Category Archives: Ministries

January 8, 2014 · 3:21 pm

LBJ and Daughters of Charity

lyndon-johnson-sr-josephine-aitchison-1967

(Photo used with permission of the Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives)
Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty in his now-famous speech. Three years later, on June 21, 1967, he celebrated the birth of his first grandchild, Patrick Lyndon Nugent, at Seton Hospital in Austin, Texas, where the baby was born to his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson Nugent. Before entering the facility, the President was warmly congratulated by another “president,” Sr. Josephine Aitchison, D.C., head of the hospital, as memorialized in this photograph from the hospital newsletter. Today, we are reminded that both Johnson and the Daughters of Charity, in their own way, waged war on poverty, a challenge the Daughters have undertaken since 1633.

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Filed under Health Care, Ministries, U.S. Presidents

January 7, 2014 · 6:00 am

National Migration Week, DCs work with immigrants in El Paso

Las Americas Immigrant and Family Center

National Migration Week will be observed in dioceses around the country January 5-11. The theme is “Out of the Darkness,” and echoes the figurative darkness undocumented immigrants, children, refugees and victims of human trafficking must face when their ability to live out their lives is severely restricted, often due to violence and exploitation.

During the week, Catholics are called to participate through prayer and action to try and ease the struggles of immigrants, migrants and vulnerable populations and to reflect on the Church’s obligation to welcome the stranger.

Daughters of Charity are actively involved in service to, and advocacy for, immigrant populations. One such example, is the work of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, in El Paso, Texas. Two Daughters of Charity from the Province of St. Louise, Sisters Phyllis Nolan and Nancy Sullivan, currently serve there.

Las Americas was born on May 1, 1987 to answer the needs of a large influx of Central Americans who sought refuge in El Paso. By the mid-1990’s, Las Americas began to assist children and women detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service through its Justice for Women and Children Project. Las Americas also started representing battered immigrant women under the Battered Immigrant Women Project. Today, Las Americas continues to be one of the only non-profit legal service providers to assist low-income immigrants in the El Paso region.

Las Americas’ vision is that of a country where all immigrants have access to high quality legal representation based on the principle of justice and human rights. Las Americas’ mission is to see this vision realized by providing high quality legal representation to immigrants and by advocating for human rights.Las Americas’ mission includes not only direct service to the most vulnerable of immigrants but also advocacy for the rights of immigrants and education on immigration issues.

Since 2000, Las Americas has assisted asylum seekers from over 25 countries, including Algeria, Dominican Republic, Bosnia, El Salvador, India, Burundi, Georgia, Mexico, and Colombia. Wars and repressive governments continue to create a flood of refugees to our shores. Las Americas continues to provide legal services for these refugees, works to prevent unjust deportations, and challenges Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies regarding the treatment of refugees and other detained persons in the area.

In 2008, drug-related violence began to tear apart Ciudad Juárez, El Paso’s sister city south of the border and Las Americas staff started to see an influx in Mexican asylum seekers who sought relief in the United States. Many Mexican refugees have received threats from cartels or criminal organizations with ties to corrupt Mexican government officials. Las Americas completes an average of 15 intakes a week of people fleeing the violence in Mexico.

Learn more about Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center at its website: http://www.las-americas.org

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Filed under Immigration, Ministries, Social Justice, Social Work

December 24, 2013 · 6:00 am

Christmas at St. John’s Asylum and School, ca. 1860s

The Provincial Annals of the Emmitsburg Province record this account of Christmas as celebrated by the children at St. John’s Asylum and School, in Utica, New York. The account is undated but probably dates from the 1860s.

The general atmosphere of the house is truly home-like. The civil and religious festivals of the year are celebrated with due honors; not one can pass unnoticed, there being too many voices to remind. Christmas, the children’s feast, is indeed a season of joy to the inmates of St. John’s; long before its arrival is it talked of, its pleasures enjoyed by anticipation. A large Christmas tree is early adorned and heavily laden with fruit, suited to the tastes of all, each gift bearing its owner’s number. This tree is not relieved of its precious burden until the feast of the Epiphany, 6th of January, when one the Wise Men wisely and happily dispenses the same. A very pretty custom of the house is to have its inmates awakened Christmas morning by the Venite Adoremus, sung by a select band of the children. The “babies stockings are always prepared for “Santa’s” visit, and great is their delight on seeing their plump proportions, when taken to the room where they hang side by side, and where the little ones seat themselves unceremoniously on the floor to examine their contents. In the afternoon Santa Claus visits the children in person, makes a little speech, and with the aid of his attendants, dispenses quantities of “goodies”, testifies his pleasure at seeing their bright, happy faces once more, promises that he will never pass them by as long as they are good children and withdraws amid the smiles and thanks of all. It may here be remarked that the many kind friends remember the orphan girls at this season of the year by suitable donations, which greatly aid the Sisters in this amusing and rejoicing the hearts of the children.

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Filed under Ministries, Social Work