Cabrini University Announces Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program

June 19, 2019

Cabrini University announces the establishment of a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program after being granted approval by the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing (PASBON).

The program is slated to begin in fall 2020. Applications will open Aug. 1, 2019.

“Our new Nursing program complements Cabrini’s robust academic offerings in the sciences,” said University President Donald B. Taylor, PhD. “As the need for nurses continues to increase, Cabrini nurses will thrive as essential members of complex and diverse healthcare systems.”

The timing of Cabrini’s Nursing program coincides with an expected escalation in the demand for nurses: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects remarkable growth for the nursing profession over the next decade—15 percent from 2016 to 2026.

Cabrini Nursing majors will be admitted directly into the program and take discipline-specific courses starting in their first year. Students will gain immediate insight into the theories and concepts essential to nursing practice, professionalism, and their roles as members of interprofessional healthcare teams. Cabrini’s coursework will prepare graduates to pass the NCLEX-RN examination, which is required of all registered nurses.

In addition to their community and acute care off-campus clinical experiences, students in Cabrini’s BSN program will benefit from a state-of-the-art Clinical Simulation Center (CSC). This innovative learning environment will allow students to enhance the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they garner in their classroom and off-campus clinical experiences. The CSC will optimize students’ ability to refine their skills in order to foster confident, collaborative leaders in nursing practice. These on-campus clinical simulations, as well as off-campus clinical experiences in diverse community and healthcare settings, will provide students experiential learning opportunities in order to develop sound clinical judgment skills.

“The Cabrini Nursing program is positioned to collaborate with innovative healthcare systems and impactful community partners,” said Jennifer Specht, PhD, RN, Founding Director of Cabrini’s Nursing program. “Our graduates will be prepared to competently practice and thrive in complex healthcare environments. They will develop leadership skills which will allow them to inform and influence education, policy, and practice in nursing and healthcare.”

To learn more: https://www.cabrini.edu/about/media-hub/news/2019/cabrini-establishes-bachelor-of-science-in-nursing-program

Sharing International Friendships and Cuisine

June 19, 2019

Back in January on the feast of the Epiphany, those of us at the Cabrini Retreat Center shared with you the Archdiocesan celebration of National Migration Week at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. As part of that celebration the Office for Immigration chose to extend that celebration with an international “pot-luck” dinner for the numerous participants representing the diverse cultures of immigrants here in the archdiocese.

On Sunday, June 16, those participants gathered at Casa Italia to share fellowship and their national cuisine with one another. When registering, participants were asked to list the name of the dish they would bring and what nationality it represented. Sr. Cathy Fedewa, CSFN, from Cabrini Retreat Center, in Des Plaines, IL, listed her country as U.S.A. and so brought a typical picnic dish, pasta salad.

It was a great celebration, and the foods from Guatemala, Philippines, India, Mexico, etc. were a big hit with all the participants and an opportunity to share their diverse cultures from a different perspective. It was also a meaningful way to begin the week celebrating World Refugee Day on June 20.

Cabrini Mission Foundation Celebrates 20th Anniversary

June 18, 2019

On Thursday, June 6, 2019 Cabrini Mission Foundation celebrated 20 years of service with a gala at New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Club. Reverend Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo and Sister Lucille Souza, MSC were honored for their missionary spirit and service to immigrants, women, and children in need. Both honorees were joined by their family members.

Approximately 300 guests were in attendance including his Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan. They were treated to a cocktail hour featuring live harp, violin, and cello music. The marble hall was filled with happy conversation and music. Following a cocktail hour guests entered the main dining room and enjoyed a three-course dinner.

Joe Piscopo, renounced comedian and musician was master of ceremonies. What a hit! He entertained everyone with jokes and two Frank Sinatra songs. We were so lucky to have him with our guests for the evening.

We are so grateful to everyone who sponsored or attended this wonderful event. It was an incredible success because of the generosity of our friends and supporters.

To see more photos from the Cabrini Mission Foundation 20th Anniversary Gala: http://bit.ly/CMFGalaAlbum
To see the journal from the 20th Anniversary Gala: https://cabrinifoundation.org/events/20th-anniversary-gala-e-journal

Reverend Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo (l) and Sr. Lucille Souza, MSC (2nd r.) receive warm congratulations from Sr. Pietrina Raccuglia, MSC, Cabrini Mission Foundation President (2nd l.) and Sr. Barbara Staley, MSC, General Superior, Missionary Sisters

June 20th is World Refugee Day

June 18, 2019

World Refugee Day 2019 is on June 20th. This is an annual event, held on the same date each year, and 2019 is the 19th year of the event, run by the United Nations Refugee Agency, to state that the world supports and stands with refugees. The event is about raising global awareness of global responsibility for refugees.

World Refugee Day honors the strength and courage of refugees and encourages public awareness and support of the refugees, people who have had to flee their home lands because of conflict or natural disaster.

Refugees are vulnerable and in need, and are often misunderstood and maligned, and often have very little or nothing of their possessions and little food, they often have to leave their homes with nothing or with what they can carry. They suffer cold, hunger, trauma, despair, disease, violence and loss. The awareness day is to help public understanding of refugees as well as raising support and help.

Across the world, agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, work tirelessly to help refugees, but with people being made refugees daily, more help and awareness is constantly needed, to ensure that refugees are treated fairly and provided for, rather than being neglected or shunned, and there are projects to re-settle and provide for refugees. So World Refugee Day highlights all of this.

The United Nations Refugee Agency and thousands of civic groups around the globe host events to raise awareness of the plight of refugees.
It is observed in more than 100 countries and involves government officials, humanitarian workers, celebrities, civilians and refugees. This year’s theme is Global Compact on Refugees.
Background
Every minute, 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. There are several types of forcibly displaced persons:

Refugees
A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.

Asylum Seekers
Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled.

Internally Displaced Persons
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country.

Stateless Persons
Stateless persons do not have a recognized nationality and do not belong to any country.
Statelessness situations are usually caused by discrimination against certain groups. Their lack of identification — a citizenship certificate — can exclude them from access to important government services, including health care, education or employment.

Bishops Debate Extent of Lay Involvement in Sex Abuse Response

June 12, 2019

~ Michael O’ Loughlin, America, The Jesuit Review

Preliminary discussion about proposals aimed at bishop accountability evinced some frustration among U.S. bishops at their spring general assembly this week in Baltimore, especially when it comes to the degree of lay involvement that can be mandated to be a part of the process. Bishops expressed their intention to adopt protocols aimed at accountability, but they are still hammering out the details ahead of a vote on Thursday.

Bishop Robert P. Deeley, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committee on canonical affairs and church governance, told the assembly that any rules they adopt cannot exceed a policy promulgated by Pope Francis last month in the moto propio “Vos estis lux mundi.” In that document, the Vatican decreed that allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct, as well as mismanagement leveled against a bishop must be investigated by a metropolitan bishop or someone he appoints, or by a senior suffragan bishop if the metropolitan is accused. It suggests that bishops rely on lay experts to carry out the investigation but stops short of mandating lay involvement. Several U.S. bishops have said that as a result, they cannot mandate lay involvement in their own protocols. Some bishops sought reassurance that lay people will be involved in every stage of future investigations.

“A number of us are looking for ways to insert into the plan more robust lay involvement,” Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego told the plenary group. He asked if the USCCB could adopt a rule that says that anyone enlisted to examine allegations of misconduct or mismanagement by a bishop “needs to be a lay investigator.”

Bishop Deeley said no.

“We have said that he ‘should’ use lay people, the bishop said, but added, “we cannot say ‘must.’”

The possibility that bishops would have the option of handling claims of misconduct or mismanagement without the involvement of lay people troubled Franceco Cesareo.

To read the full account: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/06/11/bishops-debate-extent-lay-involvement-sex-abuse-response

Calls for Greater Lay Involvement as Church Tackles Abuse

June 12, 2019

~ Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service

National Review Board chairman Francesco Cesareo offered the U.S. bishops meeting in Baltimore a series of recommendations that he said will strengthen the church’s response to the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The recommendations made June 11 during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring general assembly in Baltimore included a call for a greater role for

Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board, speaks on the first day of the spring general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore June 11, 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller) See BISHOPS-REVIEW-BOARD-CESAREO June 11, 2019.

laity investigating allegations of abuse or reaction to reports of abuse against bishops.

Cesareo said that National Review Board members recommend a thorough review of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and a revision in the audit process regarding diocesan implementation of the charter, which governs the church’s response to clergy abuse allegations.

Strong measure are necessary to show that while progress has been made since the charter’s adoption in 2002, the bishops would demonstrate that they are serious in their response to clergy abuse in response to the mistrust and serious questions laypeople still harbor.

Cesareo stressed to the bishops the need to carry out what Pope Benedict XVI described as the laity’s co-responsibility to help build the church.

He told the Catholic News Service that co-responsibility means “together we can have a role to play for the well-being of the church.”

Cesareo also admitted that he has used strong and firm language in delivering the review board’s recommendations “to show the urgency of the situation and that we can’t just keep pushing this down the road.”

In his address to the assembly, Cesareo said that the audit is a means for the bishops to establish their credibility with laypeople.

“A strengthened audit would provide a means for improving your dioceses’ existing methods to protect and heal,” Cesareo said. “Virtually all your dioceses, including those where problems came to light under the microscope of the media and attorney generals, have easily passed the audit for years since the bar is so low. Now is the time to raise the bar on compliance to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”

Casareo also recommended that the charter “should be revised immediately to explicitly include bishops and demand for greater accountability.”

“You have a great opportunity,” Casareo said, “to lead by example and help show diocese and episcopal conferences around the world not only how important it is for lay involvement to ensure greater accountability and transparency, but also how laity and the episcopacy can be co-responsible for the church’s well-being.”

To read the entire account: https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2019/cesareo-repeats-call-for-greater-lay-involvement-as-church-tackles-abuse.cfm

Francesca’s Garden is Open Again!

June 6, 2019

For the past five years, the Cabrini University Grounds staff members have collaborated with the staff members of the Cabrini Cottage in planting and tending to a vegetable garden on The Cottage grounds. The veggies that are planted are harvested throughout the summer and given to area homes and programs for rescued victims of human trafficking and for food-insecure senior citizens. This year, tomatoes and peppers are the crops of choice.
Here Sr. Grace Waters, MSC (r.) puts a shovel in the ground with the assistance of Eduardo (l.) and Felix (r.)
University Grounds Crew members.

Almost 5,000 Immigrants to the US Annually are Clergy or Religious

June 4, 2019

~ by Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service

Much has been written, and for many years, about immigration and its various policy and practical aspects

But what about that “weekend associate” at your parish? Or that group of nuns who reopened the old convent? They, too, may be immigrants.

There are close to 5,000 people from all denominations hailing from other countries who come to the United States each year as “religious workers.” Among Catholics, they are usually clergy, sisters and brothers, but there are lay missioners, some of them married and with families. U.S. immigration law makes provisions for them to carry out their ministry through the R-1 visa.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINC) has a hand in about 800 cases each year, according to Miguel Naranjo, director of CLINIC’s Religious Immigration Services. It was one of CLINIC’s first programs, established more than 30 years ago, and the numbers suggest it remains a valued initiative. “We certainly have a very busy practice,” Naranjo told Catholic News Service.

CLINIC works with nearly half of U.S. dioceses in doing the visa work for religious workers. The remainder, according to Naranjo, either are connected with attorneys who can guide the process for immigrant clergy and religious, or work through a local Catholic Charities affiliate or similar agency on sponsorship issues. “We work more with religious orders. There is a large number of religious orders in the United States,” he said.

Naranjo, who has been with CLINIC for 13 years and has led its Religious Immigration Services division for about half that time, walked through the process.

“This is a program that did undergo some changes a decade ago. They changed it to make it similar to other visas. What they require — which they did not require 10 years ago — was to file a petition. They have to file a petition with the Immigration Service: The organization’s legit; it has the financial means to sponsor the person they want to sponsor,” he said.

For someone who qualifies as a religious worker, he says they “could fall under a traditional religious occupation, somehow involved in promoting the belief system of the denomination. You need a lot of documentation. The standard the immigration service will use is that the documentation must be verifiable. We can submit affidavits. You’re looking at 3-6 months to prepare the petition,” Naranjo noted.
“There is a site visit the immigration service will conduct. And there’s a fraud investigator that makes sure everything you said you were going to do in the petition was true. It’s certainly not a simple process,” he added.
Organizations calling CLINIC on religious immigration issues “express some frustration how the process can take a lot of time. Inevitably, there comes a time when you have to troubleshoot issues. Immigration service will request further evidence — evidence on why this person is qualified, or do you have the means to support.
The experience of immigrant sisters
Venturing to new territory is the subject of a new book, Migration for Mission, published in April and co-written by Sr. Mary Johnson, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who teaches at Trinity Washington University; Sr. Patricia Wittberg, a Sister of Charity; Sr. Thu T. Do, a Lover of the Holy Cross-Hanoi; and Mary Gauthier. They are staffers at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) in Washington.

book included results from a survey of nearly 1,000 immigrant sisters. The average age of the sisters is 58, making them much younger than U.S.-born sisters, whose average age is in the high 70s.
When asked what could be improved about the sisters’ lives [as immigrants in this country], one sister replied: “It would be helpful if the members of the dominant culture would treat the members of the minority culture with mutuality and encourage the minority culture to preserve the richness of one’s native tongue and culture. Forced enculturation for the sake of uniformity is a very violent experience of ‘colonization.’ ”

To read the full account: https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/trends-migration/almost-5000-immigrants-us-every-year-are-clergy-or-religious-56219