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Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori and Cardinal Edwin O’Brien blessed a new van for the Little Sisters of the Poor in Rome on Oct. 24 during a ceremony at the Order’s flagship sports center in Rome, Centro Sportivo Pio XI.

The Supreme Council was the principal donor for the van, which was secured with additional support from several benefactors and friends of the Little Sisters, including Cardinal O’Brien, a longtime Knight and former archbishop of Baltimore who attended the blessing ceremony. Informally called a “begging van,” Little Sisters use the new 2024 Fiat Scudo to transport food, furnishings and other donations, as well as travel to their other communities in Turin, Bologna and Sicily.

“This blessing brings together two groups in the Church that are dedicated to charity: the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Knights of Columbus,” said Archbishop Lori during the ceremony. “The Little Sisters care for the elderly in need with great love, and the Knights of Columbus has charity as its first principle. How beautiful it is that we … are working together and it is with that conviction that we go forward day by day and fulfill the charism, the ministry that has been entrusted to us.”

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and other Supreme Officers — in Rome for the unveiling of the newly restored baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica — also attended the van blessing, along with six Little Sisters from the community in Rome; Jesuit Father James Conn, superior of the Pontifical North American College’s Casa Santa Maria; and a group of residents from the Little Sisters’ home for older adults.

The event, which included a prayer ceremony and blessing, concluded with the prayer for the canonization of Blessed Michael McGivney, invoking his intercession and that of St. Jeanne Jugan, who founded the Little Sisters in France in 1839 and was canonized in 2009.

Sister Rosemary Rese, a member of the Rome community, echoed the words of the Little Sisters’ foundress as she expressed her gratitude for the recent donation.

“St. Jeanne Jugan always thanked her benefactors by praying for them — and she thanked God at the same time,” explained Sister Rosemary. “‘God has blessed me,’ she’d say, ‘because I always thanked his providence. What could we do for the elderly without [our benefactors]?’”

Since the order was founded 185 years ago, the Little Sisters of the Poor have expanded to more than 30 countries. For many years, the Knights have worked in partnership with the Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States, from supporting their work in more than 20 homes for the elderly poor across the country to awarding them the Gaudium et Spes Award, the Order’s highest honor, in 2016, for their service to the elderly and their fight for religious conscience rights.