Pope Francis has recalled childhood memories of the care given by the “silent angels” of the Little Sisters of the Assumption in a forward to a biography of the order’s founder.

By Richard Marsden

Pope Francis has recounted a childhood story in which his father’s anti-clerical work colleague “met the maternal face of the Church” when being cared for by a mother superior, which led him to become a defender of her religious order.

Writing a preface of a new book in the Italian language, the Pope explains how the man “punched” a friend who dared to criticise two nuns after the worker was healed from a serious infection thanks to the help of a Little Sister of the Assumption.

A novice held the infant pope in her arms

The striking story forms part of Pope Francis’s forward to a biography of the order’s founder, Father Stefano Pernet, by Italian journalist Paola Bergamini. In it, the pontiff also describes how he was held in the arms of a young novice from the Congregation who came to visit the family in Buenos Aires hours after his birth. Pope Francis has been in contact with the nun throughout his life, up “until she went to heaven a few years ago.”

In his opening remarks to the book entitled “Il Vangelo guancia a guancia" (The Cheek to Cheek Gospel), the Pope writes: “I have many memories tied to these religious women who, as silent angels enter the homes of those in need, work patiently, look after, help, and then silently return to their convent. They follow their rule, pray and then go out to reach the homes of those in difficulty, becoming nurses and governesses, they accompany children to school and prepare meals for them.”

Bro. Armand's Funeral Mass will be on
Monday, March 5^th 2018 at 10:00 AM
in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Assumption College

Calling hours will be in the Chapel on
Sunday, March 4^th, from 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM.

February 2, 2018, Algeria

They gave their lives for Christ and for the Algerian people and remained faithful to the commitment right up to the violence that disfigured Algeria during the « Black Decade » (1990s). The entire Catholic Church recognizes the power of the witness they bore, that of a Christian life carried out in the midst of Muslims.

On February 7, 2018, Pope Francis signed the decree of beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions. « A life of service for all » « They all died because they chose, by God’s grace, to remain faithful to those who in the communities where they served had become their neighbors », wrote the bishops of Algeria in a joint communiqué. « Their death showed that their life was at the service of all: the poor, women in trouble, the handicapped, the young, and all Muslims. A murderous ideology, a distortion of Islam, could not tolerate these others who were different by virtue of their nationality and faith ».

Among these martyrs killed between 1993 and 1996 number the seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine, abducted and assassinated in the spring of of 1996, Most Rev. Pierre Claverie, the for mer bishop of Oran murdered in August of the same year, but also a Marist brother, Henri Vergès, four White Fathers, assassinated at Tizi Ouzou the day after Christmas in 1994 and six religious women from different congregations present in Algeria (Our lady of the Apostles, Missionary Augustinians, the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and the little Sisters of the Assumption).

(In 2001 a team of volunteers from the Brussels neighborhood of Koekelberg, under the leadership of the Assumptionists, launched an innovative initiative: accompanying individuals in need as they went through required administrative hoops to receive social services. The idea, simple though it may have been, answered a real need. In 15 years this non-profit organization, called “Accompagner” has lent a hand to more than 6,000 people. At the 2011 general chapter of the Assumptionists it was named one of 7 'mobilizing works' of the institute, works that, by virtue of the nature and quality of their work, serve as flagship ministries deserving of widespread support and imitation throughout the Congregation.)

Accompagner volunteers and staff

An Interview with its Founder and Director, Fr. Guy Leroy:

- Fr. Guy, how is Accompagner doing?

- Too well….unfortunately!

- Why do you say, « Unfortunately »?

- This year volunteers and salaried staff have been extraordinarily dedicated to the cause of the neediest. We have “accompanied » more than a thousand people to various sites, 1037 to be exact. More than 70 volunteers have taken part. This number has been rising each year and this is the first year we have broken a thousand. More than 100 other organizations have requested our help. Unfortunately, this means that poverty and insecurity are increasing in Belgium, and in Brussels in particular.

- You mentioned more than 70 ‘companion’ volunteers although at times you also used the number closer to 40.

- Yes, on average, we have about 40 volunteers available at any given moment to do the work. There is a large turnover among the volunteers. Many young people do not stay for a long time. The fact that they’re able to get back into the professional world renews their confidence and employers’ confidence in them. After a few months they are able to get back into the work world. For them Accompagner becomes a springboard to full-time employment. Fortunately, we’re always getting new volunteers.