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ST. LOUIS — At CHA's first all-staff retreat since 2018, 68 employees gathered at the association's office to connect with one another, share ideas and foster bold thinking, and discuss how best to advance CHA's strategic priorities.

A highlight of the 2 ½-day meeting in late October was the screening of Cabrini, a recently released movie on the life and legacy of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known colloquially as Mother Cabrini. In the late 1800s, she immigrated from her native Italy to found health care and social service ministries, mainly for New York City's large population of impoverished immigrants. Her work spurred the founding of numerous Catholic health and social ministries worldwide, and she was the first American citizen to be canonized.

CHA leaders say the film provided the association's staff with inspiration and an important example for carrying out CHA's strategic plan, which focuses on three themes: care for all, health reimagined and united for change.

CHA Vice President and Chief of Staff Amy Ballance says, "Mother Cabrini showed great boldness despite challenges, and her message was to look beyond yourself to help others that you may not see. Hers is just one example of the work many of our founding sponsors have done before us to advance the access to health care in the United States."

Ballance adds, "This movie came at a perfect time to remind our colleagues of the remarkable women and men who came before us." She says of CHA staff and members and partners, "It is now our turn to leave the world in a better place."

Determination amid trials
Angel Studios released Cabrini March 8 under the tagline: "The world is too small for what I intend to do." According to its website, Angel Studios is "a film studio that emphasizes stories that shed light in the darkness and focus on brightening the world around us."

Cabrini covers the nun's dogged determination to convince Pope Leo XIII to allow her to begin an overseas mission; her acceptance of his challenge to serve first in New York City; and the continual trials she and six other Missionary Sisters endured from the moment they stepped foot in that city in 1889. Despite the pervasiveness of disease, crime, poverty, and political and societal opposition, the sisters committed themselves to helping to ensure that New York City's most vulnerable could access basic necessities, housing and health care.

The movie lays bare the harsh realities of immigrant life in the late 1800s in New York City, including the throngs of orphaned children living on the streets and in sewers with no protection from human predators and other threats. Cabrini shows how a small group of women guided by a single-mindedly dedicated leader saved the lives of these and many other vulnerable people.

By the time St. Cabrini died in 1917 at age 67, she had "established an astonishing 67 hospitals, orphanages, and schools" around the world, according to Angel Studios' web page on the movie. "Her energy was fueled by an intense focus on serving Jesus in whatever he asked of her and her legacy still stands today," the website says.

Bold change
CHA screened the movie for employees at the retreat because, as Ballance explains, "we know our current strategic plan pushes us outside of our comfort zone. I was hoping all of our team members would be as inspired as I was to take on something bigger than ourselves. Big changes are needed for our current health delivery system, and we must be bold in our mindset and actions in order to influence that change."

Diarmuid Rooney, CHA vice president, sponsorship and mission services, helped to introduce the movie at the end of first day of the retreat and led a reflection on it at the start of the second. "I invited all of us to reflect on Mother Cabrini's strengths and actions and how they might speak to each of us individually and collectively as the Catholic Health Association. … we thought about the challenges she faced and overcame and how the types of strengths she exhibited can guide us in addressing the challenges we face today in health care."

During the reflection, CHA employees broke into groups and used a discussion process similar to that used in the Catholic Church's 2021- 2024 Synod on Synodality. That method gives a chance for every participant in the session to process information, share their insights, listen to the insights of others and exchange ideas about what they are learning.

Immediately after the reflection on the film, staff engaged in small-group deliberations on CHA's implementation of the current strategic plan, drawing on the inspiration of Sr. Cabrini in the process.

Keon Blackledge, CHA senior director of strategic integration, says transformation is needed now in health care. CHA's strategic plan, he says, emphasizes what it will take to help lead that transformation, including innovation, unity, collaboration and service.

He says, "The collective energy and creativity demonstrated by our team during the retreat … underscores our shared passion for improving the health and well-being of all."

Rooney says CHA employees come away from the movie screening, reflection, strategic planning and other retreat activities more equipped to take on the challenges ahead. "We have a bold vision and strategic plan that envisions a world where everyone has access to dignified health care, especially the marginalized," he says. "Achieving this requires a commitment to justice, service and solidarity —inspired by leaders like Mother Cabrini — who showed that small, determined actions can create significant, lasting change."