Mother Cabrini's sisters carry on missionary's zeal to 'heal the wounds of humanity'

CHICAGO (OSV News) -- On the 175th anniversary of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's birth July 15, the sisters of the order she founded continue on with her tireless work of service to those in need, especially immigrants.

The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have a presence in 15 countries. Though they are only a few hundred around the world according to the sisters, they are active in social work, health care, education and work with refugees among several other services.

In the United States, while a government crackdown of immigrants in the country without legal status continues at a fervent pace, a handful of sisters find themselves working in an environment where the sentiments toward immigrants are little changed from the time of Mother Cabrini.

Missionary Sister Yolanda Flores of Nicaragua looked back on Mother Cabrini's zeal for missionary work. She noted the 23 transatlantic trips Mother Cabrini made starting in the late 1800s through the early part of the 20th century.

"It was the love for the mission, the love for migrants, because ... there are some notes that she wrote about the migrants in Colorado," Sister Yolanda told OSV News. "How the migrants were helping the economy of this country, how the migrants were the ones going to put in a little skin in (the game) by doing this heavy job that nobody wanted to do. And so you repeat the story, like today."

Sister Yolanda describes herself as the religious counterpart to the lay executive director of Cabrini Immigrant Services in New York City.

The city is where the Catholic Church's patron saint of immigration began her life's work. In 1880, she started her congregation in her native Italy with a singular focus of bringing the Gospel to China. Italian Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini urged her to help Italian immigrants in great need in New York, who were impoverished and faced significant discrimination. Mother Cabrini then sought the advice of Pope Leo XIII who said not to go east but "to the West."

In 1889, Mother Cabrini first set foot on American shores and immediately started ministering to New York's Italian migrants, providing food, shelter, education and health services. That service soon expanded to all immigrants in need and spread across the U.S. and to countries across the world.

By the time of her death in 1917, at age 67, Mother Cabrini, a naturalized American citizen, had established 67 education, health and social service institutions around the world.

Today, Cabrini Immigrant Services, which was founded in 1999, is mainly a legal services organization for immigrants, according to Sister Yolanda. She said another Cabrini Immigrant Services just north of the city provides more social services.

Sister Yolanda said her office takes on about 20 clients per week, but she says the help goes to more than just 20 people because they offer guidance for the families of those clients. She said they help with filing documents for green cards or citizenship, reuniting families, determining asylum status for certain migrants, among other work. With the current immigration climate, she said, most clients make contact by phone or zoom. A handful do go to the office, Sister Yolanda described, after shaking off fears of being picked up by immigration agents on the way.

Since the Trump administration stepped up efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants, dioceses around the country have noted a climate of fear particularly among seasonal and permanent migrant workers mostly from Latin America, which is predominantly Catholic. They said a number have left jobs in service industries such as restaurants and hotels, as well as farm labor.

She said anyone can put up a legal services office, but at Cabrini, a strong culture of hospitality is cultivated.

"We offer whatever we have. Do you want coffee? Do you want hot chocolate," said Sister Yolanda, herself a naturalized U.S. citizen. "The attention we give to people, the way we answer to them. Even sometimes they come with a lot of pressure, with a lot of anger and they can answer you in a funny way, but you cannot lose your cool and you have to put yourself in the shoes of the migrant."

Mother Cabrini's work spread across the U.S., particularly Chicago, where she had several hospitals built.

Down the street from the Mother Frances Xavier Cabini Shrine close to Chicago's lakeshore on the Northside, Sister Joaquina Costa talked about entering her order with a singular goal of going on mission. Sister Joaquina runs the office of the Mother Cabrini League in a quiet, brick six-flat apartment building, where three sisters live.

Originally from Rio Grande do Sul in the very south of Brazil, Sister Joaquina became a nurse, hoping to go to Africa, but she was instead placed in the U.S. and worked at the Chicago hospitals founded by Mother Cabrini, including Columbus Hospital at the site of the shrine and the place where the saint died.

For about 40 years, Sister Joaquina, 86, said she was a nurse, and then she was called on to run the league's office once the hospitals were closed due to funding cuts from the government, which required the hospitals to provide services that "countered our beliefs."

The Mother Cabrini League sends to about 13,000 readers "Mother Cabrini Messenger," a newsletter containing a reflection on the writing and other aspects of the saint's life and news from the sisters around the world.

Sister Joaquina said her office does not solicit donations but many of the readers send them anyway. And while her office work does not entail in-person contact, she said Mother Cabrini's legacy is very much in her ministry to all whom she encounters on a daily basis, especially while serving at a local parish three blocks west of the sisters' apartment building.

"For me more, it's the presence at the parish. I go to the parish everyday during the week and I'm available every weekend at the shrine," Sister Joaquina told OSV News. "I'm available for the people (to talk to), also on the phone, maybe they lost someone they love, some of them are mothers asking for advice."

The sisters said today much of the services the order provided in the U.S. are now handled by government institutions, although the order does considerable social work. And a significant service nowadays is at several Mother Cabrini shrines across the country that Sister Joaquina said mostly fills the spiritual needs of the faithful. She said the most active location for retreats and pilgrimages is in Denver, where the founder of their order ministered to immigrant miners and railroad builders and once said she could envision the location as a place for prayer.

Sister Joaquina said although there are few sisters left, and just a small number of new vocations -- mainly in Africa -- there is still much that can be done, so long as their faith in the Lord Jesus guides them.

Sister Yolanda said, "We are spiritual daughters of Cabrini, but following something that is more important than Mother Cabrini. What was Cabrini following or trying to do? Very simple: to heal the wounds of humanity through the big devotion she had to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And what is this devotion: mercy, compassion, healing, listening. That is what we try to do with our own gifts."