August 18 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS     print icon print

4-SR-RUTH

Pakistan mourns nun who led fight to defeat leprosy

The government of Pakistan will accord a state funeral to Sr Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau, a German-born member of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary who devoted her life to eradicating leprosy in Pakistan.

Sr Ruth, dubbed the Mother Teresa of Pakistan, died on August 10 in Karachi, aged 87.

“Sr Ruth was a model of total dedication,” Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said. “She inspired and mobilised all sections of society to join the fight against leprosy, irrespective of creed or ethnic identity.

“We are happy that the government is according her a state funeral on August 19.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Sr Pfau would be remembered for her courage, her loyalty, her service to the eradication of leprosy and for her patriotism.

“Pfau may have been born in Germany [but] her heart was always in Pakistan,” he said.

Born in Leipzig in 1929, she went to France to study medicine and later joined the Society of Daughters of the Heart of Mary.

Archbishop Coutts said she arrived in Karachi in 1960 due to some visa problems en route to India and was touched by what she saw at a leprosy colony in Karachi. She decided to join the work that Mexican Sr Bernice Vargasi had begun three year earlier.

In 1962 Sr Ruth founded the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in Karachi, Pakistan’s first hospital dedicated to treating the disease, and later set up branches all over Pakistan.

She spent the rest of her life in the country and was granted Pakistani citizenship.

In 1996, the World Health Organisation declared Pakistan one of the first Asian countries to be free of the disease. The Dawn newspaper reported in 2016 that the number of patients being treated was 531. In the 1980s it was more than 19,000.

The Pakistani bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace called Sr Pfau a ‘national hero of Pakistan.’

It said her services for humanity ‘were nothing less than a pure manifestation of God’s divine love.’

Leave a Reply

latest news

Bene Merenti awarded to SSVP stalwart for services to Wishaw parish

November 9th, 2018 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS

Bishop Toal presented Harry McCrossan with the medal following four...


Bishop of Dunkeld offers prayers and support to hundreds affected by Dundee factory closure

November 9th, 2018 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS

Bishop Stephen Robson made the announcement as Michelin tyre company...


Galloway diocese celebrates vital work given to poor by SSVP on 150th anniversary

November 9th, 2018 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS

“I think there is just as much of a need...


Mary’s Meals returns to Medjugorje for Mass with Pope Francis’ envoy

November 9th, 2018 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS

Bishop Keenan of Paisley diocese joins global charity as they...




Social media

Latest edition

P1-NOV-9-2018

exclusively in the paper

  • Attacks on Hibernian manager Neil Lennon are racist and bigoted says politicians
  • Archbishop Cushley prays at grave of Cardinal O’Brien on All Souls’ Day
  • Faith sustained Polish community during Nazi and Communist occupation
  • Peter Kearney reflects on Archbishop Tartaglia’s term as president of the Bishops’ Conference
  • Dr Joe Bradley says some UK politicians are ‘pouring petrol on the fire’ of the The Troubles

Previous editions

Previous editions of the Scottish Catholic Observer newspaper are only available to subscribed Members. To download previous editions of the paper, please subscribe.

note: registered members only.

Read the SCO