Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Gina Pultorak/Submitted Photo Heather Anderson, a CMC lay missioner, spent time in Swaziland, South Africa reviewing the materials about the youth program, writing proposals for HIV/AIDS education funding and assisting in the children's hostels.

The Cabrini Mission Corps is ready and excited to start the new year. CMC was established at Cabrini College in 1990 and has been sending volunteers around the United States and abroad annually since.

The CMC is a post-graduate volunteer organization that places people both within the U.S. and abroad. Missioners "respond to the Church's universal call to holiness through service," a CMC pamphlet stated.

The CMC sends missioners to work alongside with the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini is the first saint of America and a Patroness of Immigrants. Her mission was to find people who could be "bearers of the love of Christ in the World." CMC has now adopted her mission.

"It's kind of like the Peace Corps, only faith-based," Gina Pultorak, the director of Cabrini Mission Corps, said.

Missioners can serve full-time for one or two years in locations such as Denver, Colo.; Chicago, Ill.; or Swaziland, South Africa. In exchange for their services, missioners receive healthcare coverage, room and board, community living, student loan deferment and a small living allowance.

Most importantly, missioners receive spiritual growth and support out of the program. "It's not about just volunteering to us," Pultorak said. "We look for people who are interested in growing spiritually."

CMC is a small organization that boasts personal attention. "We send about four or five people each year which allows us to get to know the missioners on a more personal and spiritual level" Pultorak said. With a smaller program, CMC can offer a "fuller, truer discernment process."

Over the last five years, the Mission Corps has sent about 107 volunteers through the program. Missioners have served in places abroad such as Argentina, Australia and Brazil and within the United States in cities such as New Orleans, New York and Seattle.

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