Maryknoll Sisters President to Be Honored by PA Governor

Sister Janice McLaughlin, MM, president of Maryknoll Sisters is among nine women to be named Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania at a special awards luncheon being held on Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg, PA. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and his wife, Susan Manbeck Corbett, will host the festivities.

Since its establishment in 1949, the Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania has annually honored outstanding women for extraordinary service and contributions to the Commonwealth. Only a few such women are named by the Governor each year. Almost 500 women have been honored since the award was first bestowed. Their ranks include women of high achievement in education, science, law, medicine, business, public service, philanthropy, humanities and the arts.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Sister Janice has been president of Maryknoll Sisters since 2008. Prior to her presidency, she spent nearly 40 years living and working as a missioner in Africa.

During her first posting in Kenya in 1969 as the communications coordinator for the Catholic Church there, she took on the training of journalists and broadcasters, and helped spread the Gospel through mass media. For her second assignment, she was sent in 1977 to Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe), where she was press secretary of the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, again working in the areas of mass media, education and advocacy. As the political situation in Rhodesia deteriorated, Sister Janice’s straightforward reports documenting war crimes in the government of Ian Smith, led to her arrest, imprisonment and deportation. After deportation, Sister Janice worked with the Washington Office on Africa, a church-based lobby group that helped to educate the American public and Congress about African affairs. She became project officer, in 1979, for a new initiative created by a consortium of Catholic donors to assist refugees from the war in Rhodesia. Based in Mozambique for two years, she raised funds to aid Zimbabwean refugees and taught journalism in the schools in the camps that were set up by the liberation movements.

In 1980, Sister Janice returned to an independent Zimbabwe at the request of the new government to work as an education consultant to the President’s Office. With great perseverance, she helped to build nine schools for former refugees and war veterans, and developed a new system of education linking academic subjects with technical training.

After seven years in New York as communications coordinator for the Maryknoll Sisters, she returned to Zimbabwe to become training coordinator for Silveira House, a leadership training and education center run by Jesuits for the poor and marginalized. A lifelong advocate for the education of young girls, she set up a scholarship fund to help girls attend school. She continued to live in Zimbabwe until 2009.

Sister Janice holds a B.A. in theology, anthropology and sociology from Marquette University, and a doctorate in religious studies from the University of Zimbabwe. In 2010, Marquette honored Sister Janice with the honorary degree of Doctor of Religious Studies.

Founded in 1912, Maryknoll Sisters is the first US-based congregation of women religious dedicated to world mission. Working primarily among the poor and marginalized in 24 countries around the world, they now number 459 members.