STAMFORD—Celebrating the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano said that if it weren’t for “this one remarkable woman, many of us of Italian descent would not be here today.”
The bishop honored her at Mass on Sunday, November 7, 2021, at Sacred Heart Church, the Italian National Parish in Stamford, where Catholic Charities sponsored a presentation by Sr. Lucille Souza, MSC, a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a congregation of religious women in 17 countries that was founded by Mother Cabrini in 1880. [See related story.]
The bishop’s homily centered on the story of the poor widow in which Jesus commented on her after seeing her put two cents in the Temple collection box. He told his disciples that she put in more than the others because she gave all she had, while they gave from their surplus. The Gospel was relevant to the work of Mother Cabrini, he said.
“Our Lord uses a very simple image of a poor widow to give us a very large and compelling spiritual challenge, particularly in the world in which we live,” Bishop Caggiano said.
“The Lord is teaching us through the profound generosity of the widow because she gave all she had to God,” he added. “She is an image of God himself, who is so deeply generous that he gives his love to us, his grace and his life even though you and I cannot earn it and do not merit it. He gives it freely, generously. Therefore, you and I in our lives also need to be generous, generous unto self-sacrifice for the good of our neighbors.”
The deeper lesson in the Gospel story, he said, is that the widow was not the one who was truly poor. It was the Pharisees, who only understood the woman in terms of the things she owned and who were blind to the poverty in their lives. They could not see how rich she was compared to how poor they were.
“They had many things but were empty in heart and spirit,” he said. “And that blindness to their own poverty allowed the great spiritual mistake of thinking the widow had nothing to offer. Her great gift was not simply the two cents, but her mercy because she considered the needs of others over herself.
That message is particularly relevant today, Bishop Caggiano said.
“Consider the gratitude of her heart, because even though she had a life that was difficult, she was in the Temple before God, not complaining but giving thanks by giving the little she had,” he said. “The Lord is showing us there are many faces to poverty.”
This is an important lesson for us, he said, because we live in a world “that wants us to think human life is only about things we own—and while they are important, all God’s children need to have the basic necessities of life and that is dependent upon your generosity and mine to ensure that no one is left behind in material poverty.”
The deeper lesson for Catholics today is how our country treats immigrants, he said.
“There are many in our midst who forget the heritage of our parents, which is one that has welcomed immigrants for centuries,” Bishop Caggiano said. “I myself am the son of immigrant parents. They look at those who come to us—who often come because they are fleeing poverty, political turmoil and are literally in danger for their lives—and you will hear them ask, ‘What will these people bring? Why should we welcome them in the first place?’”
St. Frances Cabrini offers a lesson for our times, he told the congregation of Italians.
Born in 1850, she died 67 years later from malaria. Although she had wanted to be a missionary to China, the pope sent her to the United States to care for Italian immigrants.
“In that time, many of our forebears came to this country materially poor but spiritually rich, and the pope asked her to care for their physical and material and spiritual needs,” he said. “She opened hospitals and schools and orphanages in New York and Chicago and throughout the whole country…. Many of us of Italian descent would not be here today if it wasn’t for that one remarkable Italian woman who understood the message of the Gospel.”
The bishop urged Catholics to reflect on the words of Jesus and realize that before God we are all poor.
“Let us open our hearts to our new neighbors who are coming and seeking refuge from so many material challenges,” he said. “Let us be as generous as the widow. Let us be as open in our hearts as the Lord so that we can all grow rich before God.”
Commenting on the event, Catholic Charities board member Peter Maloney said: “When we look at saints like Mother Cabrini, it is an act of remembrance, and given the fact the Church in our country is an immigrant church, we have a patron saint of immigrants. We have to remember what immigration means and has meant to our Church throughout its history. This makes us more inclined to remember the people who may be suffering through the same things our ancestors and families did.”
The bishop thanked Father Martin deMayo, parochial vicar, who concelebrated the Mass with him, and representatives of Catholics Charities, who sponsored the event—Peter Maloney, Alex Arevalo, program manager of the Immigration Team, and Maria Palacios, immigration legal services counselor.
(For more information about immigration services, call: 203.416.1306 for Spanish speaking and 203.416.1311 for English speaking.)
