The congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Saint Catherine of Siena was established in 1914 in Colombia. As a young teacher, Laura Montoya – who was canonised in 2013 – felt the call to care for the indigenous tribal peoples in the Colombian rainforest and teach their children. Together with five other women, including her own mother, she devoted herself to this demanding task. Initially, she met with great opposition in her own society and many obstacles were placed in her path. But very soon other women joined her, fearlessly braving the harsh life in the rainforest, the dangerous canoe journeys and the oppressive tropical climate.
Today the congregation numbers around 550 religious, working in 20 different countries for the dignity of the disadvantaged and marginalised people living there. They have a particularly strong commitment to the indigenous and ethnic African peoples of Latin America and also for the poor living in remote rural areas, supporting them in all their needs.
In the year 2020 the „Lauritas“ – as the sisters are also known after their foundress – arrived in the diocese of Quiché in Guatemala. A poor and rural region overwhelmingly populated by indigenous peoples. Here they just about scrape a living for their families by subsistence agriculture or by weaving traditional garments. Many are supported by money transfers from family members who have already emigrated to the States or to Spain in search of a better life. It is also an area that was particularly hard-hit by the brutal Civil War that raged in this Central American country from 1960 to 1996 – one of the bloodiest armed conflicts in Latin America and one that has still left its traces to this day.
The Bishop of Quiché at the time had invited the „Lauritas“ into his diocese because he was concerned for the young people there. Suicide rates were was alarmingly high and many young people could see no point in their lives. Today there are three sisters and one young aspirant working in Nebaj. They are involved particularly in the youth apostolate and working to convey a spirit of hope to these young people, on the basis of the Good News of Jesus Christ. They also care for indigenous women, who often face domestic violence, while at the same time trying to transmit their faith and culture within their families. A major concern of the „Lauritas“ is to help these disadvantaged people to recover a sense of their own human dignity.
The sisters do not receive a penny in return for their precious apostolate, yet they still have to find a way of supporting themselves and paying for food and medicines, electricity, water, vehicle fuel and other similar essentials. They have turned to us for support and we have promised them 2160 Euros. Can you help us with a contribution, so that these brave sisters can have at least one thing less to worry about?
