Romana

The Sisters of Saint Anne, in a television interview, spoke about some aspects of their apostolic work in Chiclayo, Peru, in the Prelature of Yauyos, which is entrusted to priests of Opus Dei. Here we reproduce the interview published in Actualidad Cañetana, on November 15, 2009.

“We owe our being in Chiclayo to Msgr. Josemaría Escrivá,” said one sister, “because when Bishop Luis Sanchez-Moreno insistently asked our Mother General in Rome to send sisters of Saint Anne to take care of the St. Joseph Academy in the Prelature of Yauyos, Mother was not very enthusiastic, since the congregation was preparing to open a mission in Africa. But given the insistence of Bishop Sanchez-Moreno, Mother decided with the advice of her Council that, before giving the bishop a definitive answer, she would go to pray at the tomb of Msgr. Escrivá in Rome.

“After having prayed and asked for light, the Council gathered again. They were about to make a decision when Mother received a telephone call from one of our communities in Turin, in northern Italy, from a sister who told her that a Peruvian girl wanted to enter our congregation.

“Mother took this message as a clear sign from God, through St. Josemaría’s intercession, and she decided to open a mission in Peru, regardless of cost, without knowing who she could send or where she would find the sisters.

“On October 12, 1986, the Congregation sent four sisters of different nationalities to the Prelature of Yauyos, and God has truly blessed our mission.

“We carry out an apostolic work that includes rural catechesis, parish work and teaching religion in the schools. Above all, we see God’s help and the intercession of Msgr. Escrivá in the many vocations we are receiving in this mission.

“Right now we have three novices, seven postulants and eight aspirants, and most of them come from the Prelature of Yauyos. And we see that they have a special devotion to Msgr. Escrivá. Most of them have told us that they made a novena to the saint before deciding to enter the religious life.

“For us it was like a prophecy when Fr. Mario Busquet came to ask Mother to send sisters of St. Anne to Peru. He said, and I was present too: ‘Come to Peru and you will have plenty of vocations.’”