I don’t get it, the Italians immigrated to NY in the 19th century from Italy, poverty was a normal feature of 19th century life, in general, look at NY now, it’s a mess, full of vagrants. It wasn’t America’s responsibility to house and care for the Italians and it’s pretty rich for the Vatican to have dictated their demands from their impressive wealthy buildings. Life was hard for everyone and we all know what superseded the huge levels of immigration, it provided a breeding ground for organised crime and the formation of the mafia, it took America decades to try and gain control of their country, some scenes have probably fallen on deaf ears, but in one scene Cabrini boasts about the Italian vote ratio and how much the mayor needs their votes, and she requests the mayors support and protection, this is the formation of the mafia in its infancy.