By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News

When Sr. Malou Tibayan of the Verbum Dei Missionary Community presented Feminine Genius II at a diocesan women’s breakfast in Saskatoon earlier this year, two of the women of note that she highlighted in her talk had been featured in recent movies. “Cabrini” tells the story of St. Frances Cabrini, while “Hidden Figures” chronicles the experience of mathematician Katherine Johnson and other African-American women at NASA.

As part of adult faith programming in the diocese this fall, the Msgr. Michael Koch Resource Library at the Catholic Pastoral Centre was transformed into a movie theatre for showings of the two films as a follow-up to the Feminine Genius presentation.

“Cabrini” was shown on Oct. 2 and “Hidden Figures “will be shown on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. (LINK to register), with some time for reflection and discussion as well.

Courage

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — also known as Mother Cabrini (1850-1917) — founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious order that provided education, health care and other services to the poor — especially ministering to Italian immigrants in the United Sates. In the diocesan Feminine Genius II presentation, Tibayan cited St. Frances Cabrini as a woman who demonstrated the quality of courage.

“While serving the poor and the sick Italian immigrants in the U.S., she encountered many challenges and difficulties, discrimination, rejection, poverty, language barriers, lack of resources, hostility from clergy and even bishops. But she did not give up. She trusted in God’s providence and relied on prayer. I believe that her courage is fruit of the gift of extraordinary faith,” said Tibayan.

Tenacity

Katherine Johnson — an African-American woman whose work at NASA was critical to the success of American astronauts — was cited by Tibayan as an example of the quality of tenacity.

Johnson, along with her companions Mary Jackson, the first African-American woman to work as an engineer at NASA , and Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician and computer expert, all demonstrated great tenacity in overccoming obstacles and prejudice to achieve their goals, Tibayan said.

“One of the lessons I learned from reading Katherine Johnson’s story is that if we are determined and patient in cultivating the gifts and talents God has given us, no matter how small or insignificant they may be, they can take us far more than what we could ever think or imagine,” said Tibayan at the Feminine Genius presentation earlier this year.

“Like Katherine Johnson, we need to be tenacious so that our God given gifts and charisms do not remain buried or hidden within us but put on the lampstand to give light to an ever darkening world.”

 

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Kiply Lukan Yaworski is the communications coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon – rcdos.ca.

Adult Faith, Communications, and Catholic Saskatoon News are all supported by gifts to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal: dscf.ca.