Aid to the Church in Need: Uruguay: Helping the Carmelites of Montevideo

Uruguay: Helping the Carmelites of Montevideo

Posted by Project Description on 28/1/2009, 8:36 am
Board Administrator

Helping the Carmelites of Montevideo

Anabel Méndez begins her letter effusively, and "with great joy and gratitude...". She is the prioress of the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of the convent of Our Lady of Silence and Hope in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Six nuns live here, following the Rule of their foundress, St Teresa of Avila, the Spanish mystic canonised in 1622. The name of their convent might sound somewhat old-fashioned, but then this is a challenge for these women, and on top of that a name as timeless as the conviction of the Carmelites that their life is one of service - and their reward poverty.

As a consequence of this, they often lack even the basic essentials, such as the money to pay for the health care of everyone in the convent. And in fact all six women are over 50 years of age, the eldest indeed no less than 88. The truth is that their income, which they try to secure through the needlework they do for a local hospital and the printing of booklets and pamphlets, is simply not enough to cover all their expenses. In reality, the sisters cannot even find the full amount of their health care contributions, even though they have enrolled in a health insurance scheme for Catholic employees which asks much smaller contributions from them than from other people. But it is only thanks to this scheme that the nuns can afford any kind of health care provision at all, since the State makes no consideration for the exceptional circumstances of these enclosed religious.
"Thanks to the help of your benefactors, we have now received the support you have sent us", the prioress continues in her letter to the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). And so they can now cover the cost of their healthcare contributions for the coming year. For over 50 years now ACN has been supporting local Catholic parishes, communities and church-based initiatives in their pastoral and charitable programmes.

(One of the sisters making communion hosts)

The Carmelites in Montevideo have a particular concern for the "devastated families", as Sister Maria of the Child Jesus calls them. Many in Uruguay today are suffering from the continuing economic crisis and around a quarter of the population now live below the poverty threshold. Crime has soared in recent years. 88-year-old Sister Maria of the Child Jesus, the oldest of the six nuns, writes, "Today people need to have ears that are open to their plight. They entrust their cares to us and ask us to pray for their intentions."
Although the Carmelites in Montevideo scarcely ever appear in public, since they have consciously chosen a life of silence and contemplation, they are visited by a great many people who come asking their prayers. Each day, at set times during the day, the sisters come together to pray and they include all the cares, longings and intentions of the women and men, the children, adolescents and elderly, the employed and the unemployed around them.

Living withdrawn in this consciously chosen life of silence and contemplation, the Carmelites are following a centuries-old tradition that is far more profound and meaningful than it might seem to the superficial observer. This is confirmed by Sister Maria Guadalupe of St Joseph, who was herself one of the initial group of Carmelites who first founded the convent in Montevideo in 1981. She knows that many people do not understand her way of life, or view it with scepticism, yet she nonetheless writes: "In 2009 I will be celebrating the Golden Jubilee of my first profession. I am grateful for the gift of this vocation, for it is a mission to all those who somewhere in the world need the help of prayer and sacrifice."

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org