“Striving to be beacons of hope, we commit to…deepen awareness of our complicity and work toward dismantling interlocking systems of oppression…”
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, 2019 Acts of Chapter
Every six years, delegates from each location in our congregation gather for a congregational chapter. During this meeting, they agree on priorities and directions for the life of the congregation for the following six years. In 2019, one of those priorities was to “deepen awareness of our complicity and work toward dismantling interlocking systems of oppression.”
Here are some of the ways our congregation has worked for justice in the past few years.
Immigration Justice
Border Compassion
Border Compassion is an all-volunteer organization that was founded by Sister Suzanne Jabro, CSJ. The mission of Boder Compassion is to invite faith-communities to cross-over at the border to offer a compassionate humanitarian response to families living at the Posada del Migrante Shelter, which houses up to 300 people.
Centers like the Posada del Migrante Shelter provide migrants with food, clothing, shelter and other basic needs while they prepare to travel to their U.S. family members or sponsors. Sisters, associates and partners in ministry across the congregation have volunteered at these centers as well as provided funding and donations.
Welcoming the Stranger
Not only have our sisters advocated for the rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, but some of our sisters have had the opportunity to welcome refugees into their homes.
Our sisters in Perú welcomed Hanna and her daughter into their community while they waited to begin the next step of their journey. When COVID restrictions were lifted, Hanna and her daughter traveled to Canada where Sisters of St. Joseph and the Diocese of Peterborough sponsored them as refugees.
In St. Louis, Sisters Sally Harper, CSJ and Sean Peters, CSJ also opened their home to a woman seeking asylum. Many of our sisters are also involved in the Immigrant Home English Learning Program (IHELP) where they help provide at-home English tutoring for immigrant adults and children.
Ending Human Trafficking
Our congregation has been a member of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking (formerly U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking) for over a decade. Sister Judy Molosky, CSJ from our Los Angeles Province currently serves as a board member.
Alliance to End Human Trafficking works to end human trafficking through providing educational resources, giving presentations, raising awareness, and engaging in advocacy at the state and federal level. The alliance supports survivors of human trafficking in healing and thriving through direct services such as providing shelter, counseling, spiritual support, job placement, and educational scholarships.
Racial Justice
Our work confronting racism began within the congregation. Calling ourselves to go deeper, journey farther, and respond boldly, our congregation and sponsored ministries took a hard look at our history and discussed what we found. While our congregation has no known connections to slavery, we are still grappling with institutional racism in our history and our involvement in U.S. policies of forced enculturation of Indigenous peoples.
All four of our provinces have been focusing on racism by hosting workshops, presentations, film and book studies, and by forming racial justice committees. At the center of all of these actions is deep listening and discussion. We have also advocated to safeguard voting rights, protect native land and reform the justice system.
Healthcare and Housing
Access to Healthcare
As a congregation, we have continued to sponsor and support ministries our sisters founded, such as St. Mary’s Health Clinics and Circle the City, which provide healthcare for individuals without access.
St. Mary’s Health Clinics (SMHC), in St. Paul, Minnesota, works to provide free medical care, outreach and education to low-income, uninsured families and individuals who are not eligible for government programs. The clinics conduct health screenings, education and promotion and outreach in collaboration with community organizations.
Founded by Sister Adele O’Sullivan, CSJ, MD, Circle the City provides healthcare and hope to all individuals facing homelessness in Maricopa County. Their programs include outpatient care, respite care, mobile medical care, street medicine and hospital health navigation.
Providing Shelter
Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul has been operating its Project Home program in our St. Paul Provincial House since March 2021. Project Home provides shelter for families experiencing homelessness. There was a clear need to address housing in the local community, and the St. Paul Province quickly and enthusiastically moved to address this need by offering and adapting the Provincial House for Interfaith Action’s Project Home.
For more than 20 years, Interfaith Action’s Project Home program had no building of its own. Each month, the nonprofit would set up 40 emergency beds between two sites, rotating among 24 churches, synagogues and a school.
In the first nine months of Project Home’s time at our St. Paul Provincial House, 73 families (including 153 children and 88 adults) lived there. Families stay for an average of 83 days before moving to stable housing. Six months after moving out of Project Home, 91% remain in the housing they settled in.
Women’s Voices
In our walk with women as we claim our voice and work toward an inclusive church and society, we created a Womanly Novena during the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality, affirmed a statement published by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the men’s Union of Superiors General for increasing women’s ability to contribute to the life and mission of the Church, and advocated for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Justice Reform
Restorative Justice
Founded by Sister Theresa Harpin, CSJ, Restorative Partners provides services and programs for those in-custody and for those released from the San Luis County Juvenile Hall, Jail, Honor Farm and State Prisons. The goal in all of their transformative work is to reduce violence and lower recidivism by providing a continuum of care from incarceration through reincorporation to our community.
In 2023, Restorative Partners added a new social enterprise called The Bridge Cafe. The mission of the new café is to provide delicious farm-to-table meals and a Culinary Training Certificate and employment placement program for justice-involved trainees.
Ending the Death Penalty
Foundational to the principles of Catholic Social Teaching is our belief in the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity of the human person. Looking to the way of mercy and forgiveness exemplified by Jesus’ own life, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and our charism of unifying love, we strongly oppose the use of the death penalty.
Understanding that the death penalty does not provide easy or simple solutions, we continue, as we have for decades, our opposition to the death penalty. Our community, with our partners in mission, has long ministered to and advocated for our siblings on death row including praying, visiting and writing personal letters.
As a congregation, we have joined, supported and collaborated with local and national organizations that oppose the death penalty, such as:
- Catholic Mobilizing Network
- Campaign to End the Death Penalty
- Death Penalty Focus
- National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
We are also committed to speaking out through public witness, such as at prayer vigils for both victims, victims’ families and people facing execution as well as appealing to governors for stays of execution.
An Ongoing Effort
As individuals and as a congregation, we have sought to deepen awareness of our complicity and work toward dismantling interlocking systems of oppression. The above list of actions does not catalogue every effort we have made, and there is much deeper and farther to go in dismantling discrimination of race, class, gender and religion. Boldness, creativity, and collaboration will be the hallmarks of our future actions.