About 130 people attend a private preview of the movie “Cabrini,” which resonates with different faiths and populations but holds special meaning to Omaha’s Italian-American community. (Courtesy of Cathy Beeler)
OMAHA — Sarita Ruma has spent decades in and around the historic brick church named after St. Frances Cabrini in the Little Italy enclave south of downtown Omaha.
S arita “Sarah” Ruma found the Cabrini movie themes to especially hit home with the local Italian-American community. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
She’s attended weddings, festivals and worship services there. She’s heard the neighborhood lore — that the parish namesake herself, Frances Cabrini, walked up the hill from the train stop to pray in the Spanish Mission style building that later would be rededicated in her honor.
But until a recent local sneak peek of the movie “Cabrini,” Ruma said, she hadn’t grasped how little she really knew about the tenacious Italian missionary who stood up to power, elected officials, even the Pope to improve circumstances for poor U.S. immigrants.