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In This Issue - Perspectives Fall 2007

International Friendship Gardens in Riverside Park, La Crosse, Wis. This waterfall and pond honors the vision, and passion and pioneering spirit of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adorrtion . . . verse on a plaque in the gardens donated by the physicians and staff of Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in honor of the FSPA.

On April 13, 1849, the steamer Hermann, which had sailed from Bremen on the preceding March 15, arrived in New York with its one hundred and twenty passengers. Among these was a party of fourteen men and women, lay Tertiaries of St. Francis. They were to add another chapter of the glorious saga of the Franciscan Order, for it was they who built on the shores of Lake Michigan the first humble motherhouse in the United States of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.
A Chapter of Franciscan History

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants swarmed to the American shore during the decade of 1840 to 1850. Today a heated immigration reform debate exists and floods the World Wide Web with not only differing current numbers of immigrants—both legal and illegal, but wild projections on the future effect of immigration.

In this issue of Perspectives, we explore how immigration affects FSPA and how FSPA is affecting immigration. We look at the work of one FSPA in Iowa, who is helping Hispanic people preserve their heritage while bridging cultural gaps. We also take a close look at what immigration can mean for those left behind—the realities of a small Central American country. And we look back to 1983 and the start of the Indo-chinese Screening Clinic in La Crosse and catch up with the Hmong community today. Finally, because solutions to even the biggest of problems often start with a small step, we look at the ministry grants program FSPA sponsors, and the immigrant-focused projects it helps fund.

A Chapter of Franciscan History tells us the steamer Hermann voyage left no records to detail the ocean voyage . . . no diary to share the emotions or experiences. Let this issue of Perspectives be the diary of today’s immigration experiences.

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