Response to a Calling
In 1964, the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville answered a request that had been made in 1963 by Pope John XXIII asking for men and women religious to send missionaries to Latin America. The Ursuline Sisters responded by sending four sisters to oversee education, skills training, spiritual and catechetical formation in rural villages near Lima, Peru. The Ursuline Sisters of Louisville founded St. Angela Merici School in Carmen de la Legua in 1965, which currently serves students preK-high school. Sister Sue Scharfenberger, OSU, serves as the mission promoter at the school.
Today, the Ursuline Sisters remain strong in their sponsorship, and have expanded their ministries to healthcare and social justice by serving the rural poor and marginalized in Callao and San Miguel, South America.
Ursuline Sisters’ Ministries in Peru
- Rehabilitation Center for the handicapped
- Soup kitchen to feed school children one nutritious hot meal daily
- Working with Water With Blessings in San Miguel
- Saint Angela Merici School: pre-school, elementary and high school scholarships
- Youth Learning Together “JAU” for children ages 8-14 in Callao. This program develops critical thinking skills, awakens curiosity and builds life skills, including living with diversity.
- School for Parents: Parent-child mentoring program to teach parenting skills
- Working with families to decrease domestic violence
- Empowering women to build better futures for themselves and their children
- Raising consciousness for an eco-friendly environment
- Minimum wage is $250 a month, but many do not receive the minimum wage and work far more than 40 hours a week
- Tuberculosis, once nearly eradicated, has returned in alarming numbers, especially in rural and poor urban areas
- Anemia has increased, especially among women and children
- Large influx of Venezuelan immigrants, straining Peru’s resources
- Drug Mafia
- Street Deliquency
- Environmental destruction due to extraction industries
- Indigenous communities and culture threatened by extraction industries