Catholic Extension Society uplifts the stories of Catholics who have risked their lives and offered themselves for others in our series, “Faith in Times of War and Conflict: Stories of Battle-Tested Catholics.”
The third video in our series features Sister Marie-Paule Willem, FMM, whose ministry in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is supported by Catholic Extension Society. She is a native of Belgium who entered religious life after surviving Nazi occupation during World War II. She endured further warfare while serving in South America under a brutal regime.
Recollections of the Nazi invasion still loom in Sister Marie-Paule’s memory: air raid sirens going off; running for bomb shelter with her family; watching bombs drop from the sky; wearing gas masks.
Despite this trauma, the girl from a worn-torn country would decide to devote the rest of her life to missionary work serving the poor.
Watch the video below:
After earning her university degree, Sister Marie-Paule joined the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who tasked her with ministering in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina amid military dictatorships. She worked with innocent civilians, namely poor campesinos (farm workers) who were displaced by the Paraguayan government.
“From then on, I really understood what it meant to confront fear, look it in the eyes,” she said.
She would set out to locate where the campesinos were taken captive, despite warnings from a guard of the president to not leave the convent. During this time, nuns and other missionaries were killed; and her advocacy for justice made her a known opposition figure in the eyes of the government. Military death squads would pen down her name three times on their kill list. Befriending high-powered officials temporarily protected Sister Marie-Paule until she was eventually exiled from the country.
Sister Marie-Paule, familiar with the realities of refugees and asylum-seekers, such as those from Ukraine, asks herself if the country’s situation today is echoing Cold War-era patterns of submission and oppression.
“Aren’t we living in historical moments? Aren’t we living in a dysfunctional world?” she said.
Despite so many troubles in the world, being a firm believer in the healing power of God has allowed her to extend her missionary work and transform lives within faith communities in the Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Since moving to the United States after exile, Sister Marie-Paule has cared for women in a detention center and revived a church. Now, at close to 90 years old, she continues to serve as pastoral administrator at San José de Picacho Mission. Catholic Extension Society has supported her work.
In 2018, she received Catholic Extension Society’s Lumen Christi Award, our highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ.
She said,
I won’t look towards the dangers. I just look towards what has to be done, the needs that are there and find a way.”
Sister Marie-Paule’s hope for humanity is grounded in her immense faith—a faith that guided her courage to build a more peaceful and just world.
Watch the previous two videos in our series:
Wisdom from a Vietnam Veteran: How faith heals the wounds of war
‘God protected us.’ Black Catholic elders share how faith overcame fear during civil rights movement
Support the work of Sister Marie-Paule Willem and other inspiring faith leaders.
