Adelaide Josephite Sister Katrina Van Ruth has been living in Peru for the past 10 years and in a short space of time has seen the divide between the haves and have nots dramatically increase due to the coronavirus pandemic, reports The Southern Cross.

*Sr Katrina ministers to children in Peru where she has lived for the past 10 years. (PHOTO: Supplied/The Southern Cross.)*

“Although Peru acted swiftly when the pandemic first commenced spreading its tentacles around the world, we have been unable to curtail its progression and now have more than 12,200 deaths with an average of 175 deaths a day and more than 3500 new cases each day – with no let-up,” Sr Katrina, 72, told The Southern Cross via email.

“There is very real poverty in many areas which has been exacerbated by this recent pandemic…the gains made to the betterment of life for many Peruvians over the past 20 years or so has, in many cases, been lost during these last four months.”

Having joined the Josephites in 1965 and been a teacher for many years before studying to be an archivist, Sr Katrina thought her path was set.

“I thought this was the path which God had in store for me but, as St Mary MacKillop once said, ‘our good God’ provided me with the opportunity to once more realise a long-held desire to go further afield and I responded to His call to come and live and work with and for the wonderful people of Peru. And that is where I am!” she said.

One of four Australians in a community of eight Josephites in Peru and Brazil, Sr Katrina spent six years in San Juan de Lurigancho, one of the most populous districts in Lima, where she ran a homework centre for primary-aged children and assisted the parish in liturgy, youth choir, visiting the sick and praying with family members for the dead.

She then spent two years in Tarma, eight to 10 hours from the capital (depending on the state of the roads) where she was assistant in the kindergarten section of a school high up on the mountain on the outskirts of the town.

For the past two years she has been living back in Lima, helping out in a suburban parish, mainly with groups of elderly people in the parish’s eight chapels. She also volunteers at a homework centre on one of the neighbouring hills and works closely with the Josephite Associates group and five Josephite Affiliates.

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Sisters’ arrival in Peru to commence their first overseas mission. Since then 21 Sisters from Australia and New Zealand have lived and ministered among and with the Peruvian people in a variety of places.

The four Australian Sisters, along with one New Zealander and three Peruvian Sisters, continue this work today.

“The Peruvian people and Peru will always have a very special place in the hearts of Josephites as our Sr Irene McCormack lies buried in the cemetery of Huasahuasi high up on the hill overlooking the village,” Sr Katrina said.

“She, along with four of the local men from the village, was killed by the Shining Path terrorists in 1991.”

This article is an abridged form of an article by Jenny Brinkworth, published in The Southern Cross. Read the full article here.