{{short description|American Redemptorist priest (born 1939)}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Father | name = Joe Maier | birth_name = Joseph H. Mayer | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1939|10|31|df=yes}} | years_active = 1967{{endash}}present | organization = Human Development Foundation | known_for = Charitable career in Khlong Toei, Bangkok, Thailand | birth_place = Longview, Washington, U.S. }}
'''Father Joseph (Joe) H. Maier, C.Ss. R.,''' (born 31 October 1939) is an American Redemptorist priest who lives and works in the Khlong Toei slums of Bangkok, Thailand, where he co-founded the Human Development Foundation (HDF-Mercy Centre) with Sister Maria Chantavarodom in 1973.<ref name="FJMaier">{{cite web|title=Father Joseph Maier|url=http://mercycentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=66|website=HDF Mercy Centre|access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref> For over 45 years, he has administered to Bangkok's poorest, providing vulnerable children and families alternatives to and a haven away from drugs, violence, sexual abuse, and prostitution in the squatter slums.<ref name="CNN-20080527">{{cite news|last1=Yuan|first1=Elizabeth|title=Bangkok's 'Slaughterhouse' children find a haven|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/27/bangkok.children/index.html|access-date=19 November 2016|work=CNN|date=2008-05-27}}</ref>
== Early life == Joseph Maier was born at Cowlitz General Hospital in Longview, Washington in 1939, the son of a Catholic mother, Helen Childs Maier, and a German Lutheran, George Maier.<ref name="TDN-20080420">{{cite news|last1=Zimmerman|first1=Cathy|title=Mister Father Joe: Longview native dedicates life to poor of Thailand, inspires book|url=http://tdn.com/lifestyles/mister-father-joe-longview-native-dedicates-life-to-poor-of/article_2e02a60c-54e7-5b4a-99e0-faaa0c4675fd.html|access-date=19 November 2016|work=The Daily News|date=2008-04-20|location=Longview WA}}</ref> His parents separated when Maier was five years old, and later divorced. Thereafter, Maier was raised primarily by his uncle in Longview. Maier enrolled in a Redemptorist seminary in California as a high school freshman and was assigned to Bangkok upon completion of his studies.<ref name="TDN-20080420" /><ref name="Barrett, Greg 2008">Barrett, Greg. The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok. 2008.</ref>
Father Joe first arrived in Thailand in 1967. He ministered in northern Isan and to the Hmong in Laos before settling permanently in Bangkok's "slaughterhouse" slums, next to the Chao Phraya River in the Khlong Toei District.<ref>[http://www.thetablet.org/11222008/stories22.html "Mercy Shines Through Work of Priest in Bangkok."]{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
== HDF Mercy Centre == Maier and a Thai nun, Maria Chantavarodom, founded the Human Development Foundation (HDF), also known as the Mercy Centre, in 1972.<ref>{{ cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/28/i-was-a-drunk-for-20-years-the-unlikely-us-priest-revered-in-the-slums-of-bangkok | title = 'I was a drunk for 20 years': The unlikely US priest revered in the slums of Bangkok | work = The Guardian | date = 27 January 2023 | last = Root | first = Rebecca }}</ref> The HDF began as a single one-baht-a-day preschool, and has since expanded into a network of over 30 schools all over Bangkok, which have graduated an estimated 35,000 children.<ref name="CNN-20080527"/> Today, in addition to schools, HDF operates orphanages and homes for street kids, assists children and adults living with AIDS, provides emergency assistance and home repair to slum families affected by crippling floods and fires, acts in cooperation with community members to mediate activities involving welfare organizations, housing authorities, governmental agencies, and the Port Authority of Thailand.<ref name="CSvcs">{{cite web|title=Community Services|url=http://www.mercycentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57|website=HDF Mercy Centre|access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref>
In 2000, a gift from Atlanta businessman and philanthropist John M. Cook allowed for the major physical expansion of Mercy facilities.<ref name="PBS-20040604">{{cite news|title=Father Joe: Slum Priest|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2004/06/04/june-04-2004-father-joe-slum-priest/19112/|access-date=19 November 2016|work=PBS; Religion & Ethics Newsweekly|date=2004-06-04}}</ref><ref name=MercyCentre>{{cite web|title=Mercy Centre|url=http://mercycentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=53|website=HDF Mercy Centre|access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref> The multi-structure compound includes a 400-pupil kindergarten, a home for street kids, a home for mothers and children with AIDS, a 26-bed free AIDS hospice, a legal aid anti-trafficking unit, and various administrative offices that oversee operations ranging from a sponsor-a-child program, to community health and outreach services.<ref name=MercyCentre/> The centre includes a house for Father Joe on Mercy grounds, the terms of the donation having stipulated that he move out of the slaughterhouse slums and away from the ostensible health hazards of slum living.<ref name="Barrett, Greg 2008"/>
The Mercy Centre extended its humanitarian efforts to southern Thailand following the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, sending down relief teams to directly aid remote villages, from Satun to Ranong, hit hard by the disaster.<ref>[http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2005/01/11/national/index.php?news=national_16029639.html "Father Joe Extends a Helping Hand."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010001317/http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2005/01/11/national/index.php?news=national_16029639.html |date=2012-10-10 }}</ref>
== Interfaith dialogue == Father Joe has been both praised and criticized for his broad religious philosophy.<ref>[http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=5437 Weaver-Zercher, Valerie. Book Review: The Gospel of Father Joe]</ref> In a 2004 PBS documentary, he described himself as having been "converted" by Buddhists and Muslims, remarks that have stirred some controversy. He made a similar comment in 2008, when he told CNN, "Buddhists and Muslims taught me how to be a Christian."<ref name="CNN-20080527"/>
== Recognition == Mercy is regularly sought out by foreign dignitaries. Recent visitors have included Prince Alfred and Princess Raffaela of Lichtenstein in March 2003;<ref>{{cite news|title=Liechtenstein royals to visit Thailand on peace mission |url=http://peace-foundation.net.7host.com/article_detail.asp?id=1 |access-date=19 November 2016 |work=International Peace Foundation |agency=Associated Press (AP) |date=2003-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120004607/http://peace-foundation.net.7host.com/article_detail.asp?id=1 |archive-date=20 November 2016 }}</ref> AIDS activist and American film actor Richard Gere in July 2004;<ref>[http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1175 XV International AIDS Conference] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017064001/http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1175 |date=2009-10-17 }}</ref> and American president George W. Bush in August 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=President George W. Bush participates...|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/08/images/20080807-7_d-0441-1-515h.html|website=The White House|access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref><ref>President and Mrs. Bush to visit USAID-funded centres, briefed on Burma relief. {{cite web|url=http://www.usaid.gov/rdma/articles/press_release_278.html |title=USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia: Press Release: President and MRS. Bush Visit USAID-Funded Centers, Briefed on Burma Relief |access-date=2009-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810020759/http://www.usaid.gov/rdma/articles/press_release_278.html |archive-date=2009-08-10 }}</ref>
Father Joe is the recipient of numerous awards and honors in recognition of his life's work.<ref>{{cite web|title=ACHIEVEMENTS AND RECOGNITION|url=http://mercycentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=70|website=HDF Mercy Centre|access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref> In 2004, he was personally thanked by Queen Sirikit as the foreigner who has made the most significant contribution to the protection of the women and children of Thailand.<ref>[http://www.thetablet.org/11222008/stories22.html "Mercy Shines Through Work of Priest in Bangkok." The Tablet]{{Dead link|date=November 2016}}</ref>
== Writings == ''Welcome to the Bangkok Slaughterhouse'' is a collection of 24 short stories about Mercy Centre children, written by Father Joe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maier|first1=Joe|title=Welcome to the Bangkok Slaughterhouse: The Battle for Human Dignity in Bangkok's Bleakest Slums|publisher=Periplus Editions|isbn=0-7946-0293-2|date=2005-03-15}}</ref> All book proceeds go to the Human Development Foundation.<ref name="CNN-20080527"/> Father Joe was a regular contributor to Sunday Perspective section of the ''Bangkok Post'' before the section's discontinuation in late 2008.
== ''The Gospel of Father Joe'' == thumb|''The Gospel of Father Joe'' book jacket|right
In 2008, Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley Books, released a biography of Father Joe entitled [http://www.thegospeloffatherjoe.com ''The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok'']. The 321-page narrative (or literary) nonfiction book was written by American foreign correspondent Greg Barrett.
Barrett first met Father Joe in 2000 when he was a Gannett News Service correspondent based in the GNS/USA Today bureau in Washington, DC. He had been dispatched to Thailand to report on human trafficking. Several years later he returned to Bangkok to begin researching and writing ''The Gospel of Father Joe''.<ref name="TDN-20080420" /> Archbishop Desmond Tutu contributed the book's foreword.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barrett|first1=Greg|title=The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok|date=2008-03-28|publisher=Jossey-Bass|isbn=978-0-470-25863-7}}</ref> In 2009, The Nautilus Book Awards honored ''The Gospel of Father Joe'' with a silver medal in the category of Conscious Media-Journalism-Investigative Reporting.<ref>[https://acrobat.com/#d=EHaFvIldnQq4NfZxKe6UMA Wiley/Jossey-Bass revised press release] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511140319/https://www.acrobat.com/ |date=2011-05-11 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maier, Joe}} Category:American emigrants to Thailand Category:American people of German descent Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Redemptorists Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Thailand Category:People from Longview, Washington