The Marie de la Roche Province of the international Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence is a Roman Catholic Community of more than 400 women religious and associates in the United States and the Caribbean. We are committed to: cherishing our intercultural and international ties; striving for right relationships with all; living and promoting every form of non-violence; courageously risking being marginalized; and generously sharing even in the midst of scarcity. The Leadership Team and the Peace and Justice Committee join with other members of our community to publicly add our voices to those of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, The Catholic Sisters of Western Pennsylvania, the U.S. Catholics Bishops, and Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh Diocese. We are compelled to proclaim our strong disagreement and opposition to the executive order concerning immigration and refugees resettlement.
Our sisters came to this country in 1876, as immigrants, to minister to immigrants in health care and education. For more than 140 years we have been, in the words of our founder Bishop Emmanuel von Ketteler, “ever ready to aid our suffering, needy neighbors.”
One of our sponsored institutions, La Posada Providencia in San Benito, Texas, is a refuge for asylum seekers to our country. Working with Homeland Security, La Posada has helped over 8,600 persons be resettled in the U.S. Our sisters ministering in Clinton, North Carolina, strive to enable young people, who were brought to this country as children, to obtain documentation through the DACA legislation. The current executive order to ban people from selected countries with Muslim majority populations and indefinitely suspend resettlement of Syrian refugees, goes counter to all we believe in as Christians and as women religious, who remain committed to the Biblical mandate to “welcome the stranger in our midst.”
We will continue to welcome refugees and give aid to immigrants at La Posada Providencia and work to end unnecessary deportations, especially for the children brought to this country. We also pledge to support legislation that remedies our current flawed immigration system.
(Pictured right: Sr. Zita Telkamp and infant at La Posada Providencia)
