Seven members of the Little Sisters of the Poor left their order's motherhouse in La Tour Saint-Joseph, France, on August 28, 1868, and headed for the coast. Three days later, they boarded the Napoleon III steamship and began a trip across the Atlantic.

Two weeks later, they arrived in New York.

Then, a few days after that, they established their first American nursing home in Brooklyn.

"On September 20 they welcomed their first old pensioner, a woman eighty-two years of age," says a history of the order published in 1902.

One of the sisters then wrote back to the motherhouse about how well received they were in this American city.

"The public appear delighted to see that the Little Sisters of the Poor are willing to work for the poor; that they ask no endowment; that they desire to trust in Providence and in the generosity of the public," she said. "Neither the population of New York nor of Brooklyn seem to be roused on seeing the habit of the Little Sisters; I have not even seen the shadow of a hostile demonstration."

Now, 158 years later, the government of the state of New York is taking a much different approach to the Little Sisters of the Poor and three other orders of Catholic nuns who care for the elderly and the ill. It is seeking to limit their religious liberty.

In February, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the euphemistically titled "Medical Aid in Dying Act," which legalized assisted suicide in the state and mandated various levels of cooperation from health care providers.

"Our state will always stand firm in safeguarding New Yorkers' freedoms and right to bodily autonomy, which includes the right for the........

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