The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) have been confronted with the phenomenon of migration since the foundation of the congregation. As the typhus epidemic raged, decimating the population, especially the Irish, Mother Marie-Rose did not hesitate to adopt three young orphan girls from the same family. In spite of the limited means available to the Congregation at that time, she joined forces with the families of the region to take in the three young girls, aged 9 to 15.
For the record, the two older sisters, Mary and Rose-Anna Mullin, later became SNJM nuns with the names: Sr. Marie-du-St-Sacrement and Sr. Marie-Philomène. They had adopted their new family.
The quality of welcome and compassion shown to these young orphans has not denied over time. In the mid-1970s, successive waves of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees fled their country by the thousands aboard boats. They were called “boat people”.
Like their founder, the SNJMs will be involved in sponsoring Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian families and more recently Syrian families. This reception is not just an administrative process. The nuns are engaged in a community effort with others, because “to sponsor is to build a family.”
Concrete initiatives in addition to political advocacy
In parallel to these various commitments, the Congregation made political representations, notably to the Canadian Minister of Employment and Immigration in 1987. Mariette Payment, Superior General, questioned in a letter the new measures imposed at that time while pointing out: “We know that the present immigration crisis is due in large part to the difficult political situation in Central America. We therefore encourage the Canadian government to take all possible measures to promote peace in this region. As long as this peace does not exist, we believe that it is the responsibility of Canada and the United States to respond generously to the needs of refugees from these countries.”
There have been a number of initiatives and political approaches to support the cause of migrants and refugees. Among these initiatives, we should mention the creation of the House of Peace organization in Manitoba to promote the social integration of migrant women and the collective stand taken by the SNJMs in favour of migrants and refugees in 2017. The latter comes at a time of increasing injustice involving refugees and migrants around the world, including racism and modern slavery.
Several political representations were made by SNJMs in the United States in 2018 alone to speak out against the injustices faced by migrant and refugee persons. Among them was a demonstration involving women religious and SNJM-affiliated individuals, specifically in support of asylum-seeking families. In Portland, Oregon, women religious and their allies prayed and called on leaders to respect human rights to immediately reunite children separated from their parents at the border. Calls were also made to members of the U.S. Congress echoing the same rhetoric and recalling the teachings of Jesus: “The strangers among you shall be among you, and you shall love them as yourselves, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34).
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