CUSA—75 Years Later

by Anna Marie Sopko Administrator of CUSA from 1976 to 2007

It was 1944. World War II was raging in Europe— and I remember, because the husband of one of my cousins was a pilot in the Air Force, and his plane was shot down over western France. His body was never recovered. Just a few years before, in 1939, a couple from Belgium arrived in the United States. They had come to America in the early days of World War II, as the Nazis were ravaging their beloved country of Belgium, and the enemy was looking for the woman’s husband. The woman was Mrs. Laure Brunner. She and her husband, Robert, were strong Catholics and tried to help those who needed it as much as they could. With the war raging near where they lived, they fled to the United States.

While they were safe in their home in New York City, Mrs. Brunner was a bit lonely. She was homebound as a result of poor health and really did not get out. A few years prior, she had joined a writing support group in France, as she spoke fluent French. The group was part of an international organization founded in Switzerland in 1914 by Louis Peyrot; in France it had the name L’Union Catholique des Malades—Catholic Union of the Sick, also known as UCM.

While she was grateful for the safety and freedom of America, Mrs. Brunner missed her UCM friends.

After the end of the war, when communications from Belgium were again possible, a letter she received from one of her UCM friends suggested that she try to begin a branch of UCM in America. What a great idea! But how could she do that since she did not get out and socialize? “Let’s pray that we find a way,” suggested one of the UCM members. That she did.

Around the same time, a young man, disabled with cerebral palsy, was in France at Lourdes praying for a cure. While our Blessed Mother never granted his request, some UCM members who were also at Lourdes happened to meet the young man, Jerry Filan, and his sister. After getting acquainted and learning about each other, Jerry’s sister gave them their address in New York. The UCM friends sent it to the Brunners, the New Yorkers met, and with work and prayer, group one of the new American branch of the UCM was born on December 8, 1947. It became known as the Catholic Union of the Sick in America— CUSA.

Through word of mouth (and pen or typewriter) groups two and three eventually were born. While World War II created much sadness in America, it also brought us new CUSANs, including Tom Maxwell, a World War II veteran who returned home as a paralytic. Tom did much to strengthen CUSA by his prayers, his writing, his spirituality, and his great humor. Bed sores eventually made it difficult for him

to sit in a wheelchair for any length of time, but he just commented that he was “laying down on the job.”

The physical and spiritual attitude of several CUSANs in the 1950s and ’60s helped CUSA grow to be a strong organization—a strong part of the Body of Christ. Somewhere in the New Testament, St. Paul writes that God chooses those who are weak to do something strong in his Body. Since CUSA is a part of the Body of Christ, he chose Jerry Filan in his weakness, and Mrs. Laure Brunner in hers, to be the inspiration for CUSA, and we now celebrate our 75th Anniversary—December 8, 2022.

One of the poems by Betty O’Brien, a pen-pal of Jerry Filan and one of the first to join CUSA at his invitation, sums up how God used Jerry’s weakness to bring CUSA to the attention of many of the disabled in the United States. Since Jerry was a little lad He dreamt of Lourdes; it kept him glad.

He went there twice, for he was sure Our Lady would perform a cure.

Though Jerry never walked or stood, nor did the things he thought he should,

He lived, instead, to do God’s will; he did it all by being ill.