The University of the Pope in the US wants to change the mental pattern that associates immigrants with crime

In the nineteenth century, Santa Francisca Javiera Cabrini made the torment of the more than 14 million Italians immigrants who lived in the United States. Inspired by the legacy of the first American Santa, the University of Villanova – the most outstanding institution of the Order of San Agustín – launched the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration (Madre Cabrini Institute on Migration).

In this center of higher studies based in Philadelphia (United States), Robert Francis Prevost – today Pope Leo XIV – graduated in mathematics in 1977.

The initiative is based on the Augustinian values ​​of Veritas, Unitas and Caritas (truth, unity and charity) and seeks to bring together the academic community and other external agents to promote concrete actions against contemporary challenges of migration.

“There is currently a mental pattern that associates the immigrant with crime, drug trafficking or people. However, immigrants are the ones who take care of our children and our elders, we open the doors of our houses to clean our homes. We invite you to the most intimate parts of our life, and yet the media generate contrary images that make it difficult to recognize their humanity,” explains the teacher of law. which was opened in the Vatican on Tuesday.

The Institute seeks precisely to reverse these negative perceptions through an interdisciplinary approach based on four pillars: teaching, research, defense and service.

“We want to transform hearts and minds, work with all the schools in Villanova and link with centers, alumni and community partners to generate a systemic change,” says the expert.

For Pistone, the university is an ideal scenario for this type of work. “What better place to do so than from a university, where we can study it, be active on the field, learn from experience and teach students – the future leaders of our country and companies – to understand the experience of migrants?”

The academic also participated in the event “refugees and migrants in our common home”, which took place in Rome from October 1 to 3, 2025, before the jubilee of migrants (October 4–5). The more than 200 participants of this global meeting, from more than 40 countries, were received by Pope Leo XIV last week.

As explained in conversation with ACI Press, the seed of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration It was planted in 2022 when Pope Francis called universities to investigate and teach more about migrants and refugees. “I was in the front row and I felt that I spoke directly to me. I felt a personal call to be part of the solution,” says the law professor at the Charles Widger Law Faculty of Villanova.

Personal inspiration and a lifetime

Pistone’s passion for migration has deep roots in its family history. During his studies in Italy, he visited Sicily in search of the origins of his grandparents, which emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

“Seeing my relatives, who did not know my father, and see how they were glad of their achievements in New York, changed my life. I began to understand the history of migrants from a lived perspective, and that led me to work with asylum seekers since 1999,” says Pistone.

For the expert, migration is part of the identity and mission of the United States: “My State, Pennsylvania, was founded as a refuge for those fled from religious persecution. That is what asylum means: to offer refuge to those who cannot live according to their beliefs or express themselves freely,” he explains.

Inspired by the life and work of Mother Cabrini, canonized by Pius XII in 1946, Pistone underlines the value of this center barely inaugurated, as an intellectual and social center: “Mother Cabrini was a visionary and social entrepreneur. His charism the service ”.