Alicia Vacas Moro

Last updated
Alicia Vacas Moro
Bornc.1972
Valladolid (Spain)
OccupationNun in Bethany
Known forShe was awarded the International Women of Courage Award in 2021

Alicia Vacas Moro (born c.1972) is a Spanish-born nurse and a leader of the Comboni Missionary Sisters in the Middle East and Asia. She served as a nurse in Egypt and in Bethany in the West Bank. During the pandemic she returned to help in Italy. She was awarded the International Women of Courage Award in 2021 on the recommendation of the Holy See for her work.

Life

Vacas was born in Spain [1] in about 1972. [2] She studied to be a registered nurse and she used these skills in Egypt where she was treating 150 Bedouin patients a day. [3]

In 2017 she was looking after elderly nuns in Verona. She had spent seven years in the Israel-Palestine, where she and the other nuns cared for Bedouins and asylu seekers, without regard to their belief. During the wars in Gaza in 2010 and 2014 Sr Alicia was part of a fact finding mission promoted by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel. She said that God was in the ruins and in her own weaknesses. [4]

She was awarded the International Women of Courage Award in 2021 after being nominated by the Holy See. [3] At the time she was working in Bethany in a Comboni convent where the house was surrounded on three sides by the wall that separates Israel from its neighbours. The convent had been founded in 1966 and at one time was in Jordanian territory (In 2019 the convent was registered in Amman as a small religious house with three religious living there. She was the Superior nun. [5] ).

In 2004 the second Palestinian uprising was taking place and the convent became unreachable by half of the people they care for. The convent is surrounded by blocks of concrete and barbed wire. [6] Trees just disappeared as the wall came through their garden. [1] The convent had run a kindergarten and for a time there was a small window in the wall so that parents could bring their children each day. [1] The access door was blocked and the kindergarten lost most of its children as their parents needed to take two buses to bring and fetch their children. The playground has a fireproof roof to catch molotov cocktails and the playing children are looked over by the wall and its watch towers. [6] The convent is so close to the wall that it is a handy landing point for Palestinians who are jumping over the wall. This makes the convent a place of disruption and it means that the children there get to see soldiers twice a day and Vacas regrets that this is the image the children have of Israelis. [6]

Vacas travelled to northern Italy during the country's COVID-19 pandemic to administer help to sisters. Ten sisters died during the pandemic [7] in a community of 55 elderly Comboni nuns in Bergamo. [8] Usually, she leads the Comboni Missionaries for the Middle East and Asia. [9]

The Woman of Courage award was presented in the company of Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the First Lady Dr. Jill Biden by the Secretary of State Antony Blinken on 8 March 2021. [2] There were 14 awards. After the ceremony a "Virtual Watch Party" was scheduled hosted by the American Charge d'Affaires to the Holy See, Patrick Connell, and Sister Patricia Murray who was the executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General. [10]

Related Research Articles

Nun Member of a religious community of women

A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable works.

Bridgettines Religious order

The Bridgettines, or Birgittines, formally known as the Order of the Most Holy Savior, is a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Saint Birgitta or Bridget of Sweden in 1344, and approved by Pope Urban V in 1370. They follow the Rule of Saint Augustine. There are today several different branches of Bridgettines.

Grey Nuns

The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founded in 1737 by Marguerite d'Youville, a young widow.

Ascensión Nicol y Goñi

María Ascensión Nicol y Goñi, O.P., was a Spanish Roman Catholic religious sister of the Third Order of St. Dominic. She co-founded and was the first Prioress General of the Congregation of Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary, which she helped to found in Peru.

School Sisters of Notre Dame Female Roman Catholic religious congregation

School Sisters of Notre Dame is a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic sisters founded in Bavaria in 1833 and devoted to primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Their life in mission centers on prayer, community life and ministry. They serve as teachers, lawyers, accountants, nurses, administrators, therapists, social workers, pastoral ministers, social justice advocates and more.

Women as theological figures have played a significant role in the development of various religions and religious hierarchies.

Sisters of the Infant Jesus Religious institute for education of the underprivileged

The Sisters of the Infant Jesus and their lay volunteers have a presence worldwide through social projects and schools. They are also known as Dames of St.-Maur, from the address of their major house in Paris.

Marie Louise Habets was a Belgian nurse and former religious sister whose life was fictionalised as Sister Luke in The Nun's Story, a bestselling 1956 book by American author Kathryn Hulme. The Belgian-born actress Audrey Hepburn portrayed Gabrielle van der Mal in the 1959 Fred Zinnemann film The Nun's Story, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

International Women of Courage Award US State Department award presented to women who proved their prominence for womens rights

The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights.

Former religious orders in the Anglican Communion

Former religious orders in the churches of the Anglican Communion are those communities of monks, nuns, friars, or sisters, having a common life and rule under vows, whose work has ended and whose community has been disbanded. In a very few cases this is due to the termination of the work for which the community was established, but in most cases it is due to amalgamation or the death of the final remaining member of the community.

Marie Claude Naddaf

Marie Claude Naddaf is an activist and a nun. In 1994, she became Mother Superior at the Good Shepherd Convent in Damascus, and in 1996, she and her convent opened the "Oasis Shelter", Syria's first facility for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence. She also began Syria's first telephone hotline, which was attached to an emergency shelter for women.

Giuseppa Scandola 19th-century Italian Catholic religious order member

Maria Giuseppa Scandola, M.S.V., was an Italian member of the Missionary Sisters of Verona, also known as the Comboni Missionary Sisters. She served in what is now South Sudan, where she offered up her life in 1903.

Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus Catholic religious order

The Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, also known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, or the Verona Fathers, and originally called the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a Catholic clerical male religious congregation of pontifical right.

The Comboni Missionary Sisters are a Catholic religious institute originally founded under the name Piae Madres Nigritiae, translated as the "Pious Mothers of the Nigritia" or "The Devout Mothers of Africa". They are also known as the Missionary Sisters Pie Madre della Nigrizia or the Missionary Sisters of Verona,

Azazet Habtezghi Kidane

Azezet Habtezghi Kidane is an Eritrean-born British nun and human trafficking activist working in Israel.

Orla Treacy Irish missionary in South Sudan

Orla Treacy is an Irish Loreto sister who runs a boarding school in war torn South Sudan and she works for Women's education and prevent child marriages. Born in 1973 in Bray, County Wicklow, she became an International Women of Courage Award recipient in 2019.

Luigia Coccia S.M.C, is an Italian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, one of the first seven women appointed members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life the second highest-ranking department of the Roman Curia, the administrative institution of the Holy See since 8 July 2019, when was appointed by Pope Francis.

Luzia Premoli S.M.C, is a Brazilian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, Superior General of the Comboni Missionary Sisters between 2010 and 2016 and the second female appointed in an office of the Roman Curia after Enrica Rosanna.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Women's Day: a window in the Wall – nuns on the frontlines of conflict". www.archivioradiovaticana.va. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  2. 1 2 "Comboni sister named a 2021 'Woman of Courage' for work in Middle East". international.la-croix.com. 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  3. 1 2 "Biographies of the Finalists for the 2021 International Women of Courage Awards". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  4. ↑ "Vocations: Sister Alicia Vacas Moro (Combonian), "in the Holy Land to witness reconciliation" (translated)". January 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-01-05.
  5. ↑ "The Catholic Church Of The Holy Land » Missionary Sisters "Pie Madri della Nigrizia"" . Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  6. 1 2 3 "With wall on three sides, Comboni Sisters in West Bank build bridges". Global Sisters Report. 2020-01-20. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  7. ↑ "Op-Ed by Ambassador Gingrich: Catholic Sisters Remain at the Forefront of COVID-19 Response". U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  8. ↑ "Estados Unidos premia a la misionera española Alicia Vacas como 'Mujer Coraje'". Vida Nueva - Revista y portal de noticias religiosas y de Iglesia (in Spanish). 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  9. ↑ "Alicia Vacas: "En Tierra Santa puedo ser familia con un rabino y unos beduinos"". Vida Nueva - Revista y portal de noticias religiosas y de Iglesia (in Spanish). 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  10. ↑ "Women of Courage Award 2021: Sr Alicia Vacas Moro". International Union Superiors General. 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.