparities and injustices, ecological and climate concerns while being rooted in local spirituality, culture, beauty and sorrow. A co-founder of New Mexico and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light and the founding director and now Director Emeritus, she continues to work on oil and gas and other extractive concerns in New Mexico at the intersection of climate concerns. Immersion in the natural world, growing, preserving and cooking food, writing, walking and camping along with life in a diverse community nurture her ministry and sacred journey.
Nonviolence webinar series -june 2025
“Exploring Different Approaches to Peace-Building and Nonviolence” - Elizabeth Kanini Kimau and the Maryknoll Sister Peace Team
This 90-minute webinar features presentations from grassroots leader Elizabeth Kanini Kimau and the Maryknoll Sisters’ Peace Team. Each presentation addresses the local history of violence and the peace-building efforts the leaders initiated; the impact of their work; how they train other leaders peace leaders; and how their insights about peace-building may apply beyond Kenya.
Elizabeth Kanini Kimau is a Kenyan Grassroots Peace Builder. She is the founder of Horn of Africa Grassroots Peace Forum (HAP-Forum). Kanini is a Lecturer at St Paul’s University. She has over a decade experience in building a culture of peace in regions fragmented by prolonged inter-ethnic violence. The Maryknoll Peace Team’s “Conversations for Social Change” is a program designed to bring together people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to engage in deep listening and open conversation. The Sisters involved are Sisters Teresa Hougnon, Giang Nguyen, and Sia Temu.
“Nonviolent Christianity for Increasingly Violent Times” - Marie Dennis
In a time of increasing polarization and violent rhetoric in our national politics, what are the practical and theological resources within Christianity to resist violence at both a personal and political level?
Marie Dennis is director of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, a founder of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and a Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. She was co-president of Pax Christi International from 2007 to 2019 and worked for the Maryknoll Missioners from 1989 to 2012, including 15 years as director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. Marie holds a master’s degree in moral theology from Washington Theological Union and honorary doctorates from Trinity Washington University and Alvernia University. She is a lay woman, a Secular Franciscan and author, co-author or editor of nine books.
“Start Where You Are: Practices For Everyday Peace and Nonviolence” - Dr. Stephanie Knox Steiner
What does it mean to cultivate peace and nonviolence within ourselves and right where we are, amidst the complexity and messiness of our current context and everyday lives? How do we cultivate peace not only in the world, but in our own hearts, homes, and relationships?
Stephanie Knox Steiner, PhD, is an assistant professor and peace education program coordinator in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace in Costa Rica, where she teaches courses on peace education, nonviolence, and community building. She is long-time student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, an ordained member of the Order of Interbeing of the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism. She writes about interbeing, education, enchantment, and magic on her Substack, Enchantable.
Hope and Resilience on the Border - March 18, 2025 - Cristo Rey Church - El Paso, TX
“The Impact of Administration Policies on Migrants" - Jesus de la Torre, Hope Border Institute - 03/18/25
Jesus works as assistant director for global migration at the Hope Border Institute, a strategy center for faith leaders pursuing justice at the US-Mexico border. There, Jesús coordinates work to address the root causes of forced migration in Central America, research and monitoring programs, and immigration advocacy work with faith leaders at the U.S. level. He has been honored to learn with migrant justice movements in Spain, the United States and Central America, and his research has focused on analyzing the impacts of the US and European migration policies on migrants' rights.
“Migrant-centered Advocacy in 2025 and Human Trafficking in Migration” - Heidi Cerneka - 03/18/25
Heidi works on migration, women and human trafficking in both El Paso, Texas (with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center) and São Paulo, Brazil (with the Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania). Her almost 30 years of living in Africa, South America and Central America inform this focus bringing a faith perspective to her advocacy on the ground and challenging dehumanizing structures. Her work connects her to Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Brazil and the Mexico-US border where she continues to learn from activists and migrants each step of the way.
"History of the Border, Migration and Human Rights"- Alan Lizarraga, Border Network for Human Rights - 03/18/25
Alan joined Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) in September 2022. As Communications Manager, Alan develops and executes strategic communication plans to effectively convey BNHR’s mission, goals, and campaigns to diverse audiences, including the media, policymakers, and the general public. . In addition to his communications role, Alan serves as the coordinator for The Frontera Texas Organizing Project (FTOP), an initiative led by the Border Network for Human Rights aimed at building community capacity and leadership, expanding strategies to document immigration law enforcement abuse, developing a border community-oriented narrative, and advancing advocacy efforts across six Texas border regions.
"Listening to the Voices of Migrants" - Maria Sajquim de Torres, Jesuit Refugee Service USA - 03/18/25
Maria is a Maya K’iche woman born, raised, and educated in Guatemala. Maria is an interdisciplinary scholar with degrees in clinical psychology from the National University of Guatemala, applied anthropology from Northern Arizona University (under a Fulbright scholarship), and a doctorate in interdisciplinary mental health from the University of Texas at El Paso. Maria has worked for over 25 years in the non-profit sector in the area of mental health of immigrants and refugees, women, and indigenous people. Currently, she works as the Domestic Programs Director for the Jesuit Refugee Service USA in El Paso.
"National and Global Overview on Migration" - Susan Gunn - Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns - 03/18/25
Susan first joined MOGC as office coordinator in 2012. In 2015, she took on the role of communications manager and, in 2018, director. Her previous overseas experience was in mainland China beginning in 1991. While there, she studied Chinese in Beijing and trained middle school teachers at rural teacher-training colleges from 1993-1997, while sponsored by the Amity Foundation, the largest charity in China, and the National Council of Churches of the USA. Susan and her husband also worked as short-term volunteers at Prem Dan, the house for the destitute and dying, run by the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India. They now live in Maryland with their three children.