GLENMARY PLANTS A COUNTRY CHURCH
THANKS to the Glenmary Priests and Brothers, Union County, Tennessee has a new permanent Catholic church, St. Teresa of Kolkata Parish. Dedicated in Maynardville in
late 2018, parishioners include longtime residents of the area,
immigrant families, new-to-the-area retirees, and resort-area
homeowners. Previously parish members had worshipped in a
storefront church where Glenmary had begun gathering people
in 2011. Parishioners themselves provided much of the labor in
building the church.
St. Teresa of Kolkata is among 100+ missions-turned-
permanent parishes begun by Glenmary Priests and Brothers.
Glenmary—along with its sister congregation, Glenmary Sisters—
has ministered in the small towns and rural areas of Kentucky,
Tennessee, Georgia, and other states since 1939.
SISTER EDIA LÓPEZ, R.S.M. has for many years worked with her fellow
Panamanians to resist hydroelectric
dams and rectify damage created by
them. López and others, including
many indigenous leaders, say hydro-
electricity production in western
Panama has come at a high human
and environmental cost, without true
consultation of affected communities.
Referring to the controversial
Barro Blanco hydro-electric project,
López told Global Sisters Report:
“The human rights of the population
of the Ngäbe-Buglé people in this case
have in no way been respected.”
In another hydro-electric project
in the region, La Cuchilla Dam, area
residents lost their way of life through
destruction of farmland, orchards, and
fishing. Indigenous citizens of western
Panama also have suffered damage to
their religious practices because of dam
destruction of sacred petroglyphs and
natural features to rivers and land.
“The [Panamanian government
authorities] never gave the correct
or the complete and objective
information to [the Ngäbe-Buglé
people] in a way that people could
understand what it was about and
the repercussions and the scope of
the project,“ López says. “There was
no intention to consult them, I think.”
The tribe has appealed to the
United Nations through the U.N.
Social and Environmental Compliance
Unit and also to the InterAmerican
Commission on Human Rights.
R.S.M. SISTER HELPS STEM TIDE OF DAMAGING DAMS
SISTER EDIA López, R.S.M. (at left)
holds an impromptu strategy session
with members of the Coordinating
Committee for the Defense of the
Natural Resources and the Rights of
the Ngäbe-Buglé People.
PHOTO BY TRACY L. BARNE T T, COURTES Y OF GLOBAL SIS TERS REPORT
MEXICAN traditional
costumes mix with Knights
of Columbus garb for a
festive opening weekend
at the new St. Teresa
of Kolkata Parish in
Maynardville, Tennessee.
COURTES Y OF GLENMARY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE
