Massachusetts Priest Celebrates 50 Years As Missioner

Father Eugene W. Toland, M.M., of Boston and who attended schools in Charlestown, will celebrate his 50th anniversary of ordination as a Maryknoll priest on Sunday, June 29, 2014.  He is one of 31 Maryknollers to commemorate his ordination to the priesthood or Final Oath as a Maryknoll Brother in ceremonies to be held at the Maryknoll Mission Center in Ossining, New York.

After ordination on June 13, 1964, Father Toland was assigned to vocation work in the New York Archdiocese, where he also served as a chaplain in the Young Christian Student Movement. In 1969, Father Toland became director of a nationwide mission education effort for students (Maryknoll Formation Program for International Services) that offered seminars across the country on international understanding and vocation discernment. He served briefly with the United Farm Workers and, in 1973, he was assigned to Bolivia to work among the Aymara people in the Alti Plano outside La Paz.

In 1978, Father Toland became coordinator for Maryknoll’s Latin America Region and later that year he was elected to a six-year term on Maryknoll’s General Council (1979-1984).  He then studied at Boston College and the Weston School of Theology.  He also learned video and TV production.  When Father Toland returned to Bolivia, he joined Edu-Video, a Maryknoll production team based in La Paz that produced videos to be shown on television and in U.S. schools and universities.

Father Toland next was assigned to Africa, where he worked among refugees fleeing the terrible prolonged civil war in Sudan and with people with HIV/AIDS in the slums of Kenya (1991-1994).  Returning to Latin America, he worked in Melozal in southern Chile in the heart of a fruit and wine producing area, ministering to farm workers.  He devoted his efforts to leadership formation of the laity (1994-1999).

In 1999, Father Toland was named the Latin America Maryknoll Society representative to the United Nations Commission for Economic and Social Affairs.  For the next three years, he participated in a number of U.N. sponsored regional and international forums on human rights, development and indigenous peoples.

In 2001, Father Toland was elected regional superior of Maryknoll’s Latin America Region.  Presently, he serves as a member of the Cochabamba Pastoral Group and he is the overseas training coordinator for Latin America.  Father Toland continues to serve in Bolivia.

“The highlights of my mission career have been multiple and have enriched my life in ways I could never have imagined as a young man in 1964,” reflected Father Toland.  “They include the adventure of discovering the beauty of how God has been present in a variety of cultures like the Aymara and the Maya, and African tribes, of learning from very simple and poor people valuable lessons on the true meaning of life, and of seeing such people grow in confidence as they realize that they are beloved of God and people of dignity and value.”

Born in Boston on December 1, 1936, Father Toland attended the Kent, Prescott and C.R. Edwards Schools in Charlestown (1941-1950) and graduated from Boston English High School (1954).  He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Maryknoll College, Glen Ellyn, Illinois (1959), and a master’s degree in religious education from Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining (1964).

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers follow Jesus in serving the poor and others in need in 27 countries that include the U.S. All Catholics are called to mission through baptism and confirmation, and Maryknoll’s mission education outreach in parishes and schools throughout the country engages U.S. Catholics in mission through vocations, prayer, donations and as volunteers. Maryknoll missioners share God’s love and the Gospel in combating poverty, providing healthcare, building communities and promoting human rights. For more information, visit http://maryknollsociety.org .

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