Pope Francis' Special Relationship with the Little Sisters of the Assumption

Sr Olivia Maria

The death of Pope Francis has generated renewed interest in a story - www.indcatholicnews.com/news/36313 - I wrote in January 2019 about the Irish nun who was present at his birth in December 1936 and who nursed him for the first week of his life. The Irish Examiner has published an article about the story and the Irish Independent and Irish Central in New York picked it up from there, as did Northern Sound and 96FM radio stations.

The Irish nun was Sr Oliva Maria who was born Susan Cusack at Crosserlough, Kilnaleck in Co. Cavan in January 1889. One of six children, she left home at the age of twenty to join the Little Sisters of the Assumption at Grenelle in Paris. She was professed there in May 1912 and trained as a nurse and midwife. Eleven years later, after serving in Reims and Saint Etienne, she was transferred to Buenos Aires in Argentina. The sisters worked amongst the poor and the sick on the margins of society.

In 1933, Sr Oliva was moved to Flores which had been a rural area in the Province of Buenos Aires until it was integrated into the city in 1888. It was there that she encountered Jose and Regina Bergoglio who were immigrants from Italy. Both of them were volunteers helping the sisters in support groups known as The Fraternity for men and The Daughters of St Monica for women. To this day, a feature of the congregation is the involvement of lay volunteers to support their work and fundraise for projects.

When Jorge Mario (later Pope Francis) was due to be born, his parents sought support from the sisters. Sr Oliva, being a nurse and midwife was the obvious choice, so she was sent and stayed with the family for a week. Such support was routine for the sisters. In later years, Pope Francis was to recall that event as he kept in contact with the sisters and wrote the Foreword for a book on the occasion of their 150th anniversary in 2015.

Since his death many commentators have referred to his humility and focus on the poor and marginalised and immigrants. There can be little doubt but that his early familial surroundings in a working-class area with many immigrants, like his parents and grandparents, had a significant influence on his personal values and interpretation of Christianity. His humility and lack of interest in material goods is one of the outstanding memories of his life and ministry.

One thing was very precious to him that he got from his grandmother and kept beside his bed. It was a cross that used to be given to the "Monicas". "It is the first thing that I see when I wake up", he said. Obviously, it was a remembrance for him of his humble familial surroundings in Flores.

When he visited the United States in September 2015, he insisted on visiting the sisters in East Harlem in New York despite the concerns of the security forces. Naturally, the sisters were delighted with his visit saying, "there is greater gift than Pope Francis' visit to East Harlem as the Little Sisters of the Assumption celebrate our 150th anniversary".

Sr. Annette Allain, LSA U.S. Region, stated at the time: "Pope Francis has a first-hand appreciation of our mission and spirituality from an early age due to receiving home care services from the Little Sisters of the Assumption and also from the involvement of his parents and grandparents in our support groups. It is my belief that his sensitivity to the poor and immigrant population grew from his own personal familial experience". I doubt if many would disagree with that sentiment.

Commenting on his death, Sr Annette said this week: "With deep reverence and hearts full of prayer, we join the global community in mourning the passing of Pope Francis, a humble shepherd who walked closely with the people, especially those on the margins.

"As members of the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family in Mission, we reflect on Pope Francis' life through the lens of our call to become One Family by the living of our core values: Commitment, Transformation, Care, Mutuality, Hope, and Belief. His leadership embodied these principles in profound ways, challenging us to live with courage, to care for all creation, to commit to justice, and to hope even in the face of despair.

"Pope Francis had a special place in his heart for the Little Sisters of the Assumption and their mission. The knowledge of this love encourages and inspires us to continue to bear witness to our Spiritual Covenant in our everyday lives. Building on our experience of creating Family, we are connected by a desire to transform our world beginning in our local communities".

The Little Sisters of the Assumption established a house in Dublin in 1891 and one in Cork in May 1899. They continue their presence in these locations. When I spoke yesterday to Sr. Bride Counihan in Cork, she was busy preparing for a visit to development projects in Colombia and Peru. "We continue to have lay volunteers helping out in fundraising for our projects", she told me. "But fundraising is getting much more difficult. We appreciate all offers of help and no donation is too small… it goes a long way where we struggle to provide basic services for the very poor and deprived… the people the late Pope Frances cared so much about. He was our inspiration".

Readers wishing to support the work of the sisters can contact them at pernet42r@gmail.com. Their Irish headquarters is located at 42 Rathfarnham Road, Terenure, Dublin 6W. Donations can be made directly to the Little Sisters of the Assumption Overseas Mission at Bank of Ireland: IBAN IE87 BOFI 9008 7727 2413 57.

(Matt Moran is an author and writer based in Cork. He served as Chairman of the Board of Misean Cara that supports the development work of missionaries in the Global South, and is author of "The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On". He also served on the Board of Management of Nano Nagle Birthplace).