NEW YORK For the Bronx, or for any neighbourhood in the United States for that matter, the sight of French missionaries walking through the streets everyday praying the Rosary is definitely unusual. Since opening their mission in 2003, the community of Hearts Home USA has served a poor area in the South Bronx, in conjunction with the parish of St Francis of Assisi. The Bronx mission is part of the worldwide Hearts Home network, an international Catholic volunteer programme with 35 apostolate communities in 20 countries.
Founded in 1990 by Fr Thierry de Roucy, a French priest, Hearts Home has trained more than 1000 volunteers, mostly from France, but also from Latin America, Asia and other European countries.
Fr de Roucy created Hearts Home to help the most suffering people in the world. Some of the 20 countries with Hearts Home missions are Thailand, Italy, Argentina, Peru, El Salvador, Philippines, France, Ukraine and Honduras.
The Hearts Home USA community consists of three nuns, two candidates for the priesthood and six lay volunteers who have committed at least 14 months of their lives to serving the poor in a spirit of compassion.
The presence of French missionaries in the South Bronx, an area known for crime and urban decay, has definitely been noticed. St Francis of Assisi parish was once an Irish stronghold and now serves Hispanic parishioners from a multitude of countries, mainly Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Laura McDonough, who left the neighborhood in the late 1960s, said of the French missionaries of Hearts Home: It is heartening to me to know that my old parish is unique in that the Spanish-speaking immigrants there are now being served by immigrant missionaries from France. What a heart-warming twist. After all, many decades ago the Irish of the parish were immigrants, too.
Lourdes Renero Alvarez, a neighbourhood resident who is not affiliated with the parish, said, Everybody in the neighbourhood knows they are there.
I mean we see them walking the streets doing the rosary all the time. We know they are there to help whether people are Catholic or not, he said.
The ministries performed by the Hearts Home community are diverse. Community members help the parish in many ways.
For instance, Sr Regine Fohrer and Sr Albane de Monts teach CCD to parish children and are leading the class that is preparing for first communion. The community also helps to organise special dinners in the parish hall for parishioners in need.
Hearts Home assists Spanish-speaking parishioners in applying for food stamps and disability benefits.
Members visit people in the parish and neighbourhood alike, such as the elderly and disabled, many of whom have little contact with the outside world. They also regularly visit Aids and cancer patients.
Regla Garcia, a senior citizen who came to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic more than 20 years ago, enjoys her regular visits from members of the Hearts Home USA community.
Mrs Garcia said: For me, I think it is marvellous that the Hearts Home people are helping those in need. They are helping people like me who dont speak English and establishing caring friendships. I wish more of these French people would come to the Bronx.
Laetitia Palluat, a community member who has a degree in marketing and worked for a food company in France prior to making the commitment to Hearts Home, says the experience has drastically changed her life.
Because I am sure that through the community life, the prayer life and the life with the poor, you will discover Christ, and learn a lot about yourself, she said.
All community members agree that their daily Mass, holy hour and the Prayer of the Church prepare them to serve the poorest and most suffering. Their daily recitation of the Rosary in the streets of the Bronx is in synch with the other 35 Hearts Home volunteer communities serving the poor throughout the world that also walk their respective neighbourhood streets praying the Rosary.
