‘The Missionary Servants of the Poor of the Third World was founded in the early 1980s by Fr. Giovanni Salerno, an Italian priest and doctor. The Movement’s primary centre of operation is to be found in the spiritually and materially impoverished Andes region surrounding the Peruvian city of Cuzco. Much of the work involves the care and education of children who have been orphaned, abandoned, handicapped…
‘The following is an eye-witness account of the invaluable work performed by the members of this Movement in the service of God and neighbour:
‘Many children were received in a serious state of malnutrition; others in a state of neglect. Today, you can see them happy, blossoming, well-nourished, eager to learn and to excel in life, some of them wishing to consecrate themselves to God, following the example of those who care for them and whom they admire so much.‘Our visit and the aid which we were able to afford to the group of handicapped children was for us the best witness to the dignity of human life, so trampled upon in our times. Night and day the Sisters watch over the cradles of children afflicted with serious malformations, feeding them and tenderly caring for these deformed bodies, which will never be “useful” to society, but which enclose a soul redeemed by Christ, which is mysteriously associated through Him in His Work of Redemption, by an existence marked by suffering. They carry their cross with patience, almost always with a smile. It was a privilege for us even to help to feed them.’
(This was written by Anne-Marie Trigueros, and appeared, in French, in the Movement’s 2009 Lenten Bulletin, published by l’Abbaye Notre Dame, F-36220, Fontgombault, France.
Further information, and a DVD on the work of the Movement, are available by writing to the above address.)
