NEW YORK – The annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City was canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic; however, the day was celebrated on Monday with the unveiling of a statue to honor the life and legacy of Mother Cabrini.
At a ceremony in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo talked of Sr. Francesca Cabrini being sent by Pope Francis from her native Italy to New York to spread the word of love at a time of persecution of Italian immigrants.
“The same fundamental teaching that Pope Francis speaks about is the same teaching in the Torah, in the Koran, Buddhism and Hinduism – we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper,” the governor said. “Look at the irony. The only way to stop the spread of the disease, what we now call ‘community spread,’ is to actually form community, to actually care about one another and to reach out and help one another.”
Mother Cabrini was born in Italy in 1850 and died at age 67 in Chicago in 1917. She was canonized in 1946.
