Several times in Treats for the Soul over the last few years I have told a memorable story that occurred when I was just 26-years old. I was a newly-ordained priest serving at Our Lady of the Brook Parish in Northbrook, Illinois. Our pastoral associate and religious ed coordinator was Sr. JoAnn Persch, a Sister of Mercy. Sr. JoAnn developed a life-threatening blood disease in 1971 and was confined to Mercy Hospital on the South side of Chicago.
Almost every Saturday, parishioners would make the trip in their station wagons to Mercy Hospital to give blood for Sr. JoAnn.
I was there one Saturday morning when a disheveled young man walked up to the receptionist’s desk and turned in his card so he could give blood. He was unshaven and his jeans were torn. The receptionist glanced at him and at his card and remarked, “Young man, you have not filled in the line that says you are donating blood for the $35.00.” “I don’t want the $35.00,” he shot back at her.
“So you are here to donate for Sr. JoAnn?” she replied. “I don’t know any Sr. JoAnn,” he retorted. She raised her voice, “Young man, you’re not here for the $35.00 and you don’t know Sr. JoAnn. Who should we give your blood to?”
He looked at her and said, “Give it to the person in Chicago who needs it the most.” I learned a lesson in empathy and compassion that day I have never forgotten.
Sr. JoAnn Persch miraculously recovered from her blood disease. I continued to work side by side with her for the five years I was in the parish. She was such a gentle soul to work with. She truly cared for everyone she encountered. She daily lived out the words of Jesus, “If you did it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” I believe the Lord kept her alive because the Lord had special work for her to do. And she continued to live the miracle God had given her.
Sr. JoAnn and her life-long friend, Sr. Pat Murphy, also a Sister of Mercy, then became trailblazers of the Chicago immigrant movement. Together they spent decades fighting for immigrant and refugee rights in Chicago and across the country.
Sr. JoAnn, alongside Sr. Pat, was an early advocate of Chicago’s immigrant sanctuary movement. She and others worked to create a Catholic sanctuary mission in the 1980s as a response to civil wars going on in Central America.
Sr. JoAnn and Sr. Pat founded the Su Casa Catholic Worker House in Back of the Yards in Chicago in 1990, raising community funds to provide housing for refugees fleeing violence and political persecution in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Haiti.
Sr. JoAnn spent seven years living at Su Casa alongside men, women and children who were survivors of torture, providing newly arrived asylum seekers with housing and continued support. Su Casa continues today to offer a one-year residency for domestic violence survivors and people experiencing homelessness.
Recently….. Immigrant advocacy groups have been protesting against ICE and its Operation Midway Blitz. Crowds have gathered outside of the Broadview, Illinois ICE processing center to protest the detainment of Chicago residents. Sr. JoAnn was among those protesters. That is, until she died suddenly on November 14th at the age of 91. Sr. Pat Murphy preceded her in death on July 21st at the age of 96.
Sr. JoAnn’s connection to the Broadview processing center dates back decades, to when she and Sr. Pat began organizing weekly prayer vigils at the ICE facility. This is often the final stop for migrants scheduled for deportations.
The two sisters prayed the rosary in English and Spanish outside the facility every Friday since Jan. 5, 2007, no matter what the weather was like. The two nuns were often the last to see these immigrants before they embarked on their lifechanging journeys. They brought Holy Communion every week to those who were detained until ICE stopped them from doing so this year.
Sr. JoAnn and Sr. Pat began a “hug ministry” outside the facility. “Families were traumatized and they’d come up to us, and what could we say but just hold them and let them express their grief,” she said.
Guided by her faith, Sr. JoAnn fought against policies she saw as inhumane and in violation of the dignity of each person. She never took “no” for an answer — a mission that did not waver in her old age of 91or through unprecedented immigration enforcement.
“Her heart was so big,” said Sister Rita Specht, a Sister of Mercy who worked closely with Sr. JoAnn and Sr. Pat. “When she saw a need for the poor and the immigrants, she responded to them with all her heart.”
Through my 56 years as a priest I have been so blessed to have been able to look up to Sr. JoAnn Persch and Sr. Pat Murphy for guidance. They put me on the right path in my life at the very beginning of my ministry and I am forever grateful. May they both now enjoy the eternal hugs that Jesus has been waiting almost a century to give them.
What would a “Hug Ministry” mean in YOUR life?
LIFE IS A MIRACLE AND EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE IS A GIFT FROM GOD!
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