Rev. Maria Lopez
Rev. Maria Lopez is guided by what she has dubbed a “theology of caring.” She will say that she is not a religious person, but believes in Jesus’ mission of caring for the poor and maintaining your humanity. “We live in a self-centered world. I, as a Christian, need to extend myself. But it’s not about religion, it’s about humanity. And I see it in all the different faith groups.”
Rev. Lopez first became involved with the Interfaith Center after September 11, 2001. Just a few days after the attacks, Rev. Lopez spoke at a press conference hosted by the Latino Commission on AIDS, held at the Interfaith Center, in support of the Muslim community of New York City saying, “Today, I am a Muslim. We are all Muslims now.” For many years, Rev. Lopez worked to educate faith communities about HIV/AIDS, creating youth ministries and training young people to minister to their peers and provide necessary education to their communities. Rev. Lopez attended Interfaith Center events dealing with the AIDS crisis and, later, events having to do with the mass incarceration crisis.
Today, Rev. Lopez has largely shifted her focus to the latter, turning her attention for the past twenty-three years to the prison system. She served for many years as a prison chaplain in various prisons across New York City, including Rikers Island and Bedford Hill Correctional Facility. At the Bedford Hill facility, Rev. Lopez began a chaplaincy program for the women in the prison, as well as women from Union Theological Seminary and Princeton University. The women in the prison who became chaplains were able to directly assist their fellow inmates, something that Rev. Lopez saw happen first hand at various times of crisis in the prison. Rev. Lopez also started a program through her local church, the Park Avenue Christian Church, that brought members of the church into the prisons to meet with the prisoners, and she created the New Cornerstone Adoption Program, which allows those outside of prison to “adopt” a currently incarcerated man or woman, at times also caring for their children who may have been left unattended outside.
Since leaving formal chaplaincy work, Rev. Lopez has become a voice for those in the prison system who are currently voiceless because of their incarcerated status. For her current doctoral research, she has traveled across the United States and South America, visiting prisons and studying their practices and populations, writing about what she describes as the horrors of incarceration in the Americas today. She is also doing reentry work for formerly incarcerated persons, helping them connect with the necessary people and organizations to attain employment, a home or home goods, and to reintegrate into their families and lives.
