“The funeral disliked,” Jeanningros admitted in a video shared by his companions of order.
The aunt of the religious, Lèonie Duquet, was one of the thousands of people who were disappeared during the last Argentine military dictatorship. Getty images
And then he said: «The Church was full to burst, but there was not a single representative of the bishopric (…) I could not accept that. I didn’t want my aunt to be there.
«In October 2005, Bergoglio (then Archbishop of Buenos Aires) came to Rome, for the Synod of the Bishops, and wrote him complaining and left my phone number. He called me and there I said: ‘What did you do?’ »The religious continued.
“He told me: ‘Thank you, my sister, for sending me this letter, but I wanted to tell her that I am not oblivious to this situation and that I allowed them to be buried (to the missing ones) around the Church.’” He said.
But the religious was not satisfied and insisted on her claim.
«I replied: ‘That is not enough. You had to have been there (at the funeral) for the people who suffered so much. The Church had to be present and it was not. ‘ Then a good time was silent and replied: ‘Thank you, my sister, so we must speak between brothers and sisters,’ he said.
Eight years later, after the historic resignation of Benedict XVI, Bergoglio was chosen new head of the Catholic Church, something that scared the nun, confessed in the video.
However, just a month after her choice, the sister discovered that there was nothing to fear.
«On April 20, 2013, they invited us to a Mass at (La Residence) Santa Marta (where the Argentine Pontiff lived and died; After the Mass, the Pope welcomed us and kissed me, ”said the religious old woman.
The Pope visited the French nun twice in the amusement park, located on the outskirts of Rome, where he lives and works. Getty images
Always present
“How I would like a poor church, for the poor!” when Jeanningros listened to Bergoglio to pronounce these words, a few days after his choice, he concluded that he was the right man to sit on the throne of San Pedro.
«There I began to cry, because my aunt had died for that, for the poor. And I told myself: finally something will change, ”he recalled.
With the passage of time, the relationship between the late Pope and the religious did nothing more than narrow.
“She went to almost all Wednesday’s general audiences and worried about getting tickets like any person, although surely if she had called the Vatican they would have given them without any problem,” Stout explained.
The Pope also returned the visits to the religious. Thus, in 2015 already the end of 2024, he moved to Luna Park, the attraction park where the religious old woman lives with the Ferians, located in the town of Ostia, about 30 kilometers southwest of Rome.
The nun said that the pontiff was surprised by the simple way as she lived and in particular for seeing where the chapel had.
“I didn’t think they had the Blessed Sacrament in the trailer,” said the missing pontiff, according to the sister’s story.
During the pandemic, the religious took advantage of her contacts with Bergoglio to request help, in the form of food and belongings for park workers and also a group of transsexuals living in the area.
However, from the congregation they clarified that the work of Jeanningros with this group began in recent years.
The Clémence (left) and Emily (Der) sisters are part of the same congregation as Geneviève-Josèphe Jeanningros. Juan Francisco Alonso/BBC
An unusual congregation
The media exposure of Jeanninggros has also put the foci on the congregation of which it is part: Hermanitas de Jesús, an order founded in 1939 by the French Magdeleine Hutin (1898-1989), better known as Magdalena de Jesús.
The religious order is different from others that exist within the Catholic Church. Because? “In its beginnings, it was a community dedicated exclusively to the nomads and Muslims,” reads on its website.
Years later, “the Magdalena sister receives the certainty that fraternity is called to open up to the entire world, keeping a special friendship with the believers of Islam,” the presentation continues.
“Our founder was inspired by Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), a French religious who in the nineteenth century goes to Sahara to live with Muslims, but without the intention of turning them, but wanted to teach them that her life was valuable,” said Sister Stout.
De Foucauld was canonized by Francisco in May 2022, almost 17 years after being beatified.
Stout said that the congregation does not have among its objectives to look for new souls.
“We want Muslims to live their own faith and their own religious tradition, because the Church believes that living faith with depth, whatever, is salvation,” he said.
“Our apostolate is one of friendship, we want to live what our neighbors live and share their destiny, not impose anything,” he added.
Jesus’ little sisters are inspired by the work that the Galo Charles de Foucauld priest made in the nineteenth century, whom Francisco Canonizó in 2022. Getty Images
He also said they do not direct schools, hospitals, outpatients or old.
«We work side by side with people. We do cleaning work, in factories or in attraction parks such as sister Jeanningros, because we believe that this is the best way to be accessible and is the best way to take the church to people who never go to it and who have even been injured by the Church, ”he said.
Another striking element is that they live integrated in the areas of the 48 countries where they have a presence.
«We live in small communities, of three or four people, which we call fraternities, which means brotherhood. We live in apartments or, like sister Jeanningros, in a trailer next to the park workers. She even has a position where it sells articles, ”the Clémence sister, also a member of the Order, told BBC.
“We like low profile, because it gives us freedom and creativity,” said Stout, who added: “Power and influence are harmful to the Gospel and is a threat to its message.”
The religious attributed to this low profile the fact that Jeanningros has chosen to reject the invitation of BBC Mundo for a brief interview.
“Friendship has something very intimate and when you know and respect someone deeply, you don’t want to expose it,” he explained.
