Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Thouret
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "Artisans of fraternity, we inhabit the world with the desire to bring hope and promote many brothers and sisters. In fact, our commitment in the missions is to collaborate with the inhabitants of the place, listening to them, welcoming their proposals, their dreams, offering them formation and giving them confidence". This is what Sister Maria Luisa Caruso, coordinator of the Thouret Foundation of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joan Antida Thouret in Rome, told Agenzia Fides. Reached on the occasion of the anniversary of the Congregation, born exactly on April 11, 1799, the nun spoke of the many activities carried out over the years in various parts of the world.
"In our dispensaries, at the Cameroon Hospital as well as at the Tigray Health Center, we train specialized and professional staff, and with them, our sisters put themselves at the service of those who are sick and weakened by life, often by loneliness and hunger. Together, we receive and give hope", underlines the sister. Likewise, in our schools, with many lay people, some of whom already have their own profession, others on the way and supported by us in their studies, we try to give a solid education and formation to the many children who attend our schools to make them the protagonists of their future, we try to accompany many young girls and women in their growth, knowing that they are bearers of life and builders of a fairer, more united, more fraternal society. In the Central African Republic and Chad, as well as in South Sudan, great attention is paid to children who are victims of long-term conflicts, street girls and boys. For them, we try to open centers which welcome them, help them to discover other family values, which very often they do not have or from which they have moved away, show them other lifestyles, but above all we try to help them discover the beauty they already have within them and which can help them contribute to a different, more fraternal, more peaceful society. Among the new impoverished, we also recognize our planet Earth, and we develop a greater sensitivity to nature, which is expressed for example in Indonesia in the cultivation of rubber and many fruit plants, to safeguard biodiversity and raise the awareness of many young people to a greater attention to nature".
"Certain of the hope that is in us, we have courageous sisters who fully live their mission alongside the peoples at war, in Syria, in the Central African Republic, in Ethiopia, in South Sudan, in Congo - continues the missionary. We choose to live what these brothers are going through, to stand with them and share their struggles, growing together in faith and hope. Many the people who, having survived the violence of the bombings and air attacks, see in the presence of the sisters by their side a sign of protection, so much so that someone said: if we are still alive despite the war, it is because you sisters are with us". "I believe that wishing 'Happy Easter' this year means something deeper than other years, it means concretely touching the strings of our hearts and waking us up as if from a nightmare that seems to cloud our vision with images that testify to "an unthinkable and terrifying cruelty. However, today we want to shout that life has conquered death, that this devastation that we are witnessing has not and will not have the last word, because there are those who have already carried this cruel evil upon themselves and conquered it".
Going into the details of the charism that animates their mission, Sr. Maria Luisa added: "We, the Sisters of Charity, are called to bear witness by our life that the Lord is alive and risen: the very cross that we carry around our neck says this. The Lord suffered on the wood of the cross, but he is no longer there, he is risen and is alive among us. And then we are called to bring the hope of the resurrection to our brothers and sisters whom we serve every day, in our Galilee. After all, Jesus gave us a light that shines in the darkness: we try to defend and protect it. This light is the greatest wealth and the most effective force entrusted to our lives". "Our congregation was born in 1799 - concludes the missionary - but I like to remind you that we are celebrating ten years of the Thouret Foundation, a Foundation of the Congregation committed to supporting projects in favor of many brothers and sisters in thirty countries, on 4 continents, where the Sisters of Charity are present". (MC/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 11/4/2022)
