What is behind this picture?
In 1903, Father Luis Variara found himself torn between different emotions: a deep sadness, anger, empathy, and recklessness. He had just listened to a group of young women who had been sent home from different convents in Colombia, because they had leprosy. He worked in "Aguas de Dios" which the lepers started after being forced out of a neighboring town. In those days entire families were uprooted, if even one member had leprosy.
A new congregation:
Father Luis went against prevailing ecclesiastical wisdom. In the process he almost got booted out of the Salesian order... but he became a pioneer in the modern approach to leprosy. Instead of agreeing with established policy, he broke free and encouraged the young women to band together and form their own religious order. By 1905 the "Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary" came into existence. They included both women with leprosy and women who had family members suffering from this disease. As you can imagine, their first priority was to serve the sick and live among them in the isolated townships that the Colombian government set up to keep the lepers away from the general public.
Sister Yolanda:
The town of Paraiso has three Sisters who come forward on the path which those early leper women started. None of them has leprosy, but their hearts are still linked to this remarkable flaring forth of a religious identity. They work as catechists and take the lead in managing the parish schools which serve the Haitian immigrants. Sister Yolanda is the youngest member of their Paraiso community and the only one who comes from Colombia.
On the endangered species list:
The Dominican Republic has a strong formation program for diocesan priests and the numbers indicate that they will continue to grow for some time in the foreseeable future. Nuns like Sister Yolanda are a different story. The congregations of women dedicated full time to the service of the poor have suffered big setbacks during the 1980's and 90's. Many causes are offered as explanations for the decline.
A rare blessing:
When one considers how few young women discover a mission to dedicate their lives to the service of the extreme poor, the presence of this Colombian sister becomes all the more remarkable. An obstacle on her path is the prevailing indifference to one religious belief system as compared with another. It's a new kind of "leprosy" where the incredible diversity of local beliefs leads to a numbing effect: people lose the sensitivity needed to appreciate the power of a lifestyle that runs counter to the culture.
The spirit of the founder:
Sister Yolanda carries around within her the spirit of that Italian missionary who loved music and shocked even the lepers when, in the presence of his children's band, he took a trumpet which others had been using and played it himself. Father Luis Variara broke the taboos which kept "healthy" people at a distance from those condemned to a life marked by disease and social stigma.
