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January 8, 2025, Chicago – Sister Marianne Supan, OP, received the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Award from the Immigration Ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago last month in recognition of her many years of dedication to the welfare of immigrants in the Chicago area.
The award was presented during the 12th Annual Keep Hope Alive Fundraiser, held at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. The event benefits the Immigration Ministry and the National Pastoral Migratoria, a parish-based ministry that offers “service, justice, and accompaniment actions in parish communities with large immigrant populations.”
The St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Award recognized Sister Marianne as the “embodiment of Mother Cabrini’s missionary and pastoral spirit and tireless service to immigrants as exemplified by [her] extensive work with the Hispanic Ministry at the church of the Holy Spirit.”
Sister Marianne said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich formally presented the awards during a reception prior to the main event of the evening. Later, with the larger group of attendees, the award recipients were asked to stand to be recognized, she said.
One of the highlights of the evening for her was the attendance of eight Adrian Dominican Sisters and two Associates: Sisters Mary Priniski, OP, Mary Soher, OP, Maribeth Howell, OP, Donna Markham, OP, Jane Zimmerman, OP, Joan Mary, OP, Jean Keeley, OP, and Judy Rimbey, OP, and Associates Carol Fowler and Kathy Almaney. In her 27 years as a Pastoral Associate at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg, Illinois, Sister Marianne spent much of her time working with the area’s large Hispanic population. Her responsibilities included working with the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society and outreach and social justice ministry, often with the immigrant population. “A lot of people have the impression that immigrants are coming to the city first, but they’re coming to the suburbs, where jobs like landscaping are more prevalent,” she said.
As part of the parish’s peace and justice ministry, Sister Marianne was involved in the organization’s advocacy for a state law that would replace the Temporary Visitor Driver’s License with the standard, four-year driver’s license given to qualified Illinois residents of legal immigration status. The Illinois legislature passed the bill in 2023.
Sister Marianne said the Church of the Holy Spirit has also offered direct service to local immigrants. Its food pantry serves more than 200 families – including immigrants – each week. The parish also provides financial assistance to help people pay their utility bills and offers English as a Second Language classes, she said.
Church of the Holy Spirit recently merged with St. Gregory of Nyssa Parish. Sister Marianne served at the merged parish for about a year before her recent retirement from formal ministry.
Sister Marianne said the immigrants have taught her much over the years. “I’ve learned that the people are hopeful,” she said. “They have a lot of determination. Over the long haul, having been involved with some people for many years, you see them get a better life and more security for their children. On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of sad stories, too.”
But Sister Marianne has also learned from the gratitude of the people she serves. “They’re grateful,” she said. “When they find someone open to helping them, they’re so grateful … Some of them are very active in the church and want to give back.”
November 21, 2024, Gaylord, Michigan – About 80 people attended Walking the Red Road: Recognizing Ourselves as Individuals and Part of the Whole, a conference held last month for Native and non-Native Catholics in the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan. Sister Susan Gardner, OP, Director of the Native American Apostolate for the diocese, was involved in the conference.
Walking the Red Road gave participants the opportunity to gather, engage in Native rituals, pray, listen to words of apology from the U.S. Catholic bishops, learn to live as Natives and Catholics, and dialogue with the Church.
“This is the fourth conference since I’ve been here … and the first since COVID,” Sister Sue said. The conference drew both Native and non-Native Catholics. “We always have a big group of non-Natives who come because they’re very interested in learning about Native Americans,” she said.
Father Michael Carson, Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, spoke on the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ document, Keeping Christ’s Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry, approved by the bishops at their June 2024 assembly. In the document, the bishops outline the history of the Catholic Church’s policies that harmed the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, including the Doctrine of Discovery, papal bulls that encouraged European nations to invade and conquer lands in which Christians were not living; forced relocation of the native peoples to reservations; and boarding schools in which “Indigenous children were forced to abandon their traditional languages, dress, and customs.”
The bishops further apologized for the role that the Catholic Church played in the trauma experienced by Native Americans and set forth a pastoral plan to walk with them into the future.
The conference also included a talk on Being Native and Catholic by Father Henry Sands, of the Little Traverse Bay Band and Bkejwanong First Nation, Ontario; two sessions of the Talking Circle; and a closing Mass, celebrated by Bishop of Gaylord Jeffrey Walsh.
Featured throughout the conference was a book containing the names of all children who attended Holy Childhood, a boarding school in Harbor Springs, Michigan, which was opened in the 1880s and closed in 1983. At the start of the conference, a Native woman who survived the school lit a candle, which burned all day for the former students, Sister Sue said.
The book listing the names of the boarding school students is one way that the Diocese of Gaylord is reaching out to Native Catholics. “It was a monumental task,” involving the use of a special machine that could take pictures of the school rosters, Sister Sue explained. A bound copy of the book was given to each tribal chairperson, she added.
Another way the diocese reaches out is through the conference. “The people [who] were there did appreciate the efforts and were glad we did it,” Sister Sue said. The diocese will make “any effort we can to let the Native American people know we’re sincere, but it takes a long time to develop that trust. You just keep trying to do what you can and reach out.”
Sister Susan also ministers at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Suttons Bay, Michigan, which serves both Native and non-Native Catholics. She said she tries to bring as much Native tradition to the parish as she can. “For special occasions, we have our Eagle Staff brought in by a veteran,” she said. An Eagle Staff represents a Native tribe or family. Rituals also include smudging – the ceremonial use of burned sacred herbs to cleanse items or people. On Ash Wednesday, the ashes are smudged with sage, she said.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish also offers workshops on making cedar oil, which is used to bless children when they’re born and honors the tradition of Ghost Suppers. During these suppers, which are hosted on the Feast of Holy Souls (November 2), Native Americans walk from place to place honoring those who have died. Rather than providing a ghost supper, however, the parish offers a ghost breakfast.
Along with honoring and celebrating the Native American cultures and celebrations, the diocese and the parish strive to bring healing and reconciliation to Native Catholics. “The big thing they’re asking from the Church is for their stories to be heard and for some type of remuneration” for the trauma caused at boarding schools and places, Sister Sue said.
Feature photo at top: Members of the Spirit Lake Drum Group of the Little Traverse Bay Band provide the Honor Song for the opening of the Walking the Red Road Conference, sponsored by the Diocese of Gaylord.