A Franciscan Sister from Mexico

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a sweet lady who has seen it all, I am pretty sure.  She said she was a Franciscan Sister, and that she operated an orphanage in one of the Mexican border cities that is currently caught right in the drug cartels' cross hairs.  This Sister told me that as the fighting goes on, so does life in her city.

Let me say that I immediately admired this dear lady's dedication and courage.  Her orphanage has been in operation for decades, and she has witnessed firsthand the violence that has been a daily part of life for many Mexicans for well over ten years, with no end in sight.  Shootings happen nearby, citizens are dragged off the street just a block or two from the orphanage, and, unfortunately, many of the children in the orphanage have themselves witnessed the violence happening right outside the walls.  In fact, many of the orphans have lost their parents to the violence of the current "war on drugs."

I asked Sister Francis how she was able to go on with her life everyday, with death and destruction all around.  Her simple answer was, "We live our lives.  Life does not stop just because of them (the cartels)."  She and the other Sisters supervise the children as they walk to nearby schools, and as they play on the orphanage campus. "There are shots," she said.  "Yes, we hear them, and they are sometimes nearby.  Just the other day a woman was kidnapped right in front of our children."

Sister Francis cares for children who are shell-shocked; kids who have seen more in their young years than many of us will see in a lifetime.  She admits there have been some scary moments, but she is not "scared," in the sense that she is fearful all the time that something terrible will happen.  Her faith and her devotion to the tasks at hand keep her busy and focused.  She hopes someday the the government will gain the upper hand, and will clean up the cartels and the other criminal gangs that are now operating in the void of government collapse.  But she has seen no sign of change for the better.  The governor of state does not even venture into the area.  Federal police and military forces only pass through in large numbers.  After the authorities leave, the cartels resume their control over the city and the countryside. 

But Sister Francis carries on.  The kids need her and the other Sisters.  The little orphanage is their world, these brave and courageous women are their saviors.  These ladies have no guns, no weapons, just Jesus watching over them, and protecting their children.  Sister Francis said the thought of quitting, of moving to a safe place, has never crossed their minds.  She and her colleagues will continue to care for their charges, gaining more all the time.  Sister Francis thinks of the violence as an annoyance, stray bullets almost as if they were pesky gnats that merely needed to swatted away.  Her missions remains, saving the children.  As I look at her frail body, her courage is almost beyond belief to me.  But the fire in her eyes, the passion she reveals as she talks about her beloved children and her orphanage, leaves no room for doubt.  Sister Francis and the other Sisters will be there to care for the children as long as the terrible carnage rages, and beyond that, as they care for children whose small eyes may never forget the terribly atrocities they have seen.

I will probably never see Sister Francis again, but I can never forget her great courage and determination.  She, and others like her, carry on with life in Mexico in spite all that the cartels have done, all the threats they have made, all the misery and bloodshed they have spread throughout Mexico.  Sister Francis will go on with her life, a life of protecting and caring for those who cannot protect themselves.  She knows the cartels seem to have the upper hand at the moment, but she also knows, just as surely, that the cartels in the end will fall and justice will prevail.  But she is not cowering in the shadows until then.  She carries on bravely, and the cartels can only look on from whatever cesspools they are in, and see that, while they may have made life a little inconvenient for people, they have by no means obtained the victory they desire.  It will be the kind but brave people, like Sister Francis, that will remain standing when the ashes cool, and hold their rosaries over the bones of the cartels.