Fearing President-elect Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations, sisters and Catholic groups organize support for undocumented immigrants living in uncertainty.
Social Service Sr. Elizabeth Lopez is as comfortable serving a bowl of soup to migrants on one side of the border as she is fighting for them in immigration court on the other.
In Bordeaux-Cartierville, the first stop for many immigrants and refugees after they arrive at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, two sisters welcome, install, and help integrate new arrivals.
Catholic sisters from different congregations — along with lay people, interreligious and community leaders, priests and bishops — participated in a march in El Paso, Texas, supporting the dignity of immigrants.
Working with Holy Cross Ministries — a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit created by the Sisters of the Holy Cross to aid Utah's marginalized community members — these sisters dedicate their very full days to helping this underserved population.
Women religious haven't been spared the suffering the Catholic Church is going through in Nicaragua, said a sister GSR correspondent Rhina Guidos met with in January while visiting El Salvador. At a moment's notice, she'd had to prepare to welcome a group of nuns forced to leave their ministry behind in Nicaragua.
Sisters from various congregations journeyed from San Diego via the cold desert toward Mexico, to see what the landscape, migrants and the Holy Spirit had to say to them during a five-day border pilgrimage.
In the desert Jesus awakened to who he was and his new way of seeing the people around him and the time he was in. Lent invites us to take the time needed to become more aware of who we are and to see others in a new way.
Leaders of migrant shelters in Tijuana say they are enduring violence and organized crime. One director, a Catholic sister, told GSR her shelter had to change its facilities and "close everything" to keep migrants safe.