| Today I spent a good part of the day preparing my laptop for what is known as a "destructive recovery," that is, reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling all the programs and data. The preparation is the most important step, to insure that no data is permanently lost in the process. After a delightful lunch with Richard Gatjens, I started preparing to fly and drive to North Carolina tomorrow to speak in a parish there, and then I participated in a panel discussion about the dangers of working from a position of privilege as Americans and white and wealthy. |
| Richard Gatjens is one of the dedicated Maryknoll staff who keep the Maryknoll Lay Missioners going. Richard is the part of the finances department for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners and in that capacity he is often in touch with Charlie Dittmeier. Today they prescinded from the normal e-mail communications as Richard invited Charlie to lunch. |
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| Joe Loney is the director of the MKLM Mission Services Department. He joined the lay mission program in 1995 and then served in Bolivia. Now based in Ossining, NY, Joe overseas the admissions process for incoming lay missioners and then their training for thirteen weeks before they are sent overseas. He is also responsible for the program for returning lay missioners who have finished their contracts overseas. Here he participates in the panel on privilege. |
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 The whole MISO group in the Bethany classroom downstairs. There are 37 mostly young missioners in the group which includes six men. They are going to a variety of countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For this session on the dangers of privilege, there was a panel of four composed of Fr. Mike Duggan from the Society; Joe Loney from MKLM; Charlie Dittmeier from MKLM; and Lucas from a program with youth in the Bronx. |
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