- ATD Fourth World

Francine de La Gorce passed away on September 7, 2011 at the age of 78. She was the first to permanently join Father Joseph Wresinski on April of 1960, at the Camp in Noisy-le-Grand. Commenting recently on those early days, she said: “The year 1960 ended with two children burnt to death in their igloo [1]. That marked my first year there. And the entire camp’s population stood before the two children and said: “We will all end like this, if not by fire, it will be because of cold or hunger. And no-one cares!” And that is what started ATD Fourth World, I think. I decided that day: “I’m staying with them, right here.” The families of Noisy-le-Grand adopted her, and their resistance to poverty, their search for dignity and freedom became the challenge in her own life.

Mother of four, an enthusiastic woman, and of great intelligence, she used her energy and capabilities to best serve ATD Fourth World. She was Father Joseph’s first secretary, from 1960 to 1967, then the director of Noisy’s City to promote families, and finally vice-president of ATD Fourth World in France for thirty years. She wrote many books, multiple articles, and in the Fourth World Journal to write about how ATD Fourth World was born and built, and to make Father Joseph better known. She never stopped highlighting the importance of family in the fight against poverty. Her deep faith was nourished by a spirituality drawn from her encounters with the poorest of whom she said: “To be silent in the face of misfortune, to be silent and listen to others, to try to know them better in order to better make them part of ourselves, and to finally find a common brotherhood with them, that is perhaps the foundation of our common spirituality.”