53rd anniversary of the reunion of the Sisters of Providence in Chile with the Mother Congregation

After several deliberations, trials and tests, the Holy See approved the unification process in 1970. On Wednesday, July 1, a Eucharist was celebrated in the mother church in Santiago. Monsignor Oviedo expressed his joy at seeing these two religious families reunited, as they stemmed from the same tree planted in Montreal in 1843.

As this year is one of celebration for our Congregation, particularly for the Chilean sisters of our community, we commemorate the day when the Sisters of Providence in Chile reunited with the Mother Congregation in Montreal.

Every reunion implies a separation. The first chapter of this story, impossible to summarize in a few lines, dates back to 1865 when the Sisters of Providence became an autonomous Chilean congregation under the Holy See of Rome, further to a pontifical decree signed by Pius IX.

Nonetheless, Mother Bernarda Morin always expressed her desire to be united with her counterpart in Montreal: “The divine laws of Christianity oblige those who profess them to live in peace and union […] [This is the reason for my] desire to see the most cordial friendly relations reestablished between the Sisters of Providence of Chile and those of Montreal.”

Correspondence between superiors and sisters and visits in both ends of the continent never stopped. And so, after the Second Vatican Council, which instructed congregations to return to their roots, the time for reunification had come.

After several deliberations, trials and tests, the Holy See approved the unification process in 1970. On Wednesday, July 1, a Eucharist was celebrated in the mother church in Santiago. Monsignor Oviedo expressed his joy at seeing these two religious families reunited, as they stemmed from the same tree planted in Montreal in 1843.

Even if the branch had been separated from the vine for over a hundred years ago, it was now ripe to flourish again with the one whose always been its family.