“I chose to work at the bottom of the hierarchy”

“For thirty-two years, my work was the site of my ministry. I always wanted to be at the bottom of the hierarchy, to occupy a place alongside the little ones. This is what Jesus did when he came among us. Working as a caregiver, I tackled the questions of this profession head on. Like them – because it was mainly women – I was sometimes able to say to myself: “It’s not possible that there is a Good God!”

Accept that my faith is shaken in the face of suffering, experience the same doubts. I shared my human poverty with them. When I failed to remain patient with a patient, I told them. We were neck and neck. When we are at the hospital, among colleagues, we talk about home. I learned a lot from these women’s conversations with each other. I joked like the others, even if the jokes were often a little ribald. When we are close to death, we need to laugh. As I know how to remain discreet, I blended in with my colleagues, I didn’t want to have the label of priest. It happened that they learned about it when I changed workplace. So they understood that I was sent by the Church and that touched them. They said to themselves: “We matter to the Church!”