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Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel (IFNSBC)

 

The Institute and its mission

 

 

The Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel was founded by Friar Caetano de Messina, an Italian Capuchin Franciscan friar who arrived in Brazil in the first half of the 19th century. In 1841, the friar began his religious activity in northeastern Brazil through various works, including the founding of the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel in the ancient town of Papacaça, today Bom Conselho, in the state of Pernambuco. In this town, in 1853, Brother Caetano founded the convent school "Colégio Nossa Senhora do Bom Conselho," under the care of the sisters.

When he founded the college and, along with it, the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Friar Caetano de Messina wanted the institute to develop missionary and educational activities.

The Institute was born with the purpose of housing "destitute orphans." Friar Caetano was given the gift of being, doing, calling and uniting. The first sisters were given the gift of responding and uniting. The sisters who came later received the gift, the responsibility to continue, to grow the legacy left by him, to the extent that the Institute was able to present and actualize, through a transforming response, the desires and needs of the Church and the People of God. The Institute is the living monument testifying to the passage among us of this man of peace and courage, who was able to believe that this small group of young people would carry out his nascent project of love.

Brother Caetano believed that God manifested his power in the weak. His trust was not in vain, because the educational mission, which he left as a means of expressing the gift of peace and reconciliation, is still present in the most diverse activities undertaken by the institute. In this perspective, the position of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel has been and always will be one of nonviolence and non-domination. As long as there is a human being on the face of the earth thirsting for justice, love and peace, there will be the environment, the open space where the charism of the Institute founded by Fray Caetano de Messina on April 24, 1853 will be expressed.

 

The Founder

 

 

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in synagogues and announcing the Good News of the Kingdom. Seeing the crowds accompanying him, he was moved with compassion because they were weak and cast down like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9:35-3).

 

 

Brother Caetano of Messina empathized with the people who were suffering for lack of water and bread, without a decent place to bury their dead. Making his own the Lord's words to the prophet Jonah, 4:11: "And will I not have compassion on the great city of Nineveh, where more than a hundred and twenty thousand human beings cannot distinguish their right hand from their left? In his missionary practice, he was full of compassion for the poorest, the neediest and all those who did not have access to knowledge. In this regard, Brother Bento de Terrinca says, "Brother Caetano loved the people of the sertão with a mother's heart because of the material and spiritual abandonment in which he lived."

The fruits of his actions multiplied. He built and repaired churches, drilled wells and dams, took care of cemeteries, founded a Holy House of Mercy, planted trees in streets and squares, and opened roads and paths. Rereading his practice, particularly the rebuilding of ruined churches, one can see a Franciscan approach. But in addition to this remote sense of Franciscan spirituality, it should be added that the workers of Friar Caetano da Messina's buildings were reconciled people who had exchanged arms for a handshake. From this point of view, contemplating a church built or rebuilt by the "Giant Missionary" is not the same thing as admiring a building designed by the finest engineers.

However, we cannot lose sight of another dimension, no less profound. Back in the Middle Ages, when Francis prayed in the little church of San Damiano in 1205, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" The Lord answered, Francis, go and restore my Church, which, as you see, is falling apart. He did not immediately understand the meaning of what he was hearing.

We, too, understand little. We are used to hearing, seeing and even helping to build and repair churches. But who is this church? An immediate answer is possible: it is us. Every human person, cared for, revitalized, reinvigorated, is the restoration of the little church of San Damiano. Only later did Francis realize the Lord's request and went out into the world to restore the ruined man. Brother Caetano, as his follower, followed him.

Source: MELO, Loreto. Swift as the wind, tireless as love. Sr Loreto Melo, Sr Mercês Tenório - Recife: