hello, on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to mosaic. the archdiocese of san francisco has a long and deep relationship with st. francis and his followers. the various congregations and religious people that follow the way of st. francis have many familiar ways, but we call them the san francisco. the relationship the city of san francisco is long, but it is not that long in the franciscan scale. our archdiocese is one of his in the starters, still in adolescence. she is named after her sainted father.

we all know who that is, st. francis of the season. the archdiocese was created 160 years ago. the mission church at the heart of the city was founded by francis followers less than 250 years ago. all of that is recent history in the franciscan town line. francis was born close to 800 years ago. for more than eight centuries, his followers have been among the spiritual, pastoral, and intellectual leaders of the catholic faith and church. what forms is this leadership taken? the way of st. francis is one of service, of humility, and self-sacrifice to others, and love for all creatures and creation. today, we will talk with sister ellen mccabe, one of the sisters of st. francis in our archdiocese, to learn about the franciscan mission, and way of life. please rejoin as after this brief break to meet sister ellen and enter into the special word

of the san franciscans.

hello, thank you for joining us on mosaic. our guest today is a franciscan. we will find out about the vast universe of franciscans in her special corner of it. this is sister ellen mccabe. thank you for joining us.

tell me the full name, you are one of the sisters of st. francis of penance and -- >> christian charity. >> penance and christian charity. we will talk about the vast universe of san franciscans. tell us where you are located and what you do. >> i am in red city california, that is the province offices for st. francis province. our congregation is an international congregation. we have preferences in 10 countries around the world. each province has missions in other countries. >> 10 countries around the world with provinces and sisters who populate them. >> right. we used to have in the heyday of the congregation, 5000 sisters worldwide. now, we are about 1200. >> that is pretty good numbers for the declining population of catholic religions. >> the most we have are in in

indonesia, tanzania, and brazil. the european provinces and american provinces are slowly aging >> we understand that, it is a demographic fact they are aging out. you say there were 5000 in the heyday, when was your congregation founded? >> we were founded in 1835, in a small village in southeastern holland, right along the german border. it was right after the napoleonic wars, and catherine damon was a young woman in the village, didn't have much education. but, was touched by god in her own space. and in her own heart, and wanted to serve. so, she became, there were no religious, the friars and the conference, everything had been closed during the napoleonic wars. >> how did she find the franciscan way? >> she got a job working in the sacristy, and slowly the

capuchins founded a third order section, a third order group that she belongs to. >> let's define that as third order for one of these religious congregations is associated late people or no? >> yes, the franciscans have three orders. first order is the friars.ndart layers, and then francis realized towards the end of his were called to be franciscan who were not free to become either a religious, because they have families. >> they still couldn't live in community because they had another altercation? >> yes, they had other obligations. the lay group was forms of these people can come together, share their faith, they could promote works together, but they still had their first commitment to their families. >> the founding of the first order was just after 1200, am i

wrong? >> right, 1222 i believe was the first rule. >> it seems confusing to the layman who looks into it, many different congregations. the original is the order of friars minor, then the pork lemons, did they have an official name? >> i think it is just the pork layers. they probably do, but i am not aware what the official title is. >> and if i am a third order san franciscan, but i have titles? >> our committee community, we have osf, order of st. francis. >> and yourself, how did you find this order as your vocation? how long have you been in it? >> i have been in it for 51 years. >> you joined when you were three. >> yes, i was very young. out of diapers. i went to a catholic high school in a small town in

nebraska called o'neill. in the community i belong to, our sisters were in the school there and had been since the late 1800s. i was attracted to their life, and knew i was called to it. i entered the community the year after i graduated from high school. >> and, was your tradition you would live in a community of sisters or carry out a certain work at your vocation? what did you see as your vocation and learn as your expertise? >> what i saw then was different than what i see now. what i saw then was a group of educated women who were educating the young people in my young town, in my area, and around the hospital. they were powerful women. they were well educated, and they had traveled, and there was something about them is the way they cared for us that i knew i wanted to join them. >> when you did, what was your training? what became your expertise?

>> i went to college. i majored in english and became an english teacher. i got my masters from holy names back in 91. >> only names here? >> yes. i came to california about 1980. i was teaching at sierra high school from the fall of 1982 until 2002. then, i did other various works for the community through the years. the community asked me at one point to go to germany to learn the culture of the language. then, i went as a missionary to tanzania for different times, several months. >> taking part in the international order? >> and teaching english over there. english is the language they need for higher education. >> exactly, you learned german but didn't become a translator?

>> no, if you want to be a translator, you have to learn from the ground up, not from your late 40s. >> you are not a teacher anymore, but you are working in the archdiocese of san francisco? >> i live in redwood city, i work in our internal government of the province. >> let's take a break there. we are going to be away for him and a minute, and we will come back and learn more.

hello, welcome back. i am here with sister ellen mccabe. do you have initials after your name? >> yes, our community is osf, order of st. francis. >> and you live and work locally, you are part of a international sisterhood with 10 provinces.

you get your style of religion from st. francis originally. that was a long time ago. i have forgotten some of my fifth grade catholic school learning. can you remind me about the original history of this? >> francis was the son of a wealthy merchant. when he was growing up, it was just the time when the merchant class was becoming part of that wealthy class. there was the nobility, clergy, and the peasants. some of the peasants were moving up in that area. francis came from a wealthy family. he had everything he wanted. he was kind of a playboy. you know, he had a reputation in the town, and was not always a good one i don't think. but, his dream was to go to the crusades. so he was on his way to join them, and he was in some battles and got knocked off of his horse, he was held prisoner for a year in peru show, which

was down the road from is easy. and, he had some dreams and visions then. it was a very dark time for him. when he went home, his father was not happy with him. and, francis had somehow heard that call from the lord deep inside himself, and he realized that he was repelled by some things in society. for him, it was the lepers. >> yes, okay. >> so, as he went on with his life and realized he wanted to go off to the crusades, but francis had a dream in which the lord said to him, francis do you want to serve, who do you want to serve? the lord or the master? and, well, of course he wanted to serve the master. so, he began to think. gradually, his conversion was a

slow one. sometimes we laugh at ourselves and sometimes we say we are franciscans before francis was converted, sometimes it was after. we all have to go through our own conversions. >> oh, i see. >> he was praying in this little church that he rebuilt. he heard the cross say to him, francis, rebuild my church. he took that very literally, and rebuilt. then, he began to realize it was more than that, that god was calling him to something more than just putting bricks and mortar together. and, some of the other young men he had been associated with before, who had been laughing at him, because he had become this kind of outcast in another way. and, they began to join him. and, they began to form a brotherhood. >> interesting, and their brotherhood was not about teaching, was it about hospital work? >> no, it was about serving those on the edges.

the poverty-stricken, the lepers were a huge population, i shouldn't say huge, but there was a large population of lepers in the cc valley. and, they had to ring a bell, they had to stay clean, just like they did in the time of jesus. one day, france was is was riding his horse and saw a leper. usually when he saw a leper, he would turn in the other direction. this time he got off his horse, wind, and embraced the leper. as franciscans, we look at that as the pinnacle of his conversion when he was able to recognize jesus and the leper. >> and i think very quickly, he was called to form in order. you say men came around a brotherhood. and claire is something that someone that francis knew personally, right? >> claire was also in the small village. her family was of the novella nobility.

she spoke several different languages, she had her ladies in waiting. she saw francis, and she saw his work with the poor. and claire herself had done this since she was a little child. she would always set some of her food aside, and the servants would take it out at night, when her father was not looking. so, claire had that same call. but, it was impossible for women to run through the country doing their preaching. so, francis made arrangements for her to stay a few nights with the benedictines. then, she became like a game for a while, before a hermit, until they could find a place for her. finally, they put the core clears down outside the town. >> this is all in francis's life in the few short years. we only have about another minute in the segment.

what is the magnetic attraction of these people who are doing good? why did so many people so quickly joined? >> the church was in a bad state, very much like the contemporary church. there was a lot of scandal, there was a lot of wealth in the church. there were a lot of poor people. francis saw that discrepancy, and he and others wanted to change that. you know, monks in monasteries this wealth, when there were people who did not have enough to eat, and children who were starving. his desire was to be among the people and to serve the people as best he could. >> in this, it seems like francis, claire, and their cohort of people, they did not leave the church, but they recognize the responsibility to, i don't know what the word is -- >> challenge. yes, francis was very much, and we as franciscans today, we follow francis, and his vision was we stay in communion with the church.

we are part of the church. but, part of our responsibility as being part of the church is to challenge those things that are not right. >> it sounds very good. we do it on a domestic level. my wife says i am committed to you, but i am ch llit is part of my job. >> that's right. >> let's take a break, we will be back in a couple of minutes and we will talk further about the franciscans.

hello, welcome back we have a few more minutes to talk with sister ellen mccabe. she knows so much and has done so much. sister helen, we wanted to talk to you about projects that your congregation and order are doing you mentioned hospital work to me. >> we were initially founded in holland by a peasant woman who just served the people in her village. she was teaching the children, she was visiting the sick. we ended up as a congregation that basically promoted teaching, education, and hospital work. we had several hospitals in different parts of the world, we still do. here in our province, we have one hospital associated with dignity health down in santa maria. that was what we did for the

first hundred and 50 years of our life as a congregation. now, many of our sisters are older, many are retired. those who are still working, are working in parishes, and working on the margin, so to speak. one of our sisters has gone down to the border a couple of times in july and august, and is planning to go again to work with the immigrants at the border. 25 years ago, we went down to chiapas, mexico to a small village called palenque. >> is not mountain territory? >> it is the southernmost state of mexico. there is a lot of indigenous peoples there. really, no healthcare available to them at all. so, we are in the process now of building a clinic there, so that the needs of the indigenous people will be taken care of, that they will have someplace to go for broken

bones, to deliver babies, to whatever happens to them, to get treatment. >> and you have been there 25 years? >> 25 years. >> to all the workers come down from north? you are pretty local. >> we have four sisters now down there in chapters who are natives there. two of our sisters from this province go back and forth with their work there. and, one of them is a nurse, and they are training in administration so they can get this, it's not really a hospital, more of a clinic, where they can come. >> you mentioned the clinic comes in a box. >> it is called a clinic in a camp >> genius of modern technology, right? >> yes. it is a carrier from a ship. they built them in kansas. you can have them fully equipped with whatever you want in them. i can't remember what they cost. it is about a $2 million expense

to get everything, and then to get the land prepared for it to sit on and all of that. but two of them, two modules will become a surgical center and one module will become an ob/gyn, and the other modules will be for emergency services. so, it is exciting. >> is there anyway we can contribute to this project? >> of course. i am sure our sisters will be happy to take contributions. i can give you our address. >> speak it now if you don't mind. >> we are at the sisters of st. francis, we are at po box 1028 in redwood city, california, 94064. >> reporter: wonderful, good to know. >> it is wonderful. we need funds. as franciscans, we are so so with begging.

it's not one of the things we like to do, but we do do it when we need to help the poor. >> sure, that is wonderful. it is an interesting product. you mentioned your consecrated population is injured aging. are you looking for vocations? >> the world is changing. women have many more opportunities. in some ways, that plays into it, and other ways it has nothing to do with it. god is still calling people to follow him in whatever way god chooses to call them. and, it might not be to the kind of religious life i have lived for the past 50 years. but, there are people being called, and we will walk with anyone who wants to walk that journey. it really would not be fair for us to take young women into a group of grandmothers and say, this is the way we live life. but, if you want to come together as two or three, and you want some guidance, we are there to walk with you. >> that sounds very attractive.

there are lots of young people searching for some spiritual component to their lives, which they don't quite know. >> right, there is a group out there called nuns and nuns. >> it is the end you and s, and the nl and es. >> it is the communication between them. it is forming that relationship. at the bottom of our franciscan care is, that is what relationship is, that is with the garrison is all about, relationship what is our relationship, my relationship to my sisters, to the people i work with and serve, to the world. who am i in this world, and what am i called to do? it is nothing big. it is relating on a one to one basis, and doing what i can. >> you mentioned that the franciscan terrorism or style is to be on the margins, not put yourself forward, be of aid and assistance, consistent and stable, somewhat be unknown. i think that is part of it.

>> that is kind of what it is. everybody knows about francis. most people, i shouldn't say most people because i don't know, but a lot of people think francis in the birdbath, and the blessing of the animals on his feast day. it is much more than that, it is identifying with the voiceless and vulnerable. it is being at places like saint anthony's foundation in the dining room there, and on the streets with people, being of service, the faithful falls. >> that is a good one. we only have a few seconds left, just time enough for me to say thank you very much. it has been a gift to meet you and talk with you. again, if anybody wants to look up the sisters? >> sisters of st. francis, po box 1028, redwood city, california, 94604. >> thank you for joining us on mosaic. if you want to get in touch with st. francis, all you need to do is to pray.

he will answer and hear what you say. thank you very much for joining us on mosaic. >> thank you.

live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. the body of a missing text found in a neighborhood. the latest developments in her disappearance. the power is back on for all customers impacted by the pg&e blackout. the utility is standing firm that cutting the lights out was the right call. bay area birds at risk. we are getting a new look at the impact of climate change on local bird species. it is 6 am on the sunday october 18, good morning. >> almost a week for some, lights are back on for all customers impacted by pg&e's power safety shut off. this is a look at the original counties that had their power

shut off it was