It’s near impossible to walk the streets of Manhattan — or any major American city — without running into a woman on the sidewalk who’s begging for money. She may have a sign saying she is a mother, explaining how many children she has. She may have a child or two right there with her. Livonia, from Eastern Europe, was the latest I ran into. It’s of course more common to meet a mother from Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America. Who promised them a lie? Who took their money? These and other questions enter and hurt and even madden the heart as you see them and briefly talk with them — if language allows.
With every such encounter, I think of a woman who is about to be seen on theater screens — Francesca Saverio Cabrini. She’s a canonized saint. The upcoming movie, Cabrini, which tells some of her story, is presented as a feminist success story — and it is, in the truest sense. She faces obstacles, including the skepticism and unhelpfulness of men who, if they had a better sense of her heart, should have done everything in their power to remove them. A missionary from Italy, she came to the United States to help immigrants who were languishing here in the pursuit of a better life. A Catholic religious sister, she led in so many of the mandates of the Gospel. She cared for the orphan and the widow. She built some of the institutions that would become the backbone of so many lives here, as did many other Catholic women religious, such as Elizabeth Ann Seton. Orphanages. Schools. Hospitals.
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