Sister Liane Delsuc is still in awe of where her life journey has taken her. She credits her mother for giving her a deep appreciation of creation and care for the earth. Both she and younger brother Steve went to St. Dunstan School in Millbrae, California, where they heard stories about St. Julie, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Liane’s favorite story was the concealing of Julie in a hay cart to protect her during the French Revolution.
Before entering the Notre Dame community, Liane was teaching in a public elementary school had already begun a master’s program in special education at San Francisco State University. She entered religious life when Vatican II was bringing changes to the Church and to religious life. Her first assignments were at Mother of Sorrows and St. Columbkille Schools in South Central, Los Angeles, California. There she helped to establish a non-graded reading program, served small groups of students with learning challenges and consulted in local Catholic schools with learning-disabled students. She also established the Julie Billiart Learning Center for junior high students with learning disabilities.
In 1985, Sister Liane was invited to serve in Peru for a summer. At the end of the summer she described herself as “hooked,” and her service in Peru turned into a 16-year commitment. Her fluency in Spanish made her a perfect fit in a community of SNDdeNs already working in a very poor area located near a huge garbage dump. The Sisters of Notre Dame de namur, together with the Jesuits, were just starting a Fe y Alegria school in that settlement where the townspeople provided the property, the Jesuits the initial monies for the building and the parents the muscle. Initially when negotiations between the townspeople and the Jesuits were at a stalemate, a delegation of women rented a bus and went to the Jesuit office to plead that the school be built. It happened! In Sister Liane’s first years there, the school building grew brick by brick. In the end the people truly “owned” it!
At first, Sister Liane taught part-time in the school and worked in the parish catechesis program while helping to build an inter-cultural religious community. She was then asked to be the second principal, a post she held for the next four years. The school began with three first grades and two freshmen high school classes. It grew rapidly from 250 students to 1000 students!
Back in the U.S., Sister Liane used her skills in small group reading, math and English with special education students at Moreland Notre Dame School in Watsonville, California, and at Mission Dolores School in San Francisco. She also translated for parents, and participated in a bilingual spiritual direction program.
Sister Liane currently resides in Arizona where she has taught adult English as a Second Language and has been involved in ministry with immigrants, both asylum seekers and refugees. She helped to initiate a project to invite Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Associates and friends to volunteer for short term ministry experiences with the migrants in Phoenix, Arizona.
Sister Liane knows well how to read the signs of the times and the signs for her time. At the time of her celebration of 50 years as a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, she shared this reflection: “Life among those made poor has broken open my heart to experience the goodness of God so I now stand in awe before the Source of all life aware of the resilience of the human spirit and the faith and hope of very vulnerable people. I am grateful to my sisters around the world who have walked among the most abandoned in hope with me."
