Pope Leo elevated the first American saint, Mother Frances Cabrini, as a model for Christians today to care for migrants in need, as he visited her birthplace during a day trip to northern Italy.
Leo, who has clashed with the Trump administration over its crackdown on migrants in the United States, urged young people in particular to learn about Cabrini’s life and service.
Leo prayed before Cabrini’s tomb in a basilica named for her in her birthplace in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, near Milan, and presided over an evening prayer service. The visit to northern Italy was part of Leo’s summer grand tour of Italy to visit key cities and get to know his flock.
Cabrini, the patron saint of migrants, is known for her work caring for Italian immigrants in the United States at the turn of the last century.
Her work went beyond the US as she criss-crossed the globe building schools, hospitals and orphanages for those who had nothing.
After she died in 1917, as a naturalised US citizen in Leo’s home city of Chicago, Cabrini was beatified and then canonised in 1946 as the first American saint.
Leo said Cabrini’s faith inspired her to help migrants who had left everything behind in search of a better life.
“What could be more relevant today than a missionary charism dedicated to serving migrants?” he said.
“Let us ask ourselves: if Mother Francesca were alive today, what would her missionary spirit tell her? ... And what would a pope like Francis – who, as the son of Italian immigrants, made service to migrants one of the key priorities of his pontificate – ask of her?”
Leo urged people to read her writings, travel journals and notes from retreats: “I therefore take this opportunity to make an appeal, especially to young people: get to know St Frances Cabrini,” he said.
Leo has embraced the Catholic Church’s call to “welcome the stranger” in his ministry to migrants. Earlier this month, Leo spent two days in Spain’s Canary Islands, a major destination for migrants leaving West Africa, where he called for welcoming and integrating those fleeing hardship and conflict.
Leo’s next Italy day trip is on July 4, when he heads to Lampedusa, the Sicilian island that is a major destination for migrants fleeing North Africa for Italy.
Leo’s clash with the Trump administration over migration has given added symbolic significance to his decision to spend July 4 – America’s Independence Day – in Lampedusa. It was also where Francis made his first trip outside Rome as pope in 2013.
