On Sunday, Nov. 8, Catholic churches across the country are invited to celebrate Mother Cabrini Sunday commemorating the legacy of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.
The Italian saint, who immigrated to the United States, cared for countless abandoned children. Mother Cabrini, as she was fondly called, died in the early 1900s after founding an order called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and almost 70 orphanages, schools and other social service establishments.
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The idea for Mother Cabrini Sunday was inspired by Kimberly Henkel, a local foster and adoptive mother from Mount Vernon, and her husband, Greg, who co-founded an organization called Springs of Love, which supports foster parenting and adoption in the Church.
“I am connected with the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO),” Henkel said, “and each year, they ask the Evangelical churches to take one Sunday to speak about the foster care crisis in the United States and the global orphan crisis around the world.”
As a Catholic, Henkel decided to promote Mother Cabrini’s mission in the Catholic Church by coining Mother Cabrini Sunday to align with CAFO’s pursuit. “I didn’t realize it at the time,” she recalled. “Mother Cabrini’s feast day is Nov. 13, which is right around the second Sunday of every November, so it’s pretty providential.”
Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator, 4475 Dublin Road, will host a Springs of Love event Sunday in the Davidson Room following the parish’s 10:45 a.m. Mass. It will provide information on the many ways Catholics can support foster care and adoption in their communities.
“Our mission at Springs of Love is to form and equip a growing number of Catholics to foster, adopt and support families,” Henkel said. “There’s so much isolation … for those who have been adopted, for birth moms and for foster and adoptive families, … particularly in the Catholic Church; they feel completely unseen.”
When the Henkels first entered the world of foster care, they realized the small number of Catholics involved. “We did not meet one other Catholic family when we were fostering,” Henkel recalled. “I met a lot of Protestants who were fostering, and they were just these beautiful families who were … on mission. I was like, ‘I want to take this to the Catholics.'”
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There is a major shortage nationwide of individuals willing to foster children. Henkel said she feels strongly that youth need Catholic families and households.
“There is such a need particularly (for) Catholic foster families who have faith, who know Jesus,” she said. “These are children who have been abused, who have been neglected. They need to know the love of Jesus … desperately.”
Henkel acknowledged that not everyone is called to be a foster parent, which is why Springs of Love’s mission is to make Catholics aware of the variety of ways they can help and support foster families.
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“Our message is that not everyone is called to foster,” she said. “Fostering is really hard; … a great way for people to get involved is to support a foster family, and that means (maybe) making them a meal once a month. Maybe find out from the foster parents what is something that child really loves, … you know, maybe they want to take dance lessons.
“We have this one foster family in one of our parishes and they brought in a teenage girl, and she had a rock collection that was lost in the midst of all her moving. So, her Springs of Love care team went out and got her a rock collection.”
According to Henkel, prayer is most necessary. “We need people praying,” she encouraged. “We need people to be praying for these children, for these families, and praying as to how God wants them to respond. It all starts with prayer. That was (Mother Cabrini’s) whole life and mission. Everything she did was so rooted in prayer.”
To learn more, visit www.SpringsofLove.org.
