Toward the 80th Anniversary of the Canonization of Francesca Cabrini - 4

Dear brothers and sisters:

1. In my message for the World Day of Peace, I urged women to be “witnesses, messengers, and teachers of peace in relations between individuals and generations, in the family, and in the cultural, social, and political life of nations” (no. 2; cf. L’Osservatore Romano, Spanish edition, December 9, 1994, p. 4). There are many women who have carried out and continue to carry out this mission in an exemplary way. Among them, I wish to mention St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patroness of migrants, a field of apostolate that remains highly relevant today.

What Mother Cabrini was able to accomplish is truly admirable. She was born in Lombardy in the middle of the last century and dedicated herself to immigrants who, in the United States and other countries of the Americas, faced various difficulties in integrating. For them, she organized schools, shelters, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages, despite having very few resources, trusting solely in divine Providence. Love for the Heart of Christ drove and sustained her. “The Sacred Heart,” she once said, “is in such a hurry to do things that I cannot keep up with him.” It was Christ whom she recognized and served in the faces of the immigrants, for whom she wanted to be a loving and tireless mother.

2. Her work, a true miracle of charity, is a unique contribution to the cause of peace, a genuine teaching of peace. Mother Cabrini, with keen insight, realized that it was not enough to offer immigrants material assistance. It was necessary to help them integrate fully into their new social reality, without losing the authentic values of their own culture. She herself, while never ceasing to love Italy, adopted American citizenship, integrating deeply into the people to whom God had called her to fulfill her mission.

It is not difficult to grasp the relevance of that witness today. Because of the growing migratory flows, which carry millions of people from one nation to another, from one continent to another—especially from developing countries to affluent societies—we already see today the need for mutual understanding, welcome, and integration, and this need will likely be much greater in the future. Therefore, it is clear that building this future requires men and women of peace. In particular, it needs maternal hearts like that of Mother Cabrini, rich in the potential of the feminine soul refined by evangelical love.

3. Let us entrust to the Blessed Virgin the path of integration among peoples in the multicultural and multiracial society of our time. May Mary teach us all to be welcoming and to show solidarity. May those who come from distant lands feel understood by the communities that welcome them, and may they always be respected and loved as brothers and sisters. May the Mother of the Lord grant women a keen awareness of their indispensable role in building a society rich in human warmth and generous fraternity.