Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Following Title 42’s Demise, Sisters and Church Regroup to Better Help Migrants at the Border

July 12, 2023

~ by Rhina Guidos, Global Sisters Report

U.S authorities have been content, of late touting the latest statistics showing lower numbers of migrants entering the country at the southern border. Instead of increasing, as some had predicted following the end of a Trump-era health rule, unlawful entries between ports of entry along the U.S. southern border decreased 25% from what they were a year ago, U.S. Border Patrol said on June 20.

TITLE42-END-AFTERMATH

After the projected migrant crisis on the U.S. side failed to materialize, members of the Catholic Church, including many sisters, are reviewing the numbers to better assess how to help migrants and to talk about what they have learned and how to go forward post-Title 42.

The numbers may have decreased on the U.S. side, but in the border town of Piedras Negras, Mexico, “the number of migrants who have arrived and who keep arriving have increased” after Title 42, Franciscan Sr. Isabel Turcios said in a June 22 Zoom webinar to mark World Refugee Day.

“We’re in a difficult situation on the border,” she said during the presentation. “We’re facing a big task.”

Before Title 42, sisters at the Piedras Negras shelter put together lists they shared with authorities on the U.S. side, singling out some families who might qualify for asylum, as well as adults or children with special needs in their shelters. Many of them were able to enter the U.S. But when Title 42 expired and authorities pushed the use of the CBP One app to apply for asylum, “reality changed,” Turcios said.

“It’s like the lottery,” said Patrick Giuliani, policy analyst with El Paso’s nonprofit Hope Border Institute, who participated in the webinar. “There are people who secure a date [to book appointments to seek asylum in the U.S.] in a matter of days and others never get a date. You have people with sick children waiting for a chance (to enter the U.S).”

In El Paso, as in other parts of the country, Catholic sisters have continued to pray for migrants and for their legal woes as other barriers have been erected to keep them out, Turcios said. All the while, many sisters continue to oversee work of shelters so that travelers have food, clothing, water, and sometimes a word of comfort or legal advice. But it’s getting tougher to help them keep their spirits up given the rapid changes and the difficulties faced by those stuck on the Mexico side, she added.

The sisters’ work at the border with migrants at the El Paso diocese has been invaluable, said Bishop Mark Seitz in Spanish during a May 15 prayer service at the city’s Cathedral of St. Patrick.

“I’ve always said the work of religious women with immigrants has been the backbone of our response,” Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration Committee, told Global Sisters Report. “They have been so well-attuned to the needs, so loving to those who are suffering, and they are willing to give of themselves so generously that they have been irreplaceable in terms of our response. Our people here are generous and willing to help, but the sisters bring an ability to lead and organize. I’m grateful.”

To read the entire account, please click here

Uncertainty Lingers as Expected Title 42 Migrant Surge Dissipate

May 18, 2023

~ by Rhina Guidos, National Catholic Reporter

Fr. Gustavo Meneses said he felt a “tense peace” in El Paso after a pandemic-era health rule expired, opening up the way for migrants to once again apply for asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico – something that has been largely curtailed since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The priest said he was in El Paso to show solidarity with the border diocese and tend to a large group of migrants that had been expected to cross the border as Title 42 ended. Instead, Meneses said he was “thankfully surprised” that predictions of a large-scale disaster didn’t materialize.

The Trump administration put Title 42 in place in March 2020 and though there were some exceptions, by and large, it allowed Border Patrol agents to rapidly expel those seeking to apply for asylum in the U.S., saying it was a measure taken to keep Covid-19 infections down.

Many Catholic organizations, including women religious, Catholic social justice groups, and some bishops, long had been calling for the policy to end.

Its lifting, however, comes with uncertainty about what’s to come, as those who work with migrants and those who oppose immigration are trying to untangle yet-to-be finalized immigration policies and rules recently unveiled by the Biden administration.

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz told NCR the concern is for those in detention as well as the released.

The worry for those like Seitz, Meneses and Corbett is the lack of humane treatment toward migrants like Anyibeth Urdneta, a 37 year-old indigenous Venezuelan, who had arrived at the diocese’s shelter on May 13. Urdaneta said she was sold into marriage as a teen and was escaping an abusive husband as well as violence from cartels, not easy to do in the midst of her country’s spiraling economy. She said that she was terrified of the idea of crossing into the U.S. but felt she had no choice.

“We’re still dealing with the aftermath of the pre-May 12th surge…and we really want to avoid [a situation] where there are hundreds of people dropped in the streets as temperatures rise. Right now, we’re trying to gear up for that,” Seitz said.

But first, they’re paying attention to the recently released like Urdaneta.

Pope Francis: Welcoming Migrants and Refugees -The First Step Towards Peace

March 22, 2023

~ by Carol Glatz, Vatican News

VATICAN CITY: Safe, organized, legal and sustainable migration is in the interest of all countries, Pope Francis wrote.
“If this is not recognized, there is a risk that fear will erase people’s future and justify those barriers against which lives are shattered,” he said in a written address to refugees and to the volunteers and organizations who helped welcome and integrate them in Europe.
Speaking to the refugees and those who have helped them, the pope said, “Thank you for promoting this work of welcoming which is a concrete commitment to peace. Welcoming is the first step toward peace.”

The Vatican audience hall March 18 was filled with individuals and families from many countries at war or affected by severe humanitarian emergencies, such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Libya and Ukraine.

The pope only read a few passages from his prepared text, but spent about 25 minutes making his way, seated in a wheelchair, through the hall greeting guests and exchanging many hugs with enthusiastic children. One small boy insisted the pope accept his gift of a stuffed Spider-Man doll.

The migrants and refugees came to Italy and other European countries thanks to an initiative started in 2016 to create “humanitarian corridors” in which volunteers and organizations on the ground in areas of conflict identify people who are especially vulnerable and arrange for their safe and legal passage to communities prepared to take them in. They also help with housing, education and other forms of assistance.

The Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio established

Pope Francis greets a child during an audience with hundreds of refugees and displaced people and with those who have assisted them at the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall March 18, 2023. More than 6,000 people have come to Italy and other countries thanks to “humanitarian corridors” in which organizations arrange for the safe and legal passage of vulnerable people in areas of conflict. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

project together with the Federation of Evangelical Churches, the Waldensian church of Italy, the Italian branch of Caritas and the Italian bishops’ conference.

The project was started to help people avoid dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe vessels, to prevent exploitation by human traffickers and to give priority to those in especially precarious conditions. More than 6,000 people have been offered legal passage and integration through the project since 2016.

In his spoken remarks, the pope thanked the organizations for their generosity and creativity and the commitment shown by governments for welcoming newcomers.

Use Your Voice – Take Action

March 8, 2023

The Biden administration has proposed a new immigration rule that, if implemented, would limit the ability for people to seek asylum in the U.S. The proposal would consider some migrants ineligible for asylum if they fail to first seek protection in another country that they traveled through on their way to the southern border (such as Mexico) if they don’t apply through other legal pathways, with some exceptions.

Under the last administration, a public health policy knows as Title 42, has been used to expel more than 2 million migrants since Spring of 2022. This policy will end on May 11, 2023.

We are disappointed that the Administration has chosen to move forward with this proposed rule and feel it enforces the false statement that asylum seekers are a threat to our country. One way for your voice to be heard is to join us and “Take Action” with Save the Children below.

Guadalupe Province Immigration Commission
Yolanda Flores, MSC, Pietrina Raccuglia, MSC, Lucille Souza, MSC, Karol Brewer

SAVE the CHILDREN ACTION NETWORK
is the political voice for kids

Denying asylum puts children in serious, unthinkable danger. President Biden MUST do better — and the first step is stopping the asylum ban.
Take Action

The administration is moving forward with its plans to bring back an asylum ban. It’s devastating, inhumane and downright illegal.

If you send a message in protest today, your words WILL reach the White House – because before President Biden makes his final decision, he wants to know how the public feels.

The government will review comment submitted by March 27th — which means we can change this cruel policy before it goes into effect. Your message must be personalized to be considered, so make sure you edit our pre-drafted suggestion to include your experience.

It’s the voices of asylum seekers that we should truly be listening to. But they won’t get the chance to share their stories – so we can’t waste ours.

My hope is that the President will accept us,” said Rosa Lila, a single mother of five who set out for the U.S. “That is my dream, to be there with my children. It’s to have a better life.”

We have an opportunity to speak out on behalf of migrants like her – people who are doing everything in their power to build a brighter future.

But our window is closing fast.

So please, will you tell President Biden how this ban will hurt asylum seekers? Kids are counting us!

Cabrini University CRS Panel Spotlights Immigrants’ Struggles and Courage

February 16, 2023

In last week’s Update, there was an announcement regarding a Catholic Relief Services Ambassadors’ panel on immigration that was to be held on February 9th on the campus of Cabrini University. The following is an account on the panel written by Dr. Jerry Zurek, Professor, Communications Department, Cabrini University and Coordinator, CRS – Cabrini University Partnership.

It was such a moving event. Sr. Christine Marie Baltas, MSC and Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC were there and each spoke to the students in the Q&A.

Five students, from Nepal, Benin, Liberia, Ecuador, and Guinea, presented a small aspect of their life journey to fellow students, to faculty and staff, to the Missionary Sisters, and to the university president, Ms. Helen Drinan. They spoke of the many trials each had to undergo. Two had lived in refugee camps. All spoke of how difficult their coming had been, especially for their mothers who were the ones who brought them.

They all spoke about their mothers and the love they must have had for their children as they struggled to help their children have more opportunities. This video of the panel is unlisted, which means only those who have this link can see it. https://youtu.be/0FWUbCgvHdw

All through the panel I thought of Mother Cabrini, who also came to the United States not knowing English, not sure of where she would live, but just like our students, found her way in the US and helped so many migrants here and around the world. She must surely be looking down at these and other students and is blessing their way into the future. These students have been a gift to all of us at Cabrini University and will be a gift to the many people whose lives they will touch.

In an email to these students, Dr. Zurek wrote:

Dear Puja, Noelie, Johnson, Gabriela, and Fanta,

I want to thank you for presenting a small aspect of your life journey to your fellow students, to faculty and staff, to Cabrini sisters, and to the university president. I hope you could feel the appreciation all of us had for your courage, faith, and determination. You inspire all of us. All of you spoke about your mothers and the love they must have had for you as they tried to help you have more opportunities. I thought of them as you spoke and how proud they must be of you as they see you succeeding so brilliantly in your studies. This video of the panel is unlisted, which means only those who have this link can see it. Perhaps they might want to hear you speak. https://youtu.be/0FWUbCgvHdw

As I said last night, Mother Cabrini (Saint Frances Cabrini), who came to the United States in 1889, not knowing English, not sure of where she would live, but just like you, found her way in the US and helped so many migrants here and around the world, must surely be looking down at you and blessing your way into the future. You have been a gift to all of us at Cabrini University, as you are to your families, and will be to the many people whose lives you will touch.

With gratitude,

Jerry Zurek, Ph.D.
Pronouns: he/him
Professor, Communication Department, Cabrini University
Coordinator, CRS – Cabrini University Partnership

Collecting Winter Clothing for Bused-in Migrants

December 8, 2022

St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York has been collecting toiletries and other items for migrants bused-in from the southern U.S. border since August. Now with colder weather setting in, the Shrine reached out to neighbors for donations of gently-used coats, sweaters, boots, hats, scarves and gloves. What generosity!

All these items are heading downtown to a parish situated between two huge migrant shelters, where it will be distributed to people in need.
~ submitted by Julia Attaway, Executive Director, St. F.X. Cabrini Shrine

To view a brief video of the many donations please click here

Advocates Applaud Extension of TPS for Haitian Migrants in US

December 8, 2022

A Haitian migrant girl looks through a bus window before being transported with her relatives to the Reynosa-Hidalgo International Border Bridge after being admitted into the U.S., with legal assistance, at the Senda de Vida Shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, May 23, 2022. Citing a continued worsening humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the Biden administration announced Dec. 5 it would allow more Haitian migrants already in the United States to apply for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. (CNS photo/Daniel Becerril, Reuters)

~ by Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on December 5 announced a redesignation of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and an extension of TPS for Haitian migrants already residing in the United States for an additional 18 months from February 4 – August 3, 2024.

He said this “much-needed humanitarian relief “for Haitians was compelled by current conditions in Haiti such as “socioeconomic challenges, political instability, and gang violence and crime – aggravated by environmental disaster.”

Mayokas’ decision came “after consultation with interagency partners and careful consideration of the extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti,” said a news release from the Department of Homeland Security.

It said the Caribbean nation has endured a prolonged political crisis, as well as “grave insecurity and gang crime that worsened a dire economic situation; a lack of access to food, water, fuel and healthcare during a resurgence of cholera; and the recent catastrophic earthquakes.”

Executive Director Gustavo Torres of CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization in Hyattsville, Maryland, said the Biden’s administration’s decision “restores security to our Haitian brothers and sisters that their lives here in the United States will not be uprooted nor that they will be separated from their families.”

“As we celebrate this win, we will continue to shed light on the millions of migrants still waiting on TPS designation for their countries,” Torres said. “The fight for immigrant justice continues as the fate of DACA holders and DACA-eligible youth hangs in the balance.”

He added, “We will not rest until the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other protections are provided for the millions of immigrants that have built their lives in this country.”

The Washington Post was the first to report on December 5 that two members of the U.S. Senate are working on a bi-partisan framework for immigration reform that would allow a pathway to citizenship for the DACA recipients known as Dreamers.

According to the Post, the framework proposed by Senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, and Thom Tillis, R-NC provides for an overhaul of the asylum system “to prevent abuse of the law.”

The Feast Day of the Patroness of Immigrants ~ St. Frances Xavier Cabrini November 13, 2022

November 10, 2022

Mother Cabrini and Today’s Migrants

The “era of migrations” we live in has seen an unprecedented number of forcibly displaced people. Extreme poverty, persisting wars and violence, drastic climate change and natural disasters, produce millions of asylum seekers and migrants.
Image above: In 2012, the Society of the Citizens of Pozzallo partnered with Groundswell, NYC to create a mural honoring Mother Francesca Cabrini.

How to answer the plight of asylum seekers, refugees, destitute migrants, internally displace people, can be learned from the example of the saints of the migrants, special persons of vast horizons, exceptional generosity and creative insights. From the inspiration of the Gospel, such saints derived the motivation and the courage to act.

The methodology of the saints of migrants, such as St. John Neumann of Philadelphia, USA; St. Mary MacKillop of Australia; recently canonized St. Giovanni Batista Scalabrini, Piacenza, Italy; and of course, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who dedicated their lives and talents to their human and spiritual promotion is a useful and effective lesson for us.

particular, Mother Cabrini has articulated a dynamic approach that remains valid in the changed sociopolitical context of today. It had not been a sudden decision that pushed Mother Cabrini to plunge into the care of migrants, but a process of awareness and empathy for the needy.

The first step was a lively sense of mission. Mother Cabrini wanted to share her experience of God’s love with people in need. Analyzing the documents of the first years of activity of other Cabrini, one become quickly aware of a determined and practical personality in love with Jesus and deriving from this relationship, a creative and ready-for-action sense of mission.

The second step were evidenced in the first efforts of Mother Cabrini directed to the human and spiritual promotion of “abandoned youth”. Later, however, the plight of emigrants touched the hearts of the Sisters. The impulse to mission found a vast and urgent field of action. The education and formation of young women became a pioneering task.

third step shows the wide horizon within which Mother Cabrini was enlarging, and at the same time, consolidating her commitment to the care of people on the move. She confirms this priority after her first direct experience with the immigrants in New York City where she had arrived in 1889.

Although constantly struggling to find the economic means to start and support the multiplicity of initiatives undertaken to meet as many needs of the migrants, Mother Cabrini never stopped developing the outreach of her Institute.

As she looked at the future of immigrant communities in New Orleans, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Mother Cabrini advocated a progressive integration into the host society. She wanted good Christians and also good citizens.
The fourth step – Mother Cabrini adopted a winning strategy, personal contact with the immigrants, a human relationship that inspired trust and love. Thus Mother and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart visited immigrant families in their miserable tenements and cared for their children. It was not a managerial or bureaucratic approach but, rather, a captivating successful style that touched the hearts.

, the fifth step, Mother Cabrini did not back down for reminding public officials of their responsibility to contribute to the services she had started and to choose policies that would ease the problems of the immigrants.

As we observe her Feast Day, the relevance of Mother Cabrini’s example and her method endures and applies in contemporary societies that under the impact of new arrivals are becoming increasingly pluralistic and demand mutual comprehension, and a genuine sense of welcome and of integration. Native-born and immigrants can build a common future of peace and reciprocal enrichment if there are women and men who have a maternal heart like Mother Cabrini that is all-embracing in its compassion and evangelical love. ~ Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, CS, 100 Years of Cabrini Mission

Pope Francis: Refusal to Help Migrants is Sinful

October 13, 2022

~ by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The refusal to help desperate migrants “is revolting, it’s sinful, it’s criminal,” Pope Francis said as he canonized a bishop dedicated to assisting migrants.

“The exclusion of migrants is criminal. It makes them die in front of us,” the Pope said on October 9th referring to the deaths of migrants and refugees crossing dangerous seas in search of freedom and a dignified life.

At the beginning of the liturgy in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis formally recognized the holiness of St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian who founded the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo to care for migrants and St. Artemide Zatti, an Italian immigrant in Argentina who became a Salesian brother, pharmacist and nurse.

The prayers at the Mass included one for “those forced to leave their homeland,” and asking God to teach people to share “his welcoming gaze toward all people” and “heal the throwaway culture of indifference.”

“With great vision,” the Pope said, St. Scalabrini “looked forward to a world and a church without barriers, where no one was a foreigner.” To read the entire account, please click here
Historical footnote
It was at the time of her first trip to Rome that Mother Cabrini met Bishop Scalabrini. It is said that Bishop Scalabrini was the man who was the single most important individual responsible for Mother Cabrini’s decision to go to America.

On January 23, 1889, Bishop Scalabrini wrote to Archbishop Corrigan of New York: “The Sisters destined for New York will be the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a new community, but stable and well-experienced.” Actually, Mother Cabrini did not finally determine with Bishop Scalabrini an exact departure date for New York until February 1889.

The Sisters arrived in New York harbor on March 31, 1889. Wrote Mother Cabrini’s companion, Sr. Umilia,“Finally, we saw the beautiful Statue of Liberty. Oh, how happy Mother Cabrini was. I could read the joy on her face. She called us together to sing the ‘Ave Maris Stella.”
~ excerpts from Mother Cabrini – Italian Immigrant of the Century, by Sr. M.L. Sullivan, MSC, PhD

The “Father of Migrants” Canonized

October 13, 2022

~ by Claire Giangrave, The Washington Post

VATICAN CITY – On Sunday, October 9th, Pope Francis canonized a 19th-century bishop known as “the father of migrants” sending a message to Catholic leaders of the importance the pontiff places on the care of refugees at a time when immigration is roiling politics, including the Italian government at the Vatican’s doorstep.

Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, bishop of the northern Italian City of Piacenza from 1876 to 1905, lived at a time of mass migrations in Europe brought by economic, industrial and scientific changes that led millions to seek a new life in the Americas. Scalabrini’s advocacy for immigrants created the foundation for the church’s pastoral approach to migration today.

“The Holy Father introduces us to a bishop who was capable of not just fully and capably managing his diocese, but was able to look beyond,” said the Rev. Graziano Battistella, who shepherded Scalabrini’s cause for sainthood.

“With this canonization, I think the Holy Father wants to offer the church a model to imitate,” Battistella said. “A model for bishops, a model for the church.”

Born in Como, Italy, in 1839, Scalabrini was appointed bishop at age 36, as millions of Italians were fleeing their homeland for Brazil, Argentina, and the United States, leaving behind their families, their culture and their faith.

Migration was viewed negatively at the time, but Scalabrini took a different approach, seeing the upheaval as a chance to ease socioeconomic tensions at home while promoting cultural encounter and jump-starting progress. But, he warned that, without the proper laws and protections in place, migration could strip people of their roots, and make them prey to human traffickers.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Scalabrini believed migration is not only “a sacred human right” but a basic fact of human existence.