By the time Maryknoll Father James Kofski discerned his call to be a missionary priest at age 37, he’d gained skills and experience on his vocational journey during stops in the Philippines, India and Bismarck, North Dakota.
He contacted a religious community but was told they didn’t take “older vocations,” he said.
Not deterred, Father Kofski applied to be a Maryknoll priest. In 40 years with the society, the now-77-year-old priest has used his English and music skills while serving those who are poor in countries around the world — and he has no immediate plans to retire.
Originally drawn to Maryknoll because “they seem to strike a balance between caring for the body and for the soul,” Father Kofski’s work has included administering the sacraments, giving material and spiritual assistance, writing for news and scholarly publications, lobbying in politics and teaching English in locations such as Egypt; Israel; Thailand; Myanmar; Washington, D.C.; and currently, El Paso, Texas.
Father Kofski said he didn’t consider becoming a missionary while growing up, but he and his three siblings received a faith foundation from their parents who were parishioners at Annunciation in south Minneapolis.
After earning a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota in 1967, he taught English for two years in the Philippines with the Peace Corps. He stayed in that country three more years to earn a master’s degree in communications and Asian studies.
Father Kofski was hired to write for The Associated Press in the Dakotas when he returned to the United States. He worked in Bismarck for seven of his 10 years with the AP, often writing about farm issues.
Before and after his 1991 ordination, he wrote Caritas funding proposals while serving in Cairo, and during his five years in Jerusalem. Ater that he spent six years in Thailand, where he edited a university research publication and was an editor for an Asian Catholic news service.
Father Kofski returned to Washington, D.C., in the late 1990s and for seven years was a lobbyist in Congress on Middle East issues. After that, he taught English for a decade in Myanmar until 2018.
While serving in Asia, he contracted lymphoma. Though the cancer remains in remission, he said he now has a U.S. assignment at an El Paso, Texas, parish because of the possibility of a flare-up.
Of all the places Father Kofski has served, he said he most enjoyed Jerusalem, where he lived five minutes from the Wailing Wall and where he maintains friendships with Israelis and Palestinians whose different perspectives have helped him to better understand the conflicts there.
Learning the languages of the people he serves isn’t always easy, but Father Kofski has used music to connect and communicate. He plays the violin.
“It is one thread and one way to get to know people,” he said. “What pleased me a lot, … besides being a good way to make friends, was the deeper function to share the culture and (I) felt I could actually contribute something to the culture because I was doing music with them.”
El Paso’s music and culture are very different from what Father Kofski found in Jerusalem and Thailand, but he still plays regularly with his Texas parishioners while continuing to work on his Spanish. Though near the southern border, Father Kofski said he doesn’t often work directly with new immigrants, as a team of priests, sisters and lay people do.
Serving as a Maryknoll priest has been rewarding and humbling, he said.
“Whether you’re editing or teaching English, there are different opportunities for you to use your skills that way,” he said. “(I)n a given country, to be there and just soak in the culture was just fascinating for me.”
While he’s in good health, Father Kofski said he plans to keep working at the border.
“It’s hard for me to see myself putting my feet up and retiring,” he said, noting that when that happens, he wants to help in local parishes and play his violin with a community orchestra.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Named for the Blessed Mother and the hill or “knoll” on which its Asian-inspired seminary was built in Ossining, New York, Maryknoll has been the “heart and hands of the U.S. Catholic Church’s overseas mission work for more than a century,” according to its website maryknollsociety.org. The seminary complex, now known as the Maryknoll Society Center and Seminary, was completed in 1956.
Founded in 1911 by two diocesan priests to train U.S. priests and brothers for foreign mission work, Maryknoll is known as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.
Today, it consists of four independent organizations: priests and brothers; sisters; lay missioners and affiliates.
The small group of recently ordained Maryknoll priests who set out for China in 1918 were among the first U.S. Catholics to do mission work after Pope Pius X removed the United States from a list of mission countries in 1908.
Today, roughly 350 Maryknoll priests and brothers serve in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S. They are dedicated to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ through love and hope by serving those most in need. Maryknoll missioners do this through direct evangelization and various pastoral ministries, including health care, education, agriculture, vocations and disaster relief.
Maryknoll sisters also give witness to God’s love by giving their lives to help the poor, sick and marginalized in 24 countries worldwide, their website maryknollsisters.org states. In 1912, Maryknoll cofounder Molly Rogers led a small group of women interested in foreign missions and eight years later it was canonically approved as a religious community, titled the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic. In 1921, Maryknoll sisters traveled to China and Hong Kong, the website states.
Maryknoll lay missionaries began serving in 1930 as single people, married couples or families who commit to two to three years of overseas service in collaboration with local communities in nine countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. According to their website mklm.org, 50 lay missionaries work in education and leadership development, faith formation and pastoral care, health care, justice and peace, or sustainable development.
Maryknoll affiliates live in their own communities but identify with Maryknoll’s vision, charism and mission goals, states their website, maryknollaffiliates.org. Organized in global chapters of about 12 members, affiliates gather for prayer, reflection and action. Many chapters support members going on immersion trips to mission sites.
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