Murphy: How will we build what the world needs now?

There’s been some buzz in my circles about the theatrical release of Cabrini, a biopic about the life of Frances Xavier Cabrini, Italian immigrant and first U.S. citizen to be canonized in the Catholic Church.

It was her dream to go to China, but she was asked to minister in New York City instead, to take on the challenging task of serving a burgeoning Italian population in this thrumming, chaotic city.

Between her arrival in New York in 1889 and her death in Chicago in 1917, Mother Cabrini established 67 schools, hospitals, and orphanages across the United States. Can you imagine?

To the sisters who accompany her on their first tour of New York City’s Italian ghetto, her movie character says, “See everything. Open your eyes.”

Walking out of the theater after the inspiring film, I wondered what Cabrini might do if she dropped into New York City today. What would she see? How would she respond?

My thoughts turned to Transforming Grace, an initiative of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, begun last fall. In answer to the question “What is ours to do now?” LCWR is assisting its members to seek “transformative justice.”

The intent is to support Catholic sisters’ congregations as they “take responsibility for the personal and collective responses we can make in the challenges we will encounter during the national election period.”

For the better part of a year, then, LCWR has provided prayerful reflections to assist sisters and other interested persons with a personal and communal reflection on the experience of living and moving in our U.S. and global context today. Among other things, these reflections have been meant to prepare the ground for an LCWR gathering in Pittsburg next week.

I’m one of four sisters representing our congregation at the gathering, which will include sisters and lay collaborators from among elected leadership, justice promoters, and communicators. As I prepare for the meeting, I feel a bit like a bookend at the far end of the shelf Frances Cabrini built, truth be told.

Much is changing and challenging the shape of vowed religious life in the 21st century, built firmly on the foundations of women like Frances Cabrini and, indeed the women who founded my own congregation 150 years ago.

In the 19th century it was their task to build the infrastructure that supported the nation, creating institutions that raised the boats of millions of immigrants and helped to build the diverse, democratic—if imperfect—society we now enjoy.

Now, early in the 21st century, what is ours to do? LCWR suggests one thing we might do is bring about a transformation of consciousness that will safeguard the human rights and dignity of all people, gained through the hard work of visionaries like Frances Cabrini, in the context of this new time, with all the wisdom, knowledge, and truth humanity has gained in the intervening 135 years.

We may create structures of inclusivity and trust rather than brick and mortar. We may build relationships across religious traditions, cultures, worldviews, and languages rather than self-enclosed, sometimes self-referential, institutions.

I’m certain we sisters are not alone in our recognition of this need for a new mission—one that has the potential to transform and renew our society, making it a place fertile and fruitful for all peoples of every race and gender, every economic status, national origin, and creed. There are so many possible partners and co-conspirators out there! That’s exciting.

I’m glad to be among those working to bring this new vision to birth. Whatever comes of the meeting, Frances Cabrini’s advice is still good: Open your eyes. See everything."

Sister Beth Murphy, OP, is the communication director for the Dominican Sisters of Springfield.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Murphy: How will we build what the world needs now?