Maryknoll Sisters

When your 7-year-old sister is dying of cancer, who do you turn to? Sister Kathleen Reiley's blog post about the love between two sisters reveals the true message of the Easter season.

As you know, I work with children with cancer. About four weeks ago, a little 7-year-old girl died.

Her older sister often came to the hospital and had to wait in the waiting room for hours until it was time to go home with her mother. Since she was under 12, she couldn’t go into the ward to see her sister often.

We had a Cherry Blossoms viewing picnic for the families recently, and the sister of the little girl who had died told her mommy that she would like to go to the picnic.

We took a walk together through the park after the picnic and this is a picture of the little piece of gravel that Rue’s sister found. When Rue would make a card or something in art class, she often made hearts!

A real message of love between sisters!

Happy Easter!

 – Sister Kathleen Reiley, MM

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support for the people who have suffered so much in the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan.

Children who have cancer make up Sr. Kathleen's ministry. She fears more cases near the damaged nuclear plant in Japan.

I have been able to go there four times and will be going again.  There are so many on-going needs and now with winter setting in it will be even more challenging.

I have been mostly involved with informal counseling and activities with children.   I have been connected with Caritas Japan and Share, a medical non-profit organization. Both groups are committed to ongoing service of the people.

Last month when I was in Kesennuma a man who had lost his home said,”We don’t like it when groups come in have a big event, take lots of pictures and then leave.  We feel they are doing that for their own publicity.  What we need is on-going relationships with people who really care about us and will struggle with us to help us know what the next step is for us.”

I have also been asked to join the Catholic Tokyo Volunteers, whose main area of responsibility is ministering to the people in Fukushima who had to evacuate because of the nuclear accident.

The radiation, especially in contaminated soil from cesium, whose half life is 30 years, is such a big concern – especially to families with small children.  They don’t know where to store it. 

They do not encourage volunteers under 40 to go to Fukushima because of the health risk.  I’m 67 now – so no problem.  I hope to go there in December for a Christmas party and then again in the New Year to help make special New Year’s traditional Japanese food.

For those of you who have donated money please be assured that it is being channeled to the people who need it the most – through very reputable groups.  I wish I had time to thank you each personally but I’m sure you understand the constraint of time that I am under.

Sr. Margaret Lacson is also using some of the money to help many of the Maryknoll Filipinos who are victims of the tsunami, too.  She also has been up there to minister to them several times.

And please continue to do all you can to alert the whole world about the terrible effects of a nuclear accident – especially the problem of nuclear waste.  I work with children with cancer and it just breaks my heart to think how many more children are threatened with getting cancer because of this accident.

 – Sister Kathleen Reiley, MM

I have been working with children with cancer and their families for over 25 years. When I was studying in Penn State University Hospital in the United States, some families of children with leukemia had been surveyed because they lived near Three Mile Island at the time of the nuclear accident there.

After the Tokaimura nuclear accident, I met many more children from Ibaraki who had cancer at the Cancer Hospital in Tokyo. I have been asking several people connected with the media to try to get more information if there is a higher rate of cancer among children who have lived near the site of a nuclear accident, but no one is willing to do it. They tell me the political and economical issues are too delicate.

But now with this terrible Fukushima nuclear accident, I hope something can be done to help the whole world see how dangerous nuclear energy really is. One scientist has said, “If sunbeams were weapons we would have had solar energy decades ago.” The main reason nuclear energy is so much in use is because it can easily be converted into use for nuclear weapons.

When I went to the hospital to visit the children after the accident, they are very calm and resigned – they are already experiencing what the rest of us fear – cancer.

Can’t we please do all we can to help change our values so that we can help protect the future of the earth for our children?

At this time of Lent and repentance, one of my favorite prayers is: LAMB OF GOD YOU WHO TAKE AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD – HAVE MERCY ON US.

Besides our individual sins – we certainly all seem to share in preferring our own comfortable lifestyle now – rather than working to protect our earth for future generations.

Some people ask are you staying in Japan? “Don’t you want to leave?”

But this is my Home – this is where God wants me to be now.

— Sister Kathleen Reiley, MM