This is National Migration Week

January 6, 2016

This is National Migration Week

January 3 – 9, 2016

A Stranger, and You Welcomed Me

In the Gospel of Matthew (25:35) Jesus tells his disciples, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” The call to welcome the stranger plays an important role in the lives of faithful Christians and has a particularly central place for those of us who work in the migration field. The migrant, who moves from one country to another is truly a stranger in the midst. Often unfamiliar with the local tongue of the new country, not to mention its customs, the migrant needs the support of local communities so that she can better adjust to her new surroundings. National Migration Week 2016 picks up on the theme of welcome and, in doing so, calls on each of us to welcome the stranger among us.

Cabrini Health, Australia Details Outreach to Asylum Seekers and Refugees

December 4, 2015

At the recent Provincial Assembly of the Missionary Sisters one session focused on the way in which Cabrinian ministries are addressing the pressing issues of immigration, migration, refugees, asylum seekers and human trafficking.

This week, we continue our series of in-depth looks at individual Cabrinian ministries and we explore how they are responding to the needs of those who are experiencing upheaval in their lives due to war, poverty, violence or captivity.

Cabrini Health, Australia

Support for asylum seekers and refugees is one of the three priorities of Cabrini’s social outreach program.

Baptcare/Cabrini Houses of Hope Pilot Program

Baptcare has been providing transitional housing to asylum seekers and refugees through their Sanctuary program since 2008. Sanctuary has capacity for 76 asylum seekers across two facilities in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. As well as tenancy support, residents have access to caseworkers and pastoral services aimed at improving their well-being, independence and social participation. This pilot program will end in July 2016.

Jesuit Social Services/Cabrini Asylum Seeker Solidarity Project

This is a joint initiative between Jesuit Social Services and Cabrini, which was initiated in December 2013 with the goal of changing the hearts and minds of the Catholic community towards asylum seekers and refugees. This has ultimately resulted in the formation of the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA), a steering group comprising representatives from Catholic peak bodies, universities and other relevant organizations that have liaison with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Cabrini Health provided a grant to fund the establishment and sustainability of CAPSA and a project officer to facilitate the development of joint statements, regular communications and messaging.

Mental Health Screening Tool for Asylum Seekers

This has been a three-year project to develop and evaluate a tool to screen for and triage mental illness in asylum seekers. The project goals were that the tool is short, sensitive to the asylum seekers’ mental health issues, and able to be administered by a non-professional staff member at the first interaction with asylum seekers. The tool is in the final stage of validation. Cabrini has fully funded the project.

CatholicCare Asylum Seeker Support Program

CatholicCare’s Asylum Seeker Support Program supports vulnerable individuals and families released from onshore detention centers into community detention and other individuals and families who are living in the community on bridging visas and who have virtually no support. Cabrini Health provided a grant for this program which partners with parishes.

Cabrini-on-Hudson serving immigrants in the Hudson Valley, NY

November 13, 2015

This week, we continue our series of in-depth looks at individual Cabrinian ministries and o explore how they are responding to the needs of those who are experiencing upheaval in their lives due to war, poverty, violence or captivity.

Cabrini-on Hudson Community

This week we learn more about the Cabrini-on-Hudson Community, which is a house of formation and discernment in West Park, NY. It is located in an area where from the 1970s, the Hispanic population has been steadily increasing. The Hispanic people live among previously existing immigrant groups from Europe. Like other groups, these immigrants, Hispanic or Latino, have emigrated from their countries searching for work and a better life for themselves and their families. Many of them are undocumented. Their main occupations are farm workers (apple and corn pickers), restaurant workers, construction workers, housekeepers, etc. Those with better education, documentation, and bilingual skills work in department stores and other industries that provide better chances for benefits and higher salaries.

Since the MSC formation community opened in West Park in August 2013, the MSCs have had the opportunity to journey and accompany some of the Hispanic groups from various parishes in Ulster and Dutchess Counties. Some of the ways the MSCs have served the immigrant community are as pastoral ministers in Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, NY; providing catechesis for adults and children and providing catechist-training in Kingston, NY.

The MSCs have also made pastoral home visits to families in distress; helping undocumented families with paperwork for immigration; and facilitating the Spiritual Exercises in daily life with Hispanic women.

Responding to the call for The Year of Consecrated Life, earlier this year, the Missionary Sisters held an “Open House” to share the Cabrinian charism and way of religious life with people from area parishes. There was a great response from the Hispanic Community. The MSCs also provided living space for unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico for a period of time.

The MSCs entered into the traditions of the Hispanic immigrant communities such as All Souls Day, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which entails going from house to house for 50 days evangelizing using the story of the apparitions of Mary. The MSCs will look for more ways to help their immigrant brothers and sisters in their struggles and hopes.

Cabrini Immigrant Services, New York City empowering others

November 6, 2015

Cabrini Immigrant Services, NYC

The mission of CIS-NYC is to empower immigrants, their families and their communities through education, access to essential services, civic participation and community building. They strive to work together with the immigrant community to create a more inclusive society by fostering justice, dignity and respect.

The multi-cultural and multi-lingual CIS-NYC staff members and volunteers provide a wide range of essential services, which include the following:

General Immigration, Legal and Social Services

CIS provides a broad range of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to immigrant, refugees, asylees, and their families through both supportive services and concrete assistance. Family-based immigration services include on-on-one legal consultation (free) and application assistance on issues such as family based petitions, adjustment of status, citizenship and naturalization.

The Food Pantry

The food pantry, which is open every Tuesday, has a client list of approximately 700 families, who are culturally and socio-economically diverse, are low income, and many of whom are immigrants. Some clients are disabled, some are veterans and some are homeless.

English, Citizenship, Literacy and Computer Classes

ESOL classes are taught by volunteers who are recruited through a number of volunteer programs and ESL certification courses throughout New York City. The classes are designed to meet the needs of learners at specific levels. CIS-NYC also offers individual tutoring to prepare for the citizenship test, as well as computer and literacy classes. Courses are offered in both English and Spanish and are offered free of charge (donations accepted).

The College Readiness and Angel Fund

This entity works with immigrant clients who express a desire to attend college but encounter issues such as lack of documentation, lack of funds, or a simple lack of knowledge about the college application process. The Angel Fund is a scholarship program offered by CIS-NYC to assist a small group of undocumented students with school-related costs including tuition, books, etc.

Justice for Immigrants – (JFI)

JFI is a community-led popular education and civic engagement initiative at CIS-NYC that exists to empower, educate and involve immigrant families as active agents of change regardless of their immigration status.

A Place to Learn

CIS-NYC relies heavily on the work of many quality volunteers, interns and missioners. As a ministry of the Missionary Sisters, CIS-NYC partners with the MSCs’ lay missioner program, Cabrini Mission Corps, as well as various MSW programs in the city providing a place for hands-on learning for aspiring social workers and community organizers.

We are here to create something NEW

October 22, 2015

“We are here to create something NEW”

…These are the words of MSC General Superior Sr. Barbara Staley, spoken as she offered her opening remarks at the 2015 Provincial Assembly currently in session in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Missionary Sisters and lay leaders from the Stella Maris Province were united in an Assembly for the first time with the Missionary Sisters from Mexico and Central America. In the near future, the MSCs from Mexico and Central America will join the MSCs of the Stella Maris Province in forming a new entity.

Sr. Barbara reflected, “we are living the dreams and visions of our sisters of the past. We are building the future, which we look to with hope. Sisters and brothers, we are living in the rivers of grace and mercy; a grace that comes to us through charism.”

Fittingly, as the Stella Maris Province unites with the region of Central America, the theme of the Provincial Assembly is “interculture-ality”. To explore the implications of this new entity – this new union – Dr. Arturo Chavez, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Texas, led the Assembly in interactive exercises designed to consider the many dimensions of culture.

Taken from the work of Edward T. Hall and Eric H.F. Law, “culture is the particular way in which a human group interprets life and relates with nature, God, the world and other peoples. Culture is lived and expressed through traditions, relationships, food, music, religion, beliefs, thought patterns, myths and how we act. It is not only how we are, it is who we are. It is our history, our ethnicity, how we think about our families, who we include in our families, how we speak and when we speak, how we think about God and how we relate to God. It is how we relate to each other and how we relate to the stranger.”

Dr. Chavez asked the Assembly to consider the “Iceberg Analogy of Culture” created by Hall and Law. In doing so, sisters and laity contemplated the internal and external aspects of culture. The Assembly was invited to share in conversation about individual family heritage and traditions – how these serve to form an individual and his or her perceptions of others and of the world.

The first step in building an intercultural community, posited Dr. Chavez, is to get to know our own hearts. Being aware of our own heart, we come to a better understanding of our own power and how cultures have formed us.

One session of the Assembly focused on the way in which Cabrinian ministries are addressing the pressing issues of immigration, migration, refugees, asylum seekers and human trafficking. It is through these responses that we see how the Cabrinian charism is living and active in the world today.

Woven into the Assembly program were times for prayer and reflection each highlighting a different country present at the Assembly. Liturgies at the Assembly were offered in Spanish and English in honor of the new reality. In a further spirit of celebration, during Monday’s liturgy, Vicky Lucio renewed her commitment as a Cabrini Lay Missionary (CLM).

Nothing transcends culture like music and dancing. Therefore, no Assembly is complete without its own fiesta! With smiles and laughter, Missionary Sisters and laity shared the floor dancing to the beat of Latin, Swazi and American songs…united as one. For more photos visit: www.mothercabrini.org

Sharing the Good News of Cabrini Immigrant Services

September 1, 2015

Earlier this summer, I had the honor of being a guest on Paul Feiner’s radio show on WVOX, New Rochelle, NY. The show, “The Greenburgh Report with Town Supervisor Paul Feiner,” is a weekly broadcast which tries to inform listeners about various programs usually within the Rivertowns. Mr. Feiner has served as Town Supervisor since 1991. He had visited Cabrini Immigrant Services (CIS) to hear about the services that we offer to the immigrant population and at that time invited me to be a guest on his radio show.

Mr. Feiner was interested in the wonderful works that are being done at Cabrini of Westchester (COW) as well as CIS. He thought it would be great to spread the word about Cabrini. During the radio interview, I spoke about the nursing home as well as the different services that are offered through COW. I also spoke about Mother Cabrini and what a great example she is for immigrants. Mr. Feiner was very surprised to hear that Mother Cabrini not only lived in Dobbs Ferry but that she purchased the property that the nursing home is on. As he said, “Not many towns can boast of having a Saint who lived there!”

I was able to share about the programs being offered at CIS. Mr. Feiner, who is a strong advocate for Immigrants, was very pleased to hear about the programs offered for children as well as adults. He marveled at the fact that all of our services are free of charge. He truly saw how the mission of St. Cabrini is still alive and well today at CIS! Several times throughout the show, he said, “I know that St. Cabrini is looking down from Heaven and smiling at all of you as you continue her great works!”

It was both a pleasure and privilege to be asked to be on the show. It was an honor to be able to speak about Mother Cabrini and all the wonderful work that she began and that continues to be done in her name. ~ Lorraine Campanelli