Pope’s message to the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The papal letter to Superior General, Sister Barbara Louise Staley on the occasion of the 100th death anniversary of Mother Cabrini, was released by the Vatican on Tuesday.

Sep 20, 2017

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has written a letter to the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC), encouraging its members and their collaborators in the “missionary charism” of their foundress, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron of immigrants, saying she is a “very contemporary figure.”  The papal letter to Superior General, Sister Barbara Louise Staley on the occasion of the 100th death anniversary of Mother Cabrini, was released by the Vatican on Tuesday. 

Born in Italy in 1850, Mother Cabrini founded the congregation in 1880 to support Italian immigrants to the United States.  She died in Chicago, USA, on Dec. 22, 1917.  The congregation and its collaborators are celebrating the death centennial of their foundress with a  general assembly in Chicago, Sept. 17 to ‎‎23. The work started by Mother Cabrini is today active in fifteen countries of the world.

Cabrini's charism - migration
In his message, Pope Francis noted that “today’s epoch-making population movements with the inevitable tensions they create make Mother ‎Cabrini a very contemporary figure.”  “In particular,” he said, “the Saint focused attention on situations of greatest ‎poverty and fragility such as the needs of orphans and miners.” 

“This clearly feminine, missionary consecration born in Mother Cabrini,” the Pope pointed out, “came from the total and loving ‎union with the Heart of Christ whose compassion surpasses all limits.” ‎ He said her love for the Heart of Christ was translated into the evangelical fervor for those who today are considered emarginated in society.

The Pope particularly recalled Mother Cabrini opening a house in the most infamous Italian quarter of New Orleans, ‎Louisiana, just one year after the cruel lynching of Italians accused of having murdered the city’s Chief ‎of Police.‎

The Holy Father said, “The great migrations underway today need guidance filled with love and intelligence similar to what ‎characterizes the Cabrinian charism.”  This way, the Pope explained “the meeting of peoples will enrich all and generate union and dialog, not separation and ‎hostility.”  He reminded the Cabrinians that the “missionary sensitivity” of their foundress was “not ‎sectorial but universal.” That, he said, is the “vocation of every Christian and of every community of the disciples ‎of Jesus.‎”

Pope Francis assured his prayers for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus because, he said, he had always known the figure of Mother Cabrini and because of his special concern for ‎immigrants.--Vatican Radio

Total Comments:0

Name
Email
Comments