Catherine's Caring Cause Founded By Late Mercy Sisters Will Cease Operations In November

CHICAGO—The board of directors of Catherine’s Caring Cause has announced the end of an era for the charity created to assist asylum seekers, founded by the late Srs. Pat Murphy and JoAnn Persch, powerhouses in immigration advocacy. The sisters and lifelong companions both died months apart last year. The charity announced it would be ceasing operations in November after three extraordinary years.

In 2023, when buses arrived daily, dropping hundreds of asylum seekers into the streets of Chicago, the pair established Catherine’s Caring Cause, named for Sr. Catherine McAuley who brought the Religious Sisters of Mercy to Chicago in 1841.

“[S]o many of you came together to follow the quiet, steadfast leadership of Sisters Pat Murphy, RSM, and JoAnn Persch, RSM—our north stars,” the board said in a letter to supporters. “Their decades of ministry, deep relationships, and unwavering moral clarity made them trusted guides in a moment of urgency,” the board said. “And, true to who they were, they didn’t stop at advising or supporting existing efforts—they felt called to do more, and to do it their way.”

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Board of Catherine's Caring Cause

Although in their nineties, both sisters worked tirelessly to raise funds and mobilize volunteers who found apartments, trained mentors, delivered food, figured out school enrollment, found housing, and gathered furniture, putting the asylum seekers on a path to citizenship.

Before the dynamic duo was finished, they took 48 families in total, including 70 adults and 81 children, under their wing. Many of the families were fleeing the corruption and economic turmoil in Venezuela, and were shipped by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to Democrat-led cities like Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, which had declared themselves sanctuary cities.

The year 2025 turned out to be a year of loss not only for the Mercy Sisters but for Catherine’s Caring Cause as well. The charity said goodbye to board member Carol Conway in July and, a few weeks later, to super-volunteer Dan Stanner and Sr. Pat, who was 96.

In November, Sr. JoAnn died unexpectedly at age 91. Her final day was marked by praying the rosary at the Broadview ICE detention center and filing a legal statement advocating for immigrants. In what the board described as a “full-circle moment of grace, love, and purpose,” three members of one of the first families the sisters helped were working at OSF Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Evergreen Park, when Sr. JoAnn was brought in.

“They were there to pray over and with JoAnn when she arrived at the hospital” until she quietly slipped away later that evening.

The board said that every family currently in the program will continue to be supported through the completion of their full 12 months with the charity, when it ceases operations in November.

“Rather than sadness at the closing of this chapter, we are filled with gratitude,” the statement continued. “Together, all of you—board members, volunteers, and donors—gave Pat and JoAnn the greatest gift: the ability to continue doing what they loved, fully and faithfully, until the very end of their lives. You should be deeply proud that you helped create the conditions for Pat and JoAnn to continue living their vocation fully—serving, loving, and leading—right up to their final days.”

Board of Catherine's Caring Cause

Catherine’s Caring Cause is planning a mass and luncheon for mentors, volunteers, donors and families on Nov. 14, the one-year anniversary of Sr. JoAnn’s passing, to celebrate its three extraordinary years.