Thoughts: ‘From sea to shining sea’
Tomorrow, July 4, is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, a land that bears the footprints of invaders and indigenous peoples, of slaves in chains and immigrants who came from yonder far, who sailed “from sea to shining sea,” their eyes beholding at last the “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties.”
(We sang “America, The Beautiful” and “Philippines, My Philippines” in elementary grades music class.)
On Ellis Island in New York, where the Statue of Liberty stands, is a moving exhibit of items the immigrants carried with them when they landed, among them trunks, maletas, and bags that held their meager belongings. I had goose bumps upon looking at them. On the statue’s pedestal is a bronze plaque with Emma Lazarus’ 1883 poem “The New Colossus.”
Famous lines: “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-lost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
That cannot be the gist of current US President Donald Trump’s Maga (Make America Great Again) campaign. Frothing at the mouth, he berated immigrants by saying, “They eat our dogs, they eat our cats.” Good that several days ago, the US Supreme Court dumped Trump’s anti-birthright move.
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It was not an afterthought but certainly an intentional one on the part of Pope Leo XIV while visiting parts of Italy last month to honor St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, popularly known as Mother Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized. Cabrini is known as the patron saint of immigrants.
When the Pope visited a town south of Milan, where Cabrini was born in 1850, he reflected on the importance of the saint’s relevance in these times when people continue to risk their lives by engaging with traffickers and crossing the high seas on decrepit boats to seek refuge in countries not always open or ready for them.
As the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Cabrini was first drawn to China in the East, but Pope Leo XIII directed her to the West. That was in the late 1800s, when millions of Italians and other Europeans were bound for the Americas to seek better lives. Cabrini took up the challenge.
“What could be more timely than a missionary charism dedicated to the service of migrants?” the Pope said.
Cabrini established schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other charitable institutions across the US and in other parts of the world. She became a US citizen and served there until she died in 1917. She was declared a saint in 1946.
(The 2024 movie “Cabrini,” directed by Alejandro Monteverde, got a rating above 90 percent from movie reviewers.)
The plight of migrants is top-of-mind for this American pope, whose statements on the mistreatment of immigrants in the US hit Trump where it mattered. Part of the Pope’s seven-day visit in Spain last month was two days in the Canary Islands where he met with refugees, mostly from African countries.
(Migrants are persons who move from one place to another, either within their own countries or across political boundaries. Example: migrant workers such as our overseas Filipino workers. Immigrants are persons who, for various reasons, leave their home countries and seek permanent residence in other countries.)
Tomorrow, while his home country celebrates its 250th, Pope Leo will be in Lampedusa, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, aptly called “door of Europe,” where thousands of refuge-seekers are sheltered.
In his Apostolic Exhortation “Dilexi Te,” (I Have Loved You) Pope Leo devotes a long portion to migrants (starting Section 73) and recognizes, not only Cabrini but also other saintly individuals who accompanied immigrants/migrants struggling in their new homes, among them, St. John Baptist Scalabrini.
Dilexi Te Section 75: “The Church’s tradition of working for and with migrants continues, and today, this service is expressed in initiatives such as refugee reception centers, border missions and the efforts of Caritas Internationalis and other institutions. The late Pope Francis has recalled that the Church’s mission to migrants and refugees is even broader, insisting that ‘our response to the challenge posed by contemporary migration can be summed up in four verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.’”
The late Pope John Paul II, during his US visit decades ago, was quoted thus: “The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones.”
I take pride in the thought that in the last century, the Philippines hosted thousands of refugees, among them Jews escaping Hitler, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asians. Only a few of them would stay here for good. The rest, after having felt stabilized and strengthened over the years, departed for better climes and times in other shores. Perhaps that was better for them—and for us.
Now we have an onslaught, not of refuge-seekers, but of fortune-seekers from neighboring countries—traffickers, land grabbers, spies, cybercriminals, fraudsters, and other lowlifes.
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