Claire-Marie was born on December 8, and no one came to collect her from the hospital.
Before she was born, doctors and lawyers had advised her mother not to continue the pregnancy because the baby would have Down syndrome. In France, the law allowed it. Her mother went ahead, but left her at the hospital shortly after the birth. At eight months old, she was adopted by a couple who live between France and Poland, and they gave her a home.
Years later, she felt something she hadn’t expected: “I felt a strong calling from God. I felt at peace”. Today, she is 37 years old, has been a religious sister for nearly a decade, and has lived in Lourdes for seven years, where she accompanies pilgrims and talks with young people about the Gospel. She even took part in a synodal meeting at the Vatican alongside other people with disabilities, and at the end of a general audience she was able to embrace Pope Francis, who asked her to pray for him.
When she speaks about her own condition, she does not do so from a place of complaint: “I thank the Lord because I have a disability, but I still have two arms, two legs, I can walk, talk, and pray”. And she repeats the same thing to young people: “Life is a gift, not something tied to laws”.