Vatican City, Oct 7, 2025 / 08:00 am
A new institute at Pope Leo XIV’s undergraduate alma mater wants to change the “mental pattern” that associates immigrants with crime.
In the 19th century, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini embraced the travails of millions of recently arrived Italian immigrants to the United States. Inspired by this legacy of the first American saint, Villanova University — the flagship institution of the Order of St. Augustine — has just launched the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration.
It was from this institution of higher learning in Philadelphia that Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977.
The initiative is based on the Augustinian values of “veritas, unitas, and caritas” (truth, unity, and charity) and seeks to bring together the academic community and other external stakeholders to promote concrete actions to address the contemporary challenges of migration.
“Currently, there is a mentality that associates immigrants with crime, drug trafficking, or human trafficking. However, immigrants are the ones who care for our children and our elders; we open the doors of our homes to them so they can clean our homes. We invite them into the most intimate parts of our lives, yet the media generates contrary images that make it difficult to recognize their humanity,” explained Professor Michele Pistone, director of the center, which was inaugurated at the Vatican on Sept. 30.
The institute seeks to reverse negative perceptions through an interdisciplinary approach based on four pillars: teaching, research, advocacy, and service.
“We want to transform hearts and minds, work with all Villanova colleges, and connect with centers, alumni, and community partners to create systemic change,” the professor said.
For Pistone, the university is an ideal setting for this type of work. “What better place to do it than at a university, where we can study it, be active on the ground, learn from the experience, and teach students — the future leaders of our country and businesses — to understand the migrant experience?”
The scholar also participated in the event “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home,” which took place in Rome from Oct. 1–3 ahead of the Jubilee of Migrants (Oct. 4–5). The more than 200 participants in the global gathering from over 40 countries were welcomed to the Vatican last week by Pope Leo XIV.
As Pistone explained in conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the seed of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration was planted in 2022 when Pope Francis called on universities to research and teach more about migrants and refugees.
“I was in the front row and felt like he was speaking directly to me. I felt a personal calling to be part of the solution,” said the law professor at Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law.
Personal inspiration and lifelong commitment
Pistone’s passion for migration is deeply rooted in her family history. During her studies in Italy, she visited Sicily in search of the origins of her grandparents, who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
“Seeing my relatives, who didn’t know my father, and seeing how they rejoiced in his accomplishments in New York, changed my life. I began to understand the history of migrants from a lived perspective, and that led me to work with asylum seekers since 1999,” Pistone said.
For Pistone, migration is part of the identity and mission of the United States. “My state, Pennsylvania, was founded as a refuge for those fleeing religious persecution. That’s what asylum is all about: offering refuge to those who cannot live according to their beliefs or express themselves freely,” she explained.
Inspired by the life and work of Mother Cabrini, canonized by Pius XII in 1946, Pistone emphasized the value of the newly inaugurated center as an intellectual and social hub: “Mother Cabrini was a visionary and social entrepreneur. Her charisma guides us today in asking ourselves: What is Mother Cabrini’s work in the contemporary world? We want to carry out that mission through education, research, public advocacy, and service.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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“…yet the media generates contrary images that make it difficult to recognize their humanity…”
The media doesn’t generate the reality of crimes, murders, rapes, drug trafficking, that are committed by some immigrants. They are facts, and those like Ms. Pristone who wish to point out, I guess, that not all immigrants commmit crimes, need to at least admit those facts, and not discount the human suffering (yes, that’s part of “humanity” as well) that they involve. I suppose one can also point out that not all Sicilians were involved with the Mafia, many in fact were victims of it, but wouldn’t it have been good if our immigration system had been able to sort out those who were and prevent their entry?
The failure of Church efforts, from the popes on down to bishops and archbishops here and the various good hearted people like this lady, to spin the story of immigration differently is due to their utter unwillingness to admit and address the reality that there are Americans, born and bred here, whose lives will be irrevocably damaged by the criminal element within the masses of immigrants that have flooded in over the recent decades. The popes and bishops run no risk of being raped or murdered by that element, but little people out in the towns and streets of America will have those things happen to them. There is a moral question here about immigration policy that needs to addressed instead of ignored as it is with rosy pictures of kindly immigrants cleaning our homes and caring for our elderly, which is also perfectly true, but incomplete.
The problem is not immigrants who have entered the country legally and committed crimes, it is citizens of foreign countries who have entered and taken up residence in our country outside of the legal protocols — that is, persons who have entered the country illegally and maintained residence.
That is the issue.
Don’t turn this into a discrimination case because it isn’t. It is astonishing that any religious body in the cause of enhancing its moral superiority, would defend illegal entry and maintained residency. Those most adversely impacted by 20 million illegal aliens entering the country are the impoverished citizens of our nation. The theatrics of “religious” institutions around this enterprise undermine any credibility they might have. Unless they can erase a 37 trillion debt by wishing it they best go mum.
Yet another example of empty-headed woke-Catholicism.
The simple, ugly reality is that we have no clear idea what kind of people have come across the border as a result of Biden’s open door policy. They haven’t been properly vetted. Maybe they are decent people, maybe not. That being the case, it’s better to not give illegals any benefit of the doubt. If they are here in violation of federal law, they need to be deported immediately. That is the best way to honor the “humanity” of law-abiding, tax-paying American citizens. Americans first!