Moving always towards profound love of our neighbor without distinction, we defend the human rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees through advocacy and action.
I am grateful for the opportunity during the month of September to be in the presence of hundreds of migrants every day while volunteering with the Kino Border Initiative. I was with four other sisters in a project called Catholic Sisters Walking with Migrants.
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Posada del Migrante Shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. This shelter provides a home for up to 300 migrants, many of whom have fled their countries due to threats of violence and are seeking asylum in the United States.
We invite you to join us in advocating to ensure the smooth passage of a just Farm Bill to feed vulnerable families here at home and around the world.
My experience at the shelter in Mexicali, Mexico has changed my life. I am now looking at everything and everyone with different eyes. The experience was not anything I had expected! I thought there would be a building surrounded with a yard where the children could play and we would paint in small groups. Instead, we arrived at a crowded shelter with 215 immigrants—110 adults and 105 children.
I said to the 8-year-old “how lucky she was to have him help her” His response was “Well someone has to do it so I guess it’s me.” What a parent won’t do to save their children.
“Where one of us are, all of us are.” With this in mind, “we” were in San Antonio, Texas the last two weeks of November helping 80 Afghanistan refugee families settle into their new lives. Here are four snapshots of our time there.
Kawsar then went on to charm all of the volunteers at the food pantry saying to each one the only words she knows in English: “I love you.”
Lilianis, her husband, and her children left Venezuela out of necessity, not because they wanted to. Economic and political life was in crisis in their country and they could not support themselves as a family.
Sisters Teresa Avalos, Carol Brong and Sally Koch reflect on their recent trip to the border with Border Compassion.
As we look at the present and into the future, we celebrate our ministries and work that have been going on for years as well as our new, exciting structures and partnerships. We offer a few examples, amongst many, in the areas of education, healthcare, service and work at the border.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are a congregation of Catholic sisters. We, and those who share our charism and mission, are motivated in all things by our profound love of God and our dear neighbors. We seek to build communities and bridge divides between people. Since our first sisters gathered in 1650, our members have been called to “do all things of which women are capable.” The first sisters of our congregation arrived in St. Louis, Missouri in 1836, and we now have additional locations in St. Paul, Albany, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Japan and Peru. Today, we commit to respond boldly to injustice and dare to be prophetic.