My First Visit to the Lepers

(Text written by a visiting Jesuit Fr. Federico)

Part of my visit to the Chinese province included a visit to two leprosaries in Mainland China: One in Anhui province, and the other in Shaanxi province. These two centers belong to the government. I went there with Fr. Fernando and one collaborator of Casa Ricci’s with a lot of experience in social services.

I had never visited a leprosary before, so this was a new experience for me, although serving sick people has been of my life as a Jesuit.

 

A nurse cleaning the wounds of a leper in Anhui

 I must confess that the first sensation I felt was disease: I was not afraid of the illness itself, I was told that it would not be a risk for me, but the sight of those big, open wounds refusing to heal even after years of treatment really impressed me. I wonder how they live it. I hope that the fact that they have jobs inside the leprosaries like working in the kitchen or in the fields helps them to maintain some dignity.

The service we provide to those people is “just” this: living among them and spending the mornings washing their wounds and medicating them, in sometimes very big institutions run by the Chinese government and by “we” I mean both Casa Ricci that manages our presence there, and the Sisters who actively work there.

 

In Shaanxi Province nurses sisters share their experiences

 
At first my western spirit was pretty critical towards a lot of things that need to be improved: hygiene, rules for the sake of the sick people, efficiency, etc. While there are in fact margins for improvements, I started to notice how much this smallness and imperfections are actually the signs of our presence in Mainland China.

I think this is even more valuable since it’s done under the supervision of the government, in a hidden but official presence. I hope this can contribute to kick off some prejudices towards the Catholic church, we are collaborating with the Chinese officials for the same good: the well being of the sick and marginalised people in China.