Sister Esperanza Principio
Current Ministry Location: El Paso, TX
Esperanza Valmeo Principio, born August 7, 1962 in Cruz na Daan, San Rafael, Bulacan, Philippines, grew up firmly grounded in the Catholic faith as she and her family were active members of the parish now known as the Diocesan Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 1979 and earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of the East, Manila in 1983.
Called to religious life, in 1984, she entered the Religious of the Virgin Mary, where she and her two sisters had completed secondary school, and served for 21 years as an educator, finance officer, retreat facilitator, community organizer, and social development specialist. She completed studies in Religious Education (1992), earned a Diploma in Rural Development/Social Leadership (1996), and later received a Master of Arts in Applied Social Research from Ateneo de Davao University (2000).
After a long discernment of her missionary vocation, she became an Associate of the Maryknoll Sisters in 2005, professed First Vows in 2009, and Final Vows in 2012 at Maryknoll, NY. Her first mission assignment (2006–2012) was in Panama, where she worked with IDEMI on children’s rights and served for five years with the Panama Bishops’ Commission on Justice and Peace, training diocesan promoters and contributing to research and publications.
In 2013, she was missioned to Peru, serving with Paz Perú in programs for the elderly, teaching the social dimension of Confirmation, and founding the Center for Community Development at Colegio José Caruana. She collaborated with parents, teachers, and students on environmental and socio‑economic education and U‑Theory, drawing on her love of nature and training in sustainable agriculture. In 2017, she moved to Villa El Salvador, Lima, where she helped organize parish social programs and served as an Energy Medicine Therapist in the parish health center. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, she volunteered for ten months with Caritas–Madre de Dios, working closely with Indigenous communities along the Piedras and Tambopata rivers in the Amazon rainforest.
In both Panama and Peru, she helped establish national chapters of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) and served as their first Coordinator for a combined eleven years. Through this work, she collaborated with leaders of diverse faith communities, promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue and advancing children’s rights, environmental justice, appreciation of Indigenous cultures, and the elimination of sexual violence.
In Spring 2024, she returned to Maryknoll, New York, serving as Associate Director of the Maryknoll Mission Institute in preparation for launching the Maryknoll Monarch Initiative (MMI) in March 2025. MMI has its base in El Paso, TX, where she moved in December 2024. She now serves as co‑Coordinator of this collaborative project of the Maryknoll Sisters and Maryknoll Lay Missioners, focused on education and formation in care for the earth, human migration, and nonviolence as pathways to global action and transformation.