CHICAGO — A pair of elderly nuns from Chicago’s South Side have lately spent a lot of time praying. They sign petitions and lobby. They’ve been arrested singing hymns and praying the rosary under the marble rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, while holding photographs of children who’ve died in the custody of U.S. immigration agents.
Mercy Sisters Pat Murphy, about to celebrate her 95th birthday next month, and her partner in crime, JoAnn Persch, who turns 90 in June, have spent the past 45 years helping immigrants seeking asylum land on their feet by arranging housing and gathering the necessary papers so they can get jobs and put them on the path to U.S. citizenship.
“A priest friend of ours calls us ‘Rabble’ and ‘Rouser,’” Sr. JoAnn said, laughing.
Find out what's happening in Beverly-MtGreenwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
When she was in eighth grade, St. JoAnn knew she wanted to be a nun. Across the street from her Milwaukee grammar school was the School Sisters of St. Francis Mother House.
“I loved them. I spent a lot of time there. They had a high school program for girls to join the order,” Sr. JoAnn said. “My parents said absolutely not, and I’m very grateful that they did.”
Find out what's happening in Beverly-MtGreenwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Wanting their only child to be absolutely sure that her deep desire to enter religious life was genuine and true, they wanted their daughter to have the high school experience.
“I had a great time. I was in the drum and bugle corps,” she said, “but I still wanted to be a nun.”
After graduating from high school in 1952, Sr. JoAnn immediately joined the Sisters of Mercy during the era of black habits. Her friend, Sr. Pat, who grew up in Skokie, had joined the religious order in 1947.
At the time, the Sisters of Mercy operated a girls high school at the now defunct St. Patrick Academy in Des Plaines, which also served as the religious order’s convent. The Catholic girls high school closed in 1969 due to declining enrollment. The jets from O’Hare Airport a mile-and-a-half away had also taken a toll on the aging building. In 1954, an errant rocket from the Air Force airfield at O’Hare cleared an earthen berm designed to protect the surrounding neighborhood and hit the building’s foundation while classes were in session. Miraculously, there were no injuries or fatalities, and classes continued until the end of the day, an indicator of Srs. Pat and JoAnn’s future toughness.
“Part of that complex was where the novitiates entered,” Sr. Joann recalled. “The high school was still going, but we were in a separate part of the building. We were in our little world.”
As Mercy Sisters, the women took a vow of service to the poor, sick and uneducated.
“That’s given me and Sr. Pat a lot of leeway,” she said slyly.
Sr. Pat and Sr. JoAnn, having eschewed their black habits, began visiting federal immigrant detention centers in Illinois and Wisconsin during the 1980s, delivering hugs from the loved ones outside to the detainees inside.
In 1990, the pair joined the Su Casa Catholic Worker House in Back of the Yards, to assist arriving Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees who made the dangerous trek across Mexico to cross the U.S. southern border clandestinely.
“The Franciscans gave us a nice building when [St. Augustine Parish] closed,” Sr. JoAnn said. “We had women, men, families with kids — 20 people at a time in the house. We’d get them in school and their asylum papers in order. Central America was a big experience.”
So, in August 2022, when the first busload of migrants arrived in Chicago, the nonagenarian Sisters of Mercy — with their vast experience navigating the legalities of the U.S. immigration system — were called upon to help. They joined the City of Chicago, Catholic Charities and the National Immigrant Justice Center at a welcome center at 20th Street and Western to process different pieces of the asylum process. They’d provide snacks, clothing and medical area as the asylum seekers waited to be processed.
“Every day there would be another bus,” Sr. JoAnn said. “The city would meet them there, but it got so big the buses started dropping people off all over. They were taken to shelters and brought to the welcome center for processing. Five or six buses came every day. It was overwhelming.”
A majority of the new arrivals were fleeing the corruption and economic turmoil in Venezuela, shipped by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to Democrat-led cities like Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, who had declared themselves sanctuary cities.
Sr. JoAnn’s initial impression of the first group who arrived that August day was one of relief and gratitude. Many had made the treacherous trek through the dangerous Darién Gap connecting South America and Central America, exposed to disease, violence and bandits.
“I think they were grateful to be somewhere where they weren’t walking anymore and getting food,” Sr. JoAnn said. “There were pregnant women, single moms, some families with dads, little kids and older kids, from babies to teens.”
They all have stories of how they came to the United States and what they experienced in their country, making it hard for the helpers to know what to do.
“The stories we’ve heard from the people we’re working with, all that walking and not having enough food, getting sick and watching people die in the Darién Gap,” Sr. Joann said.
In October 2022, the Sanctuary Working Group asked Sr. Pat and Sr. Joann to help an asylum-seeking mother with five children from Sierra Leone. They brought the need to the Chicago Mercy Justice Committee of sisters and associates who agreed to find funds, housing, and all else the family would need.
“If you take in one family, you can’t help but take in another,” Sr. Joann Persch.
Their effort grew from one family to 11, impelling the Mercy Sisters to start Catherine’s Caring Cause, named for Sisters of Mercy foundress, Catherine McAuley, with a mission to accept and help other asylum-seeking families.
By the end of 2023, Catherine’s Caring Cause, Inc. was a full-fledged non-profit, with a 501(c)(3) and working board. The organization has situated 11 families in nine furnished homes on Chicago’s South Side. Each home has a volunteer mentor who helps with everything from enrolling kids in school and helping with medical and legal issues, to explaining how a washing machine works, with the help of English to Spanish Google Translate.
“We have wonderful people volunteering to help us,” Sr. JoAnn said. “Sr. Pat and I are in our 90s, so we get a little tired.”
The migrant group numbers 15 adults and 24 children, the Mercy Sisters are searching for one more home for an already identified family. Catherine’s Caring Cause pays the first year’s rent, utilities, legal and medical fees – everything a family could possibly need to land on their feet.
Sr. Pat turns 95 on April 20, and although a small house party is planned for her, she doesn’t want a big celebration, nor its expense, but is asking for donations to Catherine’s Caring Cause so they can continue helping the migrant families, and others, in their care.
“For me every person is a human being and as a person of faith, I believe every person is a child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” Sr. JoAnn said. “To consider them to be anything less is evil.”
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Click Here: Machine Nameplate