Mission in Colombia

In 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota, Cardinal Luis Concha Cárdoba and Mother Callista, Mother General of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes, expressed their desire to have the Sisters work in Colombian education. This was in direct response to a call from the Holy Father Pope John XXIII for Congregations to move resources to help developing countries. The ideal plan of the Cardinal was to start a school for middle class women to be secretaries and clerks in business offices. The school would offer a high academic level and moral and spiritual formation guided by Franciscan principles.

To learn more about the schools and a clinic started by the Rochester Franciscan Sisters in Bogotá, click on the button below.

Mission in Cambodia

Sister Joseen Vogt’s mission with the Cambodian people began in the Bataan Refugee camp in the Philippines in 1988. This led her to the refugee camps in Thailand in 1989. When the refugees returned to Cambodia in 1993, following the overthrow of the Pol Pot Regime, the organization Catholic Office for Relief and Refugees (COERR), asked her to start an English training center in Battambang, Cambodia. The government provided the land. COERR built, furnished the school and provided the teachers. Students attended classes free.

Learn more about the work Sister Joseen started in Cambodia below.