Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Journeying Together: Communion, Participation and Mission The Guadalupe Provincial Assembly 2022

October 27, 2022

Missionary Sisters, Cabrini Lay Missionaries, and lay collaborators from as far away as Australia, Italy, Guatemala, and Nicaragua gathered in Newark, NJ for the Post-General Chapter Provincial Assembly. An Assembly is an important time in the life of the Institute and the Guadalupe Province when the mandates and recommendations forthcoming from the General Chapter, which was held in Rome this past summer, are presented.

During the opening session, General Superior Sr. Maria Eliane Azevedo da Silva, MSC addressed the Assembly via Zoom. She spoke about living the unity in our diversity and encouraged Sisters and laity to move from the “I” to the “we” to promote a more inclusive mentality, citing Pope Francis’ exhortation to walk together in the same direction. She assured all of her prayers and support.
During the Assembly, table discussions took place focusing on the General Chapter mandates, and recommendations were forthcoming from those assembled. Various types of outreaches emerged from the discussions and sisters and laity were invited to indicate their interest in these initiatives.

There were also presentations by the various types of ministries sponsored by the MSCs, i.e. healthcare, education, social services, and spiritual ministries.

In the later days of the Assembly, Missionary Sisters addressed topics as vocation promotion and initial and ongoing formation.

Due to COVID, Province-wide gathering was not held for two years and this Assembly provided a welcome opportunity to renew long time friendships and meet new collaborators.

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)

February 9, 2022

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

U.S. Deportations Have Led to Spread of COVID-19

July 2, 2020

~ by Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Service

A report by the Washington-based Refugees International organization charges U.S. immigration policy with [exacerbating] the spread of the coronavirus in Guatemala, as federal agencies in the U.S. and Mexico have repatriated infected Guatemalans through deportations.

In “Harmful Returns: The Compounded Vulnerabilities of Returned Guatemalans in the Time of COVID-19,” a report released on June 23, Refugees International urges that Guatemalans seeking refuge be allowed to apply for asylum in the U.S., instead of being turned over to Mexican authorities or repatriated, and that they be allowed to go with U.S. sponsors while they wait for their day in immigration court.

But U.S. policies such as the “Remain in Mexico” program, also called the Migrant Protection Protocols or MPP, which asks those seeking asylum in the U.S. to wait in Mexico until a U.S. immigration court can adjudicate their case, have led to the eventual return home of many Guatemalans and other Central Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, Guatemalan officials halted flights carrying deportees into the country, saying that at least 20% of its COVID-19 cases had resulted from deportees who contracted the virus in U.S. detention centers. Citing those figures, Refugees International said once they were returned to Guatemala, deportees tested positive for COVID-19, “despite having clean bill of health documents from the United States.”

And, once they return to Guatemala, they were met with stigma, lack of jobs and still facing dangerous conditions in addition to having contracted the virus, the group says.

“These measures force home many Guatemalans with valid refugee claims who are at risk of persecution upon return,” the group said. “Others have legitimate fears for their security and safety when they get home because returnees are at greater risk of becoming targets of violence and extortion.

“Once back, Guatemalans often struggle to reintegrate. They face unique challenges in earning a livelihood; and women, indigenous groups and children face particular barriers to accessing many basic public services. Also, healthcare is lacking, particularly for psychological or specialized services.”

The main concern is that people seeking refuge in the U.S., including children, are exposed to unsafe conditions during detention and then turned away or put in conditions that risk their health and their lives while in custody.

The organization has recommended testing prior to deportation as well as testing once the returnees arrive, saying a lack of such measures puts those deported and the general population at risk. Deported Guatemalans return only to face hunger, a stagnant economy, and restrictions on their movement.

Updates from the MSCs in Central America

March 17, 2020

Recently, the Missionary Sisters in Guatemala hosted the visiting MSC International Health Commission members in working session at the Mother Cabrini Dispensary, with sisters and staff members. The purpose of the visit was to develop the second part of the evaluation of health works in view of their progress.

Visiting professors from Cabrini University in Radnor, PA came to Guatemala to become better acquainted with the staff of the Mother Cabrini Dispensary in order to establish forms of collaboration between the works in Guatemala and the University.