U.S. Sisters: Pope shares our concern for plight of immigrants
By Isabella H. de Carvalho
As the United States has been affected by polarization and tension regarding social and political issues, the Church in the country has tried to be a voice of peace and harmony.
An association that seeks to read and respond to the signs of the times is the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).
Numbering approximately 30,000 members, it brings together leaders of Catholic women religious congregations and focuses on assisting them in carrying out their roles in the service of the Gospel and helping the Church respond to the changes affecting society.
On Thursday, March 26, Pope Leo XIV met with the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) during their annual trip to Rome and the Vatican. Among the topics discussed was the situation that his home country is going through at the moment.
When the Pope “listened to our story of the heart, about how painful it is right now in the United States in regards to the treatment of human beings, not even US citizens, just human beings themselves, I could see the pain on his face,” Sr. Carol Zinn, of the Sisters of St. Joseph and Executive Director of LWCR, told Vatican News.
The meeting with the Pope also included the three sisters that make up LCWR’s Presidency: the President, Sister Vicky Larson of the Presentation Sisters, the President-elect, Sister Debra Sciano of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and the former President, Sister Kathy Brazda of the Sisters of St. Joseph
The Gospel calls to welcome the stranger
Tensions have run high in the United States in the last year over the crackdown on immigration under the current government administration, with the situation reaching a boiling point in January 2026 after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens.
In November 2025, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasized its concern over the treatment of immigrants in the country. That same month, Pope Leo expressed his support for their statement and called for migrants to be treated with human dignity and respect.
The LWCR and the Pope definitely have a “shared concern for the plight of the immigrant and the Gospel call to welcome the stranger,” Sr. Vicky Larson told Vatican News.
Sr. Zinn explained that the religious members of LCWR are “doing everything that they can to help at the grassroots level,” providing people with basic necessities such as baby food or shoes or accompanying them to court.
“We also work at the advocacy level of the federal government, so we have a foot in both worlds,” she continued, highlighting how the Pope thanked them for their work.
Promoting listening and relationships to contrast polarization
Sr. Zinn underlined that the LCWR’s work is focusing at the moment on the “transformation of consciousness,” asking “how do we transform the way we think about one another and then the words that we use when we speak to each other?”
“The issue of polarization is alive and well, not only in the United States, but it's pretty raw in the United States,” she continued. “There's a tendency to exclude the other, just about everybody, and to set up camps.”
Therefore, much of the organization’s work recently has focused on building relationships to counter polarization at the human level. “We're trying to learn the skills ourselves and then invite others—our partners in ministry, the boards of our sponsored ministries that are all lay people—into this kind of learning process also,” Sr. Zinn explained.
“One of the things that we need to do to work for justice is to work on relationships and build bridges across divides so that people understand one another and can work together,” added Sr. Larson.
Their endeavor is nourished by the fact that they are religious, as “consecrated life is really built around that concept of discernment and listening together,” Sr. Larson said.
The efforts to help people understand one another also build “on what Pope Francis called all of us to in calling the Synod on Synodality,” she noted. “I think he really gifted us with a call to look at the way that we are Church together, and that we communicate and share wisdom.”
Women and leadership in the Church: a cultural issue
The two LCWR leaders highlighted that synodality is entrenched in many of their organizational structures, saying the sisters come together to discern how to respond to the needs of the times.
They also emphasized that they “engaged in the synod process 1,000%” by sending feedback that contributed to the two sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which took place in October 2023 and 2024.
Additionally, the two religious sisters explained they were very pleased to read paragraph 60 of the Final Document of the Synod, which insisted on women’s participation in the Church, highlighting that there should be no reason why women should not carry out leadership roles.
They also expressed their appreciation for the final report of one of the Synod’s Study Groups, which focused on women’s participation and leadership within the Church
“I’m pleased that the topic is being put on the table so that it can’t go away,” said Sr. Zinn. “I’m also pleased that there seems to be some understanding that's coming forth that this whole issue of the role of women in leadership in the Church is not theological, it's not ecclesial, it’s not historical, it’s not even canonical: It's cultural.”
“The conversations around the world, and certainly the United States, really need to begin at the cultural level,” she said.
Lastly, Sr. Zinn underlined the fact that both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have appointed women to leadership roles in the Church, saying it shows their commitment to changing this culture regarding the role of women.
