The Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia promulgated a Corporate Stand in Solidarity with Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers on May 1, pledging their resources and voice to advocate for just immigration reform and the humane treatment of people in the United States without legal status.
After consultation with their membership of approximately 475 women religious, the congregation issued its Corporate Stand on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
“In this public witness, we are responding to the Gospel invitation and our founders’ call to become instruments of unioning love with God and with one another,” Sister Eileen Marnien, SSJ, Congregational President, wrote in a letter to Bishops, including Bishop Timothy Senior.
In the document promulgating their Corporate Stand, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph recalls their founding in 17th-century France and their ministry to the needs of the times, including “the dear neighbor without distinction.” The Sisters who cared for the poor, sick and marginalized since the Congregation’s earliest days “crossed boundaries of class and culture, embodying a spirituality, love and unity,” the document states.
“In our day, we recognize that the plight of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers is one of the defining moral challenges of our age. Families are torn apart, human dignity is denied, and fear of the ‘other’ is used as a strategy to divide communities,” the Corporate Stand reads. “In the midst of this reality, we hear again the Gospel invitation and our founders’ call to become instruments of unioning love with God and with one another.”
In the Corporate Stand, the Sisters commit to “stand in solidarity with immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers here in the United States and throughout the world” and lament that “countless human beings are being driven from their homelands because of poverty, lack of opportunity and employment, violence, war, persecution, and climate change caused by unjust global systems, many of which are directly influenced by U.S. policies.”
The Corporate Stand also decries “the systemic racism and abuse of power which underlies and supports the inequality, exclusion and mistreatment of people of color and causes untold suffering to the human community.”
The Sisters of St. Joseph invite people of good will to commit themselves to ongoing education advocacy and accompaniment of immigrants. They also invite their Associates, Partners in Mission and individuals to “stand with us as we commit to these principles and actions that will offer a future full of hope for all who are seeking welcome and a home in these United States.”
“We believe, as women of the Gospel, that the highest law is love,” the document states. “We pledge to use our resources and our prophetic voice to call on our elected leaders to advocate for just immigration reform and humane treatment of all those who are here in our country without legal status.”
“We desire to live out this vision, encouraged and strengthened by our faith and our vowed commitment,” the document reads. “We echo the sentiment of the US Catholic Bishops who wrote in their special pastoral message to immigrants: ‘We stand with you in your suffering, since when one member suffers, all suffer (1 Cor. 12:26). You are not alone!’”
Learn more about the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia at www.ssjphila.org.
