Immigration Justice, Together
Beth Piggush, Integral Ecology Director, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
From @thefranciscansisters Instagram.
Many people separate the words “immigration” and “justice.” The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) does not. For more years than we can count, FSPA sisters, affiliates, and partners in mission have carried out immigration justice work. FSPA is a community of vowed Franciscan women centered in Eucharist, committed to being a loving presence through prayer, witness, and service. It is written in the FSPA constitutions of Unity in Diversity #40: “True to our Franciscan calling, we commit ourselves to building Christ’s Kingdom of justice and peace.” The challenge is to see the image of God in others and to construct bridges to meet them, wherever they are.
The FSPA congregation is based in La Crosse and has connections across Wisconsin through friends and families, and also sponsored ministries. The religious community was founded by women from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria, and arrived in Milwaukee in 1849. Their intent was to support German immigrants through education and caring for the disadvantaged. Eventually, the women split into two congregations: the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Milwaukee and the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse. This background is a reminder that our spiritual communities, cities, and towns have been founded by immigrants. It is being taught to 4th graders in Wisconsin schools, too, as they learn the history of our state, which includes immigration and migration history.
Daily, the past and the present of FSPA immigration justice work is connected. We bring witness, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally, to directly support our sisters and brothers in need. We serve with two feet of love, in charity and justice. As part of charity, we organize translation support for paperwork, sponsor Kino border immersions, and provide financial assistance to direct service organizations. When we cannot be hands-on with people offering support, we try to lift up the others who do. For example, FSPA, on the western side of Wisconsin, is collaborating with the Coulee Region Immigration Task Force. Ahead of inauguration day, like many other faith communities, we organized internally to understand ICE, KYR (Know Your Rights), and how to follow executive orders. We know there are present needs for people, but we are also thinking about the long-term and systemic changes that are necessary. We are engaging in political ministry and are learning from organizations like NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and the Sierra Club.
The work we know we need to do is get at the root causes of problems facing our communities by advocating for just public policies and helping to change social structures that contribute to suffering and injustice. FSPA, working on immigration, took to heart a letter Pope Francis wrote in February 2025. Addressed to the U.S. Conference of Bishops, he said, “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.” As Franciscans and Catholics, we know we can do more.
As a congregation of women religious, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration are members of the national group Leadership Council for Women Religious (LCWR). In Wisconsin, we are part of Region 9 of LCWR, where several congregations work together on legislative justice and peace issues. We know that we are not alone in this work, and our LCWR Region 9 is a member of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. Which brings this article full circle to how we can do more together for immigration justice.
Our next step for immigration justice is one of storytelling and letters to the editor. We need your help. Each story we share about immigration brings to the forefront how we are all connected. The opportunity to share in a public way, telling elected officials about your values and holding them accountable, is vital right now. FSPA has been learning from the NETWORK Lobby, an inclusive, national, Catholic advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., about letter-to-the-editor writing. We took their materials (linked below) and expanded on it, to help our own networks go a little deeper in the steps to really get involved. With your help, every newspaper in Wisconsin could have a letter to the editor each week for the next several months about immigration justice. We want to be authentic and keep the stories rolling.
If you are interested in joining our immigration justice letter to the editor campaign, please feel free to use the information provided below. We are sharing this with our sisters, affiliates, partners in mission, other Franciscans, the LCWR Region 9 network, and now with all of you, because we know we can do more together. If you want to get started on your own, please feel free to use this spreadsheet to find your local paper.
If you want more information or a little bit of handholding, please send your full name, house of worship, and town to EcoPact@fspa.org.
We will add you to our email list as we get closer to sending instructions and a few more details with sample text.
Additional Resources
NETWORK Lobby - https://networklobby.org/issues/
Letter to the Editor training video recording HERE and slides HERE.
NETWORK’s brand new 2025 Messaging Guide can be viewed HERE.
NETWORK’s Federal Executive Action Tracker.
You may also be interested in NETWORK’s two new upcoming trainings on Hosting Public Events and Using Social Media for Effective Advocacy.
Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs, George W. Bush Institute, April 2016, Issue #2, https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/north-american-century/benefits-of-immigration-outweigh-costs
