Catholic News Service

In a year when a pandemic has entangled lives across the globe, Presentation Sr. Carrie Link painted an icon that may help Catholics straighten them out.

Much attention was given to church teaching on assisted suicide and euthanasia when the Vatican released its Sept. 22 letter "'Samaritanus bonus,' on the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life," but Sr. Maureen Weiss focused on the document's guidance on accompanying the dying, a key component to her vocation.

Religious sisters have launched a global movement to overhaul the way religious orders practice their "charism of care" for orphaned or abandoned children.

On Sept. 24, Providence Sr. Barbara Battista stood across the street from where her spiritual directee died just two days before.

Sister Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, has received numerous awards over the years for her work in Texas with migrants along the U.S.-Mexican border, and she can now add a new title to her list: one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

The National Black Sisters' Conference issued a "clarion warning" to U.S. Catholics saying church members and leaders have not done enough to speak out against the sin of racism.

When it comes to social distancing, cloistered religious communities are way ahead of everyone.

Individual rights and freedom obviously are essential for human flourishing, but human happiness depends a lot on relationships — kinship and friendship, but also the broader common good, said Dominican Sr. Helen Alford.

Two missionary sisters captured by rebels in northern Mozambique were released unharmed after 24 days, according to their congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery.

Sr. Catherine McNamee, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet and longtime Catholic educational leader, died Aug. 30 at the age of 89. She was living at her order's residence in St. Paul, Minnesota.

On a bright and clear January afternoon, Bishop Oswaldo Escobar Aguilar walked into a cemetery and gently dusted off a white name plate on top of a sky-blue block of tombs. Making plans for the year ahead, he told secretary Violeta Esmeralda Serrano nearby that they needed to make sure the tombs were decorated with flowers Dec. 2.

Sr. Elaine Roulet, a Sister of St. Joseph of Brentwood who was an acknowledged pioneer in women's prison ministry, died Aug. 13 of heart failure at the order's Stella Maris Convent in Queens. She was 89 and had been in religious life for 71 years.

The Rosary Sisters' School in Gaza prepared for alternative distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they had not prepared for the possibility of an electricity shortage.

Sr. Stephanie Baliga, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist of Chicago, will run a marathon Aug. 23 on a treadmill in the basement of her community's convent in the city's West Humboldt Park neighborhood. Why? Because she promised. And because she is trying to break the world record for a women's treadmill marathon.

U.S. Daughter of Charity Sr. Ann Sauvé, a member of the administrative staff at the order's Sacred Heart Hospital in this Beirut suburb, will not easily forget Aug. 4 and the massive explosion in the port of Beirut.

The abuse occurring within women's religious orders deserves more attention from the media and must be remedied, said an influential Jesuit journal.

Lewis, who was an icon of the civil rights movement and a colleague of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died July 17 after a six-month battle with advanced pancreatic cancer. He was 80. Lewis represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District from 1987 until his death.

The collective, supported by several Catholic charities — including the Pontifical Mission, the Comboni Sisters, Spanish Manos Unidas and a parish in Switzerland, has been providing a source of income and support for Israel's most vulnerable population of African women asylum-seekers, and its work has become even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Indian bishop, facing court proceedings on charges of raping a nun, tested positive for COVID-19, reported ucanews.com.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni instructed security officials to carry out a thorough investigation to track down robbers who attacked a convent 75 miles west of the capital.