Missionary women – religious and lay – have been privileged witnesses and often victims of ravaging wars and armed conflicts. All around the world, they put their lives at risk to stay by the people they serve and be a sign of hope amidst madness and savagery.
For instance, in Sri Lanka last year, as the government troops were aiming to end a 25-year-old war by dealing a death blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, Sister Mary Colostica, a 74-year-old Catholic nun, and her five colleague nuns – some already injured – shepherded more than 2,000 civilians from village to village as they tried to escape fighting and shelling and searched for food. Their braveness and strength in sharing people’s sufferings led to seeking refuge and finding safety for them.
Women and girls are the main victims of conflicts. They are prey to physical, sexual and psychological violence, including rape as a weapon of war in various parts of the world. The case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is appalling: an estimated 160 women are being raped each week in the unstable North and South Kivu provinces, mainly by “armed men” – including the national army – according to the United Nations. Over 8,000 cases of rape were reported in 2009.
The world has been rather adverse to women. More than their male counterparts, missionary women are able to understand their plight and contribute to their empowerment. Despite the great progress made in the last years to protect women, they still suffer violence in the form of feticide, infanticide and abandonment; discrimination in health and nutrition, thus impairing physical and mental growth. Girls continue to account for the majority of children out of school and girls 15 years of age and over account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population; three quarters of those infected by HIV/AIDS are girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24. Women and girls are the majority of transnational victims being trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation, not to mention economic abuse.
Missionary women have been at the forefront of the battle for life and dignity, especially of their fellow women. Their work for and with the poor is awe-inspiring. Writing in The New York Times, on April 17, Nicholas D. Kristof affirmed that, after a number of encounters with nuns in the mission field, he has come to believe “that the very coolest people in the world today may be nuns.” Two weeks later, on May 1, reporting from Juba, Southern Sudan, he returned to the theme (as he was recalling the scandal of the clergy’s sexual abuses and the cover up by some prelates): “Once again, I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests – notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion.”
Indeed, a well-deserved tribute to thousands of indomitable and selfless missionary women who, all over the world, are making common cause with the poor and needy. Many live inserted in the squalor of refugee camps and shantytowns; others exercise their ministry of love and compassion in hospitals among the AIDS and leprosy patients, in hospices with orphans and elderly; others operate superb schools that provide needy children an escalator out of poverty; others work for development along with groups and cooperatives. With their presence and care, they channel the love and tenderness of Jesus to orphans, homeless, unloved and poor people, oblivious of themselves and without pretending to be doing anything beyond their duty. They do a wonderful work and give a powerful testimony – certainly the best the Church can offer.
