Fr. Jos Das, cicm is a Belgian native who joined Missionhurst-CICM in 1959 and was ordained in 1964. Fr. Jos was sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1965, where he worked for 13 years in the province of Equator. Since 1983, he has been a missionary in Kinshasa, where he is currently the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima.

Petronille is a former nun who was, for some years, a missionary in Chad. I became acquainted with her through the request of colleague of mine. One day, this colleague asked me to take a letter to Petronille, as I was going to be out in her neighborhood. It was then that I discovered her engagement for children: the orphans and the social outcasts. Officially, she is no longer a nun. But in reality, she lives her vocation and her consecration to the Lord and to others with an admirable devotion. Her previous experience in Chad and her motherly heart are at the origin of her work: known as the Orphanage of Our Lady of Liesse.

As I got to know Petronille, she relayed the beginning stages of the orphanage. She told me: "I was taking care of a small group of children, orphaned by the HIV deaths of their parents. One day, a woman who led one of the Basic Ecclesial Communities came to me with two more orphans. They were also orphaned victims of HIV parents. These two children, ages 9 and 12 years old, were tortured by their paternal uncles, who treated them as witches." It is not uncommon in this region for family members to blame one's death or misfortune upon the "witchcraft" of a spouse, younger sibling or child -- someone of a lower stature in the family. Petronille went on to say: "Upon seeing them, my heart was torn and my soul was shaken. They were really disfigured, full of scabies and sores, wearing rags over their bodies torn by whips. I decided that I had to keep these children: that they would live with me despite my limited resources. It was in this way that the Orphanage of Our Lady of Liesse was born. Liesse signifies joy and gaiety, and I chose this because I would like to give the joy of living back to these disfigured children."

Petronille rents a house in a popular neighborhood of the city of Kinshasa, where she now lives with a dozen boys and girls who have been orphaned for one reason or another. She wants to be their mother, and she really is. "I accompany this small group of children and I assure their survival and their education," she tells me. "My concern is in helping them grow and enabling them be useful in society. I take the part of the parents by trying to show love, affection, tenderness and generosity. I teach these children to look at life on the whole, hoping to witness to them through human, intellectual and spiritual formation. With the help of some benefactors, I can send them to school. Here in the house, like in a family, I help them to discover, to know and to love God, who intervenes in their life."

Because of the indescribable misery found in much of Congolese society, the notion of witchcraft has a strong presence, and it is often the children who suffer the accusations and consequences. Petronille relayed one story of a little boy named Moise as an example: "One day in the market I saw a little boy who was very dirty, and appeared to be around three years old. He asked me for biscuits. My heart ached upon seeing him. I wanted to bring him home but he refused; he wanted to stay in the market. With the help of another woman, I finally succeeded in convincing him.

I found out that Moise was a child of a family of six children. When his mother died, Moise was just two months old. The father of the children is half blind. He and his whole family rejected the children following his wife's death, saying that they were witches. They were accused of "consuming" the mother and making their father go blind. So the children were abandoned, and Moise's older sister, Rebecca, began taking her siblings to the market place in search of their daily scraps. People would run away from them, because of the "witchcraft." As soon as the little Moise was big enough to walk, he wound up abandoned by the sister, while she looked for food or money. But thankfully, I was able to collect the remaining children and bring them home too.

Being as reluctant as in the market place, upon arriving at the house Moise refused to take a bath. He was never given a bath before. I wanted to dress him in clean clothes but he delivered the same refusal; he wanted to keep his dirty clothes. He did eat his biscuits though, and little by little he started to get accustomed to the house. When it came time to sleep, he did not want to sleep on the bed... he had never seen a bed. His bed was always the floor. So, we let him sleep there and once he was asleep, we put him on the bed. It took about two weeks for him to finally accept sleeping on the bed."

Petronille went on to tell me about another of her children: "Christelle, a 16 year old girl, came to the orphanage with her three siblings (two brothers and one sister). They were all orphans, rejected by their paternal uncle because of witchcraft. The uncle told Christelle to put her little brother Christophe on the back of her other brother, Christian, and to leave them on a precipice. If left there, the rising current of the water would carry them along to their deaths. Christelle refused by saying that she would rather die with her brothers. So the uncle instead simply drove them away from the house. After which, some sympathetic parishioners brought them to the parish, and the parish priest requested that I take them with me. Christophe was only two years old. Weakened by hunger and sickness, he could not walk. In their sect the prophet had said of him: 'He is not a child. He is great in the world of witchcraft -- he is the chief of the witches.' Today, Christophe talks, he calls me mother, he follows me everywhere and he is very much attached to me. He flourishes after finally finding the affection that he was deprived of from birth."

With all these children, and new ones to rescue at every turn, I wondered about how Petronille could afford to keep and care for them. I told her that the burning question in my mind was how she managed to make ends meet in providing for such a large family. She replied: "Yes, that's the worry of every day. We struggle. We live from our small endeavors of selling juice, soft drinks, drinking water in small plastic bags, pancakes, and bread. Actually, what we have is not enough to pay the rent and the schooling of the children. We are no longer capable of paying for food and medical care, water and electricity bills. Because we want and need to rely on our own finances, we are getting some small funding for two projects to earn money: one is a small food store and the other is a small copy center. These projects are being helped by a relief organization from abroad. There are also other people who help us now and then. But we are not secure -- to support the daily living needs of the children, and to run the orphanage, is a constant worry for me."

In terms of relief, at times our parish of Our Lady of Fatima (where I am the parish priest) brings some small help to the orphanage. On Christmas and Easter, we call on the generosity of the parishioners to give help to the poor. I can say that this call receives a generous response. Also on the occasion of the Universal Day of Mission, the parish commission of missionary animation organized a collection in favor of the poor. One day, some members of the commission and I went to donate rice, sugar, clothes and soap. The youngsters' eyes were opened wide with surprise and they were full of admiration for such an initiative of generosity. The kindness of the children touched those of us who had brought the donations.

Beyond finances and donations and day-to-day struggles, you have to also wonder how Petronille holds on to hope, and how she finds her strength in the face of such difficulties. When asked, she confided in me with simplicity and her usual smile: "It's the love of the heart of Christ which motivates me. It's the love of the poor, the marginalized, and the most destitute who constitute the body of the suffering Christ: begging our friendship. It's the compassion of those who suffer that pushes me to give of myself in order to bring them out of their misery. The suffering of the people, especially of the little children, always motivates me and makes me examine life. I have always had the desire to help. At times though, I feel powerless and very limited, and that is my great suffering. Accepting this mission has made me responsible for putting my ideals into concrete action, no matter what the obstacles. I have confidence in God and I feel carried by Him."

Petronille's apostolate is one of restoration. Let us restore in our own hearts a similar faith in God, with compassion toward the poor and abandoned, wherever we or they may be.

Jos Das, cicm
Kinshasa, DR of Congo