One day at the end of 1965. On a plane that brought American bishops back from Italy after attending the Second Vatican Council, there was a very beautiful, dedicated and courteous flight attendant serving the passengers. guest. However, during the journey, this beautiful young flight attendant was very upset and very unnatural because there was a man, who seemed indecent, constantly rolling his eyes at her.
Even more disgruntled, when it was an elderly man. She was even more annoyed, because she soon learned that the man was Bishop Fulton Sheen, Archbishop of New York, a man famous for his speech, teaching and ethics. He is a famous apostolic bishop of America. It's unbelievably crazy! A person who seems to lack such qualifications, is the man of success, of fame? She couldn't understand and secretly reproached the old Bishop with contempt.
By the time the plane landed, strangely enough, the old Bishop who was considered "indecent" did not disembark at the same time as the passengers. I don't understand what he had planned to wait for everyone on the plane to get off, only he was the last guest to get off. Moreover, when he reached the plane's stairs, Bishop Fulton Sheen even leaned his face close to the flight attendant's ear and whispered something that, except the girl, no one could hear...
The story ends there. I thought that the discomfort of the flight attendant girl had passed, the seemingly rude look of the old Bishop was no longer remembered, even a look that was rude (according to her opinion). girl), is it just a fleeting glance like how many eyes a girl meets in her life?
Not so. Everything is not lost, not lost. Because one afternoon, Bishop Futon Sheen heard a knock on the door, and then the Bishop's surprise when he opened the door. In front of him was a young flight attendant girl with salty beauty on the flight that day, who used to have unfriendly eyes with him.
The girl greeted the Bishop and asked: "Father, do you remember me?" Bishop Fulton Sheen replied slowly: “I remember. You are the girl who was the flight attendant on the plane that brought us back from Vatican II.” The girl continued: “So, do you remember what you whispered in my ear?” The Bishop replied: “Remember! I remember, I told you that you were beautiful. And I ask you, have you ever thanked God for giving you that wonderful beauty?" The girl happily continued: “Dear Father, what you said has troubled me a lot. It is for that reason that I come to see the Father today.
So, according to the Father's will, what should I do to give thanks to God?" Slightly surprised, Bishop Fulton Sheen was silent for a moment. The Bishop then led the girl to the world map hanging on the wall, still with a gentle voice, the Bishop asked: "Have you ever heard of a leprosy camp in Vietnam called Di leprosy camp? Linh yet?" The girl raised her blue eyes and asked, "Dear Father, I read it in the newspaper once. I also heard someone tell some stories about Di Linh leper camp.”
The bishop looked into the distance in front of him: "My son, not long ago, I heard that the Bishop of Saigon diocese named John Casaigne Sanh had resigned from the position of Bishop of Saigon to come to serve you. Di Linh leprosy camp. Would you like to thank God by trying once to go to Di Linh leprosy camp, meet the Bishop of Saigon and stay with the lepers for about six months?” Too surprised by the proposal of the Bishop of New York, the girl did not utter a word, silently bowed to the Bishop and withdrew in the shock of her own interior...
Once again, people thought that the gentle, but also intense story of Bishop Fulton Sheen and the other flight attendant was over. But strangely enough, with just that kind of gentle, but decisive suggestion of the Bishop, completely changed the life of the beautiful flight attendant.
In the early months of 1966, an admirable message board was read in the media in Saigon and in Vietnam in general: A very young, very beautiful air hostess of an American airline. resigned from her job as a flight attendant to go to Di Linh leprosy camp in Vietnam, volunteering to take care of leprosy patients.
How beautiful, how beautiful. With just so many words from a venerable Bishop, the brave soul of a wandering girl who loves to travel when choosing a job as a hostess, here and there, can accept to give up all her future. as beautiful as her own beauty to live, not for six months, but for a lifetime for an equally beautiful cause: THANK YOU GOD.
That's all, the words of a venerable Bishop turned a beautiful air hostess into a nun. Because she herself, after a period of service to ordained brothers and sisters, voluntarily took on the robes of a nun in the Vietnamese Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of Vietnam.
From now on, entering the religious life, the Sister, our beautiful girl, has completely removed all the troubles of everyday life to live peacefully, thanking God by serving her brothers and sisters. me. That nun who used to be a flight attendant is so beautiful. She is beautiful, not only a beauty of the body, but a splendid beauty of the soul. That Sister was none other than Sister Louise Bannet.
Sister Louise Bannet has volunteered to stay at Di Linh leprosy camp for the rest of her life. But the events of 1975 caused many upheavals, making it impossible for her to continue her will. After ten years of serving the lepers, she had to go home. Some time later, she asked the Congregation for permission to serve leprosy patients in Tahiti.
In 1982, after many days of being ravaged by a terrible cancer, Sister Louise Bannet passed away amid the great grief of the leprosy community in Tahiti. And in solidarity, as well as in our gratitude, is also the mourning of the Vietnamese leprosy patients in general and all those living at Di Linh leprosy camp in particular.
