Of Mother Cabrini, Compassion, and a Very Good Cause

Moved by recent events, and what most reasonable Americans consider the shameful US policy of separating families at our southern border, I recently dropped everything I had pending (including a pretty full commission schedule) to work on this original painting...

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini - also known as Mother Cabrini - was the first American Saint, and an immigrant herself; a woman who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in New York, and spent her life establishing hospitals, orphanages, and generally serving the then largely Italian immigrant community. She was canonized in 1946, and is now known as the patron saint of immigrants.

One wonders what she would think of US policy today?

I have no doubt she would be in complete agreement with Pope Francis, who recently stated “Before the challenges of contemporary movements of migration, the only reasonable response is one of solidarity and mercy."

Solidarity and mercy.

Here's the thing. Immigrants do not detract from our country, they ENRICH it. From encouraging economic development (in creating a need for more services, jobs, infrastructure, etc) to serving in our military, to increasing the tax base (with US birth rates down, new citizens make a valuable contribution to programs like social security and medicare), to enriching us educationally and culturally. 

I live and work in Lancaster PA, a city which has more refugees per capita than any other city in the US (about 20x more), and our city is THRIVING. We are the richer for these new residents' presence, and we welcome them with open arms. The organization largely responsible for serving the immigrant and refugee population here is Church World Service. They provide help with resettlement, employment, housing, and legal services. 

In painting Mother Cabrini, I wanted to donate a portion of the print sales to an organization here in my own community, because I believe in activism at the local level. To that end twenty percent of all print sales from this piece will be donated to Church World Services on a monthly basis. Further to this, there's a print sale in my Etsy shop running for the entire month of July, where two or more prints are 50% off (although the donation amount will be the full percentage) - so if you're so inclined you can help a wonderful organization, and capture a couple of pieces of my art too. ;)

(As a side note, the "King of Mice Studios" watermark does not appear on the print, it's only for copyright protection here.)

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I hope you'll join me in doing what we can to help out and to speak up. 

#immigrantsareus #familiesbelongtogether #stopseparatingfamilies #endchilddetention #reunitefamilies #resist