Sister Maria Giovanna Alberoni: The cry of a baby is the most welcome sound
The Italian missionary tells her story to mark the Feast of the Annuncuation, which is celebrated today, recalling her commitment to life. Mother Joan has worked in India since 1948. On Oct. 1, she will turn 90, 66 years spent working in neonatal wards of different hospitals. In 1978 she managed to turn a small nursing home a hospital with 260 beds. In 2012 she was awarded by the Cuore Amico association in Brescia, Italy.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - "The most welcome sound in the world is the cry of a baby”, Sister Maria Giovanna Alberoni, an Italian medical missionary celebrating her 66 years of service in India, tells AsiaNews. The missionary will turn 90 on the 1st of October and since 1948 has worked in the maternity wards of hospitals in Kanpur, Calicut, Vaiythiri and Mumbai. Speaking on the occasion of the Feast of the Annunciation, which the Catholic Church celebrates today [March 25, the date of feast was Good Friday], Sister Giovanna says: "The cry of a newborn baby is a hymn to life”.
Speaking on the occasion of the pro-life Day, which this year coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, Mother Giovanna says: "With no respect for life, abortion is killing. Regardless of the name that can be given to it, abortion is murder. I believe in life. The cry of the newborn is a cry, but at the same time it is a hymn to life”.
The sister does not remember the exact number of children whom she has helped to birth, but says: "I've always been in the neonatal field, and so the number would be many”. In 1978, thanks to foreign and Indian funds, Sister Giovanna managed to transform the Holy Family of Bandra from modest nursing home to missionary hospital, which provides diagnostic tests, treatments, accident and emergency care and preventive medicine.
Today the Holy Family Hospital is a 260-bed medical facility and is an excellence in the health field, offering first level medical care while adhering to the goal of origin: to meet the needs of the community serving without distinction of caste , creed or religion.
Sister Maria Giovanna Alberoni is called affectionately "Mother Giovanna". She was born in 1926 in San Giorgio Piacentino, in Italy, and attended a training course at the Ursuline School. After completing the course, the headmistress mother Bianca Franchini has allowed her to continue her master studies and obtain a diploma as an elementary school teacher.
Mother Giovanna would have to continue her studies and go to university. But the experience of the Second World War, along with the strong faith of her family and her commitment to the life of the parish, nourished the seeds of her religious vocation. The missionary said that when her mother was pregnant with her, she prayed to the Lord for the child shewas carrying to be a boy and that he would be a priest.
In 1946 Mother Giovanna entered the novitiate, and arrived in India in 1948. From that moment she began working in Indian health facilities, earning a degree at the Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. She is a member of the Shalom Community, Holy Family Hospital of Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai.
In 2012 Sister Maria Giovanna received the prestigious Nobel Prize for missionaries from the association Cuore Amico of Brescia, which annually bestows the award on the most relevant personalities. Mother Giovanna was honored for her 64 years (at the time) of missionary service in India.
The nun is representative of the association Heron, which helps poor children to go to school. The program operates in India, Brazil and Africa, and many of its students have obtained a diploma in nursing and other fields. To date, more than 3500 children have benefited from the funds allocated to this project.
Sister Giovanna concludes with a reflection on the Jubilee of Mercy: "In the medical field we must always show mercy; without mercy, the medical profession is not possible. We also need to be witnesses of the merciful face of the Father. I always pray to do the will of God. And what I do, I do for the Lord".
.png)
