Sal Di Leo grew up in an orphanage in the 1960s, the 11th of 12 children rescued from abject poverty after their father left them.

“I don’t know where I’d be today without the sisters,” observed Di Leo.

He is not alone in his admiration.

“Without the sisters, I would close tomorrow,” Father Jeff Bayhi, founder of Metanoia Manor in Louisiana, says of the Catholic sisters who help staff the only accredited treatment home for adolescent girls who are trafficked in the United States.

“No one can do anything like Catholic sisters can,” according to John Clegg, volunteer director for Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children, which cares for 20,000 poor children annually in six countries. “They are the most saintly, humble, loving and caring human beings I know.”

Perhaps the most unsung heroes in the world are Catholic sisters who have taken on the role of mothers for children without parents to provide for them.

History of Orphanages

In ancient Rome, individuals or institutions sometimes rescued orphans, but it was not widespread. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church stepped in to care for orphans. The first orphanage in the United States opened in 1729 and was run by the Ursuline sisters in Mississippi.

There were an estimated 1,000 institutions housing 100,000 children in 1900 run by counties, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths, and private charities, with Catholic sisters making the largest impact.

Some became well known, such as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), who sent three Sisters of Charity to New York City in 1917 to open a home for children and then continued the needed work in St. Louis and Cincinnati and other cities along the East Coast.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), an Italian immigrant, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and, despite her poor health, she established 67 schools, hospitals and orphanages around the world over a 34-year period. St. Marianne Cope, a Sister of St. Francis of Syracuse, New York, went to the Hawaiian island of Molokai to care for victims of Hansen’s disease — known as leprosy — and opened homes for children whose parents had the disease.

In most developed countries, orphanages were eventually replaced with foster care, group homes and adoptions, but many Catholic sisters still work in orphanages in Third World countries, filling an otherwise unmet need. Technically, an orphan is a child without either parent, but orphanages have also cared for children who were abandoned or removed from unsafe homes.

Sal Di Leo recounted his time at the Guardian Angel Home of Joliet, Illinois, in his autobiographical book Did I Ever Thank You, Sister? His story is going to be made into the movie House of the Lion to spread a message of hope and also to honor Catholic sisters and encourage women to be open to a religious vocation.

“Those sisters are the heroes,” he told the Register. “They gave us what we didn’t have: life teachings and continuity. I got up and made my bed, had a shower, had clean clothes, served Mass every morning, and had breakfast. Then I helped stack dishes and set the table for lunch. We had to study and go to bed on time. On Sundays, we got to watch The Wonderful World of Disney and eat popcorn.”

If he was sick or down, Di Leo recalled the sisters putting an arm around him and comforting him. “And they always remembered our birthdays — something I never had before. They made us feel special, sent us to camps in the summer, and begged for everything for us. When I talk with others from that time, we all fondly remember all they did for us.”

Metanoia Manor

Father Bayhi, a priest of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, founded Metanoia Manor in 2015, the only licensed designated safe location in the U.S. to serve girls ages 0-18. (Metanoia is Greek for “change of heart.”)

The average age is 13. He promotes a Catholic approach to healing victims of sex trafficking.

The idea for the home began when Father Bayhi was visiting Rome and saw his friend Sister Eugenio Bonetti, an Italian nun who has fought sex trafficking for decades.

She encouraged him to open a home for adolescent girls. Father Bayhi had previously worked in Third World countries fighting human trafficking. He told Sister Eugenio, “I’m not doing this without religious women.” So she committed five sisters from the Italian order of The Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy to work at Metanoia Manor.

Besides the sisters, Metanoia has a staff of therapists, educators and a program director, and there is therapy for trauma and addictions. The sisters are house mothers and provide a loving presence.

Sister Norma Nunez, originally from the Philippines, is one of those sisters. “You cannot do this work without faith and the belief that this is the mission God has for you,” she explained. “My vocation is not so much to help the girls do the laundry, but to love them and help them to know they are loved by God through us.”

When girls reject the sisters, Sister Norma said they will respond with love, which eventually opens up their hearts.

“We want them to feel loved; that is the important thing,” Sister Norma said.

“To be a mother to these kids is really something I never felt before. It touches the core of my being.”

Homes of Hope

Homes of Hope in India was founded by Paul Wilkes and his wife Tracy after a trip to India in 2006. The goal of their travels nearly 20 years ago was simply to experience “something a little different.”

But that trip changed everything.

In the city of Kochi, they had some spare time before a planned visit to a Trappist monastery, so they asked their driver to show them around the city. Paul was disturbed by the many maimed children — mostly girls — begging on the streets. “I’m Catholic,” Wilkes said. “What is my Church doing about this?”

“I could tell you,” the driver said, “but, if you don’t mind, sir, I’ll show you.” Soon, they entered the gates of Prathyasha Bhavan — which translates as “Home of Hope” — an orphanage that housed 75 girls run by the Salesian Sisters.

Although the Salesian Sisters gave loving care to the girls, they lived in deplorable conditions and slept on a concrete floor at night. Back at home in North Carolina, Wilkes started raising money for a new home by speaking in parishes, Rotary Clubs and anywhere else he could. He raised around $300,000 and let the Salesian Sisters supervise the building of the home.

Knowing there were countless other girls on the streets, he kept going.

He has worked with sisters from 12 different religious orders who are already caring for children and builds them a home. There are now 35 going on 36 homes.

“The sisters then run these homes and are beggars like I am,” Wilkes said. “I absolutely would not do this without the sisters.”

Some of the homes serve AIDS orphans, victims of human trafficking and the disabled. When the girls become adults, he explained that the sisters find places for them to work and to live or help them seek advanced education.

Sisters of Mary

John Clegg is on the board of directors for Homes of Hope and also for Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children present in six countries, with more than 170,000 graduates since its founding in 1964 by Venerable Aloysius Schwartz.

Referring to Girlstown in Chalco, Mexico, Clegg explained that among the graduates who go on to trade schools and universities, many become sisters.

“A big percent of them have probably suffered themselves, but when you go down there, it’s the most joyful place on Earth.”

Sister Martha Mendoza, mother superior at Chalo’s Girlstown, said, “I was totally convinced by Father Al’s charism of serving the poor, especially the young, because they will multiply the mission in their families and in society and they will restore hope.”