Standing before the relic of the heart of St. Francis Cabrini, in a very warm -- figuratively and literally -- parish church named after her, Pope Leo made an invitation, especially to youth:
Get to know St. Frances Cabrini! Read her writings, full of passion for Jesus and for the mission; her letters, her travel diaries, and the notes from her retreats. Anyone who gets to know Mother Cabrini is captivated by her. Her soul was at once contemplative and active; she was immersed in the love of the Heart of Christ, and this gave her an extraordinary capacity for work and strength of spirit, in keeping with the Pauline motto she had chosen for the Institute: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
This was part of the Pope's reflection in his last public event of a quick afternoon trip that took him to a scorching northern Italy, where temperatures were pushing 100 degrees and the humidity was high. After a visit to a specialized cancer center in Pavia, he went to pray at the relics of St. Augustine, but, as he explained to those in Cabrini's hometown:
When I learned that Sant’Angelo Lodigiano (Mother Cabrini's birthplace) is just a few kilometers from Pavia, I immediately thought I should seize the opportunity… And here I am!
This simple statement brought warm applause from the crowd inside the church.
The Pope went on to consider the testimony of this first canonized American citizen, who was born in the town of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano in 1850, sent by Pope Leo XIII to Italian immigrants in the United States, and died in Pope Leo XIV's hometown (as he noted) of Chicago in 1917.
He spoke of the welcome he received in Sant'Angelo this June 20 as a sign of the love for the Successor of Peter that Mother Cabrini also showed centuries ago.
It was another Leo's invitation, Leo XIII's, -- "Not to the East, but to the West" -- that is recorded in history as the foundation of Cabrini's missionary life. She had gone to the Pope with a desire to go to China, and instead, he sent her to America.
Cabrini's missionary heart and obedience led the current Leo to a question:
[I]f we look at today’s world, what are we to say? That ‘sign’ — that is, the phenomenon of migration — has entered a different phase, certainly a more complex one, yet no less capable of challenging the Church.
Let us ask ourselves: if Mother Francesca were alive today, what would her missionary spirit tell her? Or rather, what would the Heart of Christ say to her heart as a woman consecrated to Him and to the service of His Kingdom? And what would a pope, like Francis – who, as the son of Italian emigrants, made service to migrants one of the key priorities of his pontificate – have asked of her?
Pope Leo went on to reflect about his predecessor's emphasis on loving the poor as a manifestation of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and how Mother Cabrini is a shining figure in the Church's history when this love for the poor is manifested in accompanying migrants.
"Brothers and sisters, what could be more relevant today than this charism? I say this here, before the relic of Mother Cabrini’s heart, brought from the Mother House in Codogno," he said.
And then he urged people to get to know Mother Cabrini, and invited the local Church to "always be distinguished by those qualities that shine forth in this most glorious daughter."
"Through her example and her intercession, may St. Cabrini help you to be in love with Christ, witnesses to his Gospel in a dynamic and generous way, at the service of the poorest. May she help you to live out an effective synodality, walking united and striving together for holiness, in the diversity of gifts and ministries. For this, I assure you of my prayers."
[Note: This article is written with an Aleteia translation of the Pope's words, as an official Vatican translation is not yet available at the time of publication.]
