Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Bringing Christ's love to the world

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CABRINI Film Debuts in Guatemala

After meeting with widespread acclaim in the United States, most recently, the CABRINI film made its debut in Guatemala. [This was] a special activity which we could share with the team of both our clinics, as well as the beneficiaries of our programs, our collaborators, associates, and people linked to our work.

On this occasion, with approximately 250 participants, we also conducted a cinema forum or engaged in an analysis of the film during which we could talk about the current migrant situation and the role of women in the transformation of the world.

Warm Greetings from Guatemala!

Warm Greetings from Guatemala!

We would like to share some photographs of the work done during the month of February in Guatemala. Each of the photos describes the type of projects we do in both clinics. We hope you will enjoy them and find them helpful in getting to better know our missons.

Adolescents: This project is called “Jóvenes Chispudos” (it is a local expression to say that someone has a lot of capacity, creativity, and intelligence). They meet some days Sunday each month, to work with the psychology team on topics of interest.

Children: These are photographs of the activities in both dispensaries (with crafts, computers, English, physical activity and stimulation playing) Modified Spark and Shekiná.

Women: The sewing diploma, where women learn to make pieces of clothing with their own style and ideally, train them on financial and social issues.

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Cabrini University Students Complete Immersion Trip to Guatemala

Cabrini University students have returned to campus in Radnor, PA, following a week of travel and immersion experiences.

Wow! It is our sixth day in Guatemala, bringing us closer to the end of our immersive experience, but the good fight of the Guatemalan people does not stop here. We are reminded that the voiceless have 22 great students, and staff, who will continue that fight in Washington DC for equality and respect for human dignity.

We started the day coffee picking while half of our group did construction. While coffee picking it provided a humbling experience. We saw employees picking coffee but without gloves and our group members were very adamant to having working gloves. It reminded us of the privileges we have and how easily it is to fall into those entitlement mindsets of “this is what I need”. The coffee beans were attached to tree branches and without gloves it is very easy to endure blisters, cuts, and dirty hands. This a job that Guatemalan people do every day, and not once did we hear any complaints from them, but we are here saying what we need.

Reflection: Dignity of each Person
In seeking justice for people for the people of Guatemala, it is crucial to recognize and uphold the inherent dignity of every individual. Injustice not only violates basic human rights but also diminishes the value of each person. By promoting equality, fairness, and respect for all, we can work towards the common good and empower a society where every individual is valued and lives a life of purpose.

Until tomorrow,
Alex, A’niyah, Tiara

Students Thankful for Guatemala Experience

[On the final day] we all went to the Women’s Center for a Living Class that taught us about the things that women have traditionally done to support their families, like grinding corn and cooking tortillas on a komal, washing clothes at a pila, and carrying basins on their heads. Today many women continue to support their families by selling hand-made tortillas (for Q1 each, about 13 cents) and washing clothes by hand (for Q20 per load, about $2).

We held our final reflection under the stars on the hotel roof. Around a fire we recalled the “gems” of the day and the week, experiences that would stay with us and compel us to action. For example, the opportunity to interact directly with the Mayan people serviced by ‘mision’ has allowed us to learn their stories and connect with them in a deeper and more meaningful way. We have all been touched by someone, so much so that some participants would like to return to Guatemala as Long-Term Volunteers, or organize future service trips with their respective employers, church, or families.

Others are committed to supporting the ‘mision’ in other ways, through advocacy work, donations, and sharing their experience with others so they too can get involved. And we read a poem about the fact that the work we do (for justice, for a better life together, for the Kingdom of God) is never done.

We all have things that we discovered on this trip, and we named things we don’t want to leave behind:
 New friendships
 Greater confidence in ourselves and our callings
 Solidarity with the people of San Lucas Toliman
 Renewed energy and commitment to seek the common good

Much love to you all,
The Cabrini crew in Guatemala

Bringing Joy, Community, and Services to Senior Adults in Guatemala

“No elderly person should be like an exile in our families,
they are a treasure for our society.”
~ Pope Francis

 

Cabrini missions in Guatemala do a lot to make sure that the elderly population in both Barcenas and Zone 6 are well treasured through the elderly program. This program offers spiritual, educational, social, psychological, nutritional, musical, and physical activities in group settings. It also encourages personal interactions, regular attendance, community involvement and general
growth.

This program is organized by the social work department, together with volunteers (teenagers) and other departments like the psychology and nutrition department. The dynamism of working together as a team is so powerful and goes beyond expectations. It creates a collaborative learning environment for the elderly, volunteers, professionals, and interning students. Also, it helps promote a social relationship where the participating elderly share freely and confidently. The materials and the resources shared in this program are creative, educative, informative.

The elderly taking part in this program are nourished in all aspects of life. The MSCs in the mission share the gift of faith with the participants at the beginning of every gathering with a word of prayer, scripture sharing or faith-based sharing. Nutrition departments share their wisdom on how the elderly should master their diet. The psychology department introduces diverse ways of exercising self-love and care through their daily activities and how to maintain their well-being. There is no doubt that this nourishment affects them positively because of the joy and enthusiasm they all have every time they gather. It is inspiring how they attend actively with their ears open and always with an open heart and will.

They people love taking part in the program every Monday and Friday. They enjoy connecting with their friends, learning, playing, chatting, and doing their physical exercises or dancing every Friday morning. I love the way they greet each other and the way they share their concern among themselves. I appreciate the way they share stories and laugh aloud. They are simply full of life. I have been enjoying this program and I am full of gratitude for the fact that I am able to take part, help, and just be with senior adults in this amazing program.

Prayers for Migrants in San Antonio

~ by the Catholic News Service

SAN ANTONIO (CNS) – The archbishop of San Antonio offered prayers for dozens of people found dead as well as more than a dozen survivors discovered June 27 in sweltering conditions in a semi-truck.

Authorities said on June 28 the death toll rose overnight to 50.

Onlookers stand near the scene where a semitrailer with multiple dead bodies was discovered, Monday, June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

“We pray for the souls of the …people who died in such a cruel, inhumane manner this evening,” Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said in a statement soon after first responders made the gruesome discovery about 6 p.m. local time.

Authorities said the victims were migrants. They said the truck appeared to be part of a smuggling operation.

Roberto Velasco Alvarez, head of the Mexican government’s North American mission, said on Twitter that 22 of the victims were Mexican nationals, seven were originally from Guatemala and two were Honduran. The nationality of 19 others has not been determined.

Officials believe the tragedy is the deadliest smuggling incident of its kind in U.S. history.

Archbishop Garcia-Siller also asked for payers for the survivors – 12 adults and four children – who were hospitalized, their families and “the first responders who assisted and saved lives and must now carry with them the memories of this scene.”

News of the deaths reached Pope Francis, who tweeted June 28th that he was offering prayers for those who died in Texas as well as at least 23 sub-Saharan migrants who died June 24 while attempting to flee Morocco by scaling a border fence to cross into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in north Africa on the Mediterranean coast.

“Let us #PrayTogether for these brothers and sisters who died following their hope of a better life; and for ourselves, may that the Lord might open our heats so these misfortunes never happen again,” the Pope’s tweet said.

Smuggling operations working within the United States have been known to pack migrants into trucks or cargo trailers after they have already crossed the border in an attempt to sneak them past U.S. Border Patrol highway checkpoints. To read the entire article please click here

Hemispheric Summit Ends with Immigration Deal Among Countries

~ by Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Twenty countries from the Americas, including the United States, signed a declaration on June 10, the last day of the troubled Summit of the Americas, committing to help and protect “all migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and stateless persons, regardless of their migratory status.”

The statement released by the White House and signed by the heads of state of Mexico and several countries in Central and South America sad that “migration should be a voluntary, informed choice and not a necessity,” and it makes the task of aiding migrants and refugees a shared responsibility among many nations.

The effort asks that countries such as Costa Rica and Ecuador, with proximity to nations such as Cuba and Venezuela, take in and protect more refugees from those neighboring nations instead of having them make longer and more dangerous trips north to the U.S.

The U.S. in turn would seek funding for those countries to help refugees enter legally, to provide social services as well as “integration programs” so they can stay there, saying such a move “would benefit host communities that have generously opened their doors to the most vulnerable.”

Canada agreed to welcome more refugees by 2028, including those from French-speaking nations such as Haiti. Along with the United States, Canada also agreed to welcome more agricultural workers, saying it would aim for temporary programs for foreign workers.

Mexico said it would integrate 20,000 “recognized refugees into the Mexican labor market over the next three years.”

But some wondered how the agreement would work given that a lot of migrants want to head north to the U.S., but also wondered whether other nations would keep their end of the bargain.

A day after the declaration, the Mexican National Institute of Migration announced it had disbanded a large group of 6,000 to 7,000 migrants headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border wanting to call attention to those who had gathered for the summit.

Some migrants told reporters that they were dissuaded by Mexican authorities from continuing their journey and felt they were being encouraged to return to their home countries. The Associated Pres reported on June 11 that the Mexican immigration agency had issued documents to stay in Mexico for up to 7,000, valid for one month, at which time migrants could apply for more permanent stay in the country or return home.

The United Nation refugee agency said June 10 that it welcomed the agreement known as the Los Angeles Declaration.

The immigration deal sprinkled one of the few positive notes at the gathering, publicly boycotted by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who reproached the U.S. for leaving out the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua from the hemispheric gathering.

The heads of state of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, three countries who have high migration rates to the U.S. were among those who declined to attend by signed the agreement.

To read the entire article please click here

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)
~ An account by Sr. Sonnia Margarita Osorio, MSC *

I have lived a very intense month, accompanying the caravan of Honduran migrants at the Aguas Calientes border between Honduras and Guatemala, accompanying a family in the process of [identifying] the body of their son, who was in the truck that crashed in Chiapas on December 19, 2021. The truck was carrying more than 150 migrants [as they were observing] the first anniversary of the 19 migrants killed in Tamaulipas on January 22, 2021. Of those 19, 14 were from Comitancillo San Marcos. On January 20 and 21 in San Marcos we had a Eucharist and inaugurated a mural in honor of the victims and their families, the mural represents the process of mourning and hope.

“I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and I have heard the cries of pain, I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and heard the cries of their oppressors; I know their sufferings…” Exodus 3, 7

With this text of the Exodus begins the prologue of the book “The Flight of the Hummingbird” which contains the review of each of the migrants killed and burned in Camargo Tamaulipas. It also narrates the process of accompaniment of mourning with their families made by the Network. I have had the grace of accompanying these families for some months in group processes. We have also taken the opportunity to visit each family, listen to them and encourage them. Further on, the same text says:
“I have come down to deliver you from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring you up from this land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”.

This experience of celebrating the first anniversary of these victims of Tamaulipas, has a double reality and feeling, on the one hand, the joy that gives “the lowering of God to free his people” and the certainty that they come from the Gospel, where it is not the full and satisfied who enjoy the banquet of the Kingdom, but the strangers, those of the squares, the roads, the discarded, those who, like the Master, have nowhere to lay their heads.

The other reality is the indignation of seeing how the bodies of the victims of the “accident” in Chiapas continue to arrive, in which so many migrants, mostly Guatemalans, were traveling, and where we see that the blood of our brothers and sisters continues to cry out for justice. We are all brothers and sisters and we must eat at the same table because the earth belongs to all and produces for all.

“Hope multiplies strength a hundredfold,” says Mother Cabrini and I believe that this is a reality of the RJM team extended to our families and communities where lay and religious men and women live with joy the encounter with our brothers, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans who with their courage challenge us to leave the comfort and always look for something better.

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)
~ An account by Sr. Sonnia Margarita Osorio, MSC *

I have lived a very intense month, accompanying the caravan of Honduran migrants at the Aguas Calientes border between Honduras and Guatemala, accompanying a family in the process of recognizing the body of their son, who was in the truck that crashed in Chiapas on December 19, 2021. The truck was carrying more than 150 migrants [as they were observing] the first anniversary of the 19 migrants killed in Tamaulipas on January 22, 2021. Of those 19, 14 were from Comitancillo San Marcos. On January 20 and 21 in San Marcos we had a Eucharist and inaugurated a mural in honor of the victims and their families, the mural represents the process of mourning and hope.

“I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and I have heard the cries of pain, I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and heard the cries of their oppressors; I know their sufferings…” Exodus 3, 7

With this text of the Exodus begins the prologue of the book “The Flight of the Hummingbird” which contains the review of each of the migrants killed and burned in Camargo Tamaulipas. It also narrates the process of accompaniment of mourning with their families made by the Network. I have had the grace of accompanying these families for some months in group processes. We have also taken the opportunity to visit each family, listen to them and encourage them. Further on, the same text says:
“I have come down to deliver you from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring you up from this land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”.

This experience of celebrating the first anniversary of these victims of Tamaulipas, has a double reality and feeling, on the one hand, the joy that gives “the lowering of God to free his people” and the certainty that they come from the Gospel, where it is not the full and satisfied who enjoy the banquet of the Kingdom, but the strangers, those of the squares, the roads, the discarded, those who, like the Master, have nowhere to lay their heads.

The other reality is the indignation of seeing how the bodies of the victims of the “accident” in Chiapas continue to arrive, in which so many migrants, mostly Guatemalans, were traveling, and where we see that the blood of our brothers and sisters continues to cry out for justice. We are all brothers and sisters and we must eat at the same table because the earth belongs to all and produces for all.

“Hope multiplies strength a hundredfold,” says Mother Cabrini and I believe that this is a reality of the RJM team extended to our families and communities where lay and religious men and women live with joy the encounter with our brothers, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Guatemalans who with their courage challenge us to leave the comfort and always look for something better.

*Translated from the Spanish with www.DeepL.com/Translator

 

National Hispanic Heritage Month

National Hispanic Heritage Month

This year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.

Lack of U.S. Plan for Asylum Seekers Tempers Hope among Migrants and Advocates

~ by Soli Salgado, Global Sisters Report

For advocates for migrants and refugees, the response to incoming migrants at the border between the United States and Mexico is a source of emotional tension.

There is a sense of victory for the migrants and refugees who made it into the United States after months or years of uncertainty. However, there are also rising frustrations from potential asylees and activists spurred by the new U.S. presidential administration’s lack of preparation and clarity regarding the ongoing expulsion of asylum seekers.

Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise once lauded among immigration activists when he ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The 2019 policy under former President Donald Trump forced more than 70,000 asylum seekers to wait for their U.S. court dates in Mexican border cities.

But no concrete plan for asylum-seekers emerged in its place, so while thousands of migrants were able to enter the United States in triumph since Biden rescinded the MPPs, others who have arrived at the border seeking asylum but who were not affected by the program are being expelled to Mexico.

“We do celebrate the progress that has been made,” said Sr. Tracey Horan, a Sister of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods and Assistant Director of Education and Advocacy for the Kino Border Initiative in Nogoles, Arizona. “At the same time, it doesn’t feel like the response that we’re seeing is equal to the urgency that the people living it are feeling.”

The driving factors that make migrants flee their homes are only adding up, she said: the usual violence and corruption are now met with destruction from hurricanes and extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic.

Ambiguity over action

Immigration advocates bemoan the Biden’s administration’s lack of transparency and clear plans for those who continue their months-or years-long wait to present their cases for asylum, as well as the continuation of the Title 42 policy, a public health order from March 2020 that allows the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to expel migrants to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in holding facilities.

Dylan Corbett, Executive Director of the Hope Border Institute said the government is capable of handling the number of migrants currently crossing the border. But any instability along the border is largely due to the government’s “ambiguous response,” said Corbett, who lives in El Paso, Texas.

Missionary of Jesus Sr. Norma Pimentel agreed, noting that a “crisis” indicates a shortage of options. “But, I think the options are there – they’re just not being put forward,” said Pimentel, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, unlike Trump’s, is not turning away unaccompanied minors at the border. Though the policy is intended to keep vulnerable children safe in the United States, it also tempts parents with the tough choice to send their children north without them.

“When I say ‘children,’ I’m not talking about 15 or 14 years old; I’m talking about 3, 5, 7 years old, completely by themselves,” said Chris Cabrera of the National Border Council, adding he would not have believed it if he had not talked to the children himself.

Joanne Williams, the Executive Director of the Kino Border Initiative remarks that the Biden administration underestimates the desperation of individuals who choose to embark on the dangerous journey north, she added. “People are making rational choices to try to protect their kids as best as they can.”

The best ways to respond 

Advocates agree that the United States should work to stabilize the Northern Triangle – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – so families don’t need to become migrants or refugees at all. They are also clear about how the government can respond to the border’s immediate needs.

As Sr. Horan put it: more health and human resources, fewer troops.

“What we don’t need are more Border Patrol agents,” she said. What we need are social workers and asylum officers and judges, people to accompany these families through the legal process they have a right to.” To read the complete article please click here 

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