Aston, Pennsylvania – March 1, 2017 – The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia will launch a new campaign in March to encourage people to be kind toward one another. The message—“Kindness: Get in the Habit”—was created by the Catholic Sisters of the Upper Mississippi River Valley to be shared by many other religious congregations in a hope to counter the continued divisiveness seen throughout the country. It will be shared on billboards, in movie theater ads, through social media posts, and in Catholic school classrooms by various congregations throughout the United States.

“The Kindness campaign is inspired by our Christian call to treat one another as we would hope to be treated,” Sister Kate O’Donnell, director of services for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia said. “It’s both a response to the incivility that continues to permeate the news and social media, and a call to Gospel values such as caring for the poor.”

“We want to call attention to what we should be doing for each other,” Sister Kate said. “We are to be feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger. We are to be practicing compassion as Jesus taught us.”

Sister Kathy Dougherty, congregational minister for the Sisters of St. Francis, agrees. “Simple acts of kindness can change the world one person at a time. We’ve never needed it more than we do right now.”

The campaign will run during the fourth annual National Catholic Sisters Week, March 8-14, 2017.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia choose to live the Gospel in the prophetic spirit of Francis of Assisi and our foundress Mother Francis Bachmann. With Jesus Christ as Brother, we live as sister with one another, with the entire human family, and with all creation. Calling ourselves and one another to continuous conversion of heart, we commit ourselves to a life of contemplation, poverty, and humility.

As vowed women of the Church, we respond with diverse gifts in a spirit of collaboration and of mutual service to the needs of others, especially the economically poor, the marginal, and the oppressed. Seeking to participate in the Spirit’s action in the world, we direct our personal and corporate resources to the promotion of justice, peace, and reconciliation.

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