Dan Stockman

Sisters and congregational advocates at the United Nations are disappointed but not surprised at the breakdown of a monthlong meeting examining ways to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

Even in a time of diminishment, there's the opportunity for sisters to influence through advocacy. There's ministry of prayer, ministry of presence, and we have the opportunity to keep listening.

More than 150 people attended the annual gathering of the National Black Sisters' Conference, a joint meeting with three other Black Catholic groups, which ran July 23-28 at the University of Notre Dame.

"Aren't we supposed to be the good people? ... But our intent was so different than our impact." U.S. women religious look at a legacy of schools that were part of a federal policy attempting to destroy Native culture.

Monday Starter: More than 50 Sisters of Mercy, associates and co-workers joined the Poor People's Campaign June 18 march in Washington, D.C. The group's goals align with theirs, the sisters said in a statement.

Sisters, historians and archivists will gather June 26-29 at the University of Notre Dame for four days of helping historians discover and preserve sisters' records and make them part of the larger societal narrative.

Three candidates have made themselves available for election season at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. In other LCWR news, Sr. Ann Scholz will leave her position as associate director for social mission June 30.

Six months after a tornado tore through Mayfield, Kentucky, downtown is still in shambles: closed streets, dark traffic signals, shredded buildings. But the Sisters of Charity's disaster recovery team brings hope.

A convent in western Ukraine that until recently sheltered refugees has been turned into a retreat center where nuns use music therapy to console and comfort. A five-member band of trained musicians, all nuns, sings, prays and consoles people affected by depression and anxiety.

Gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Company Inc. will examine the human rights impact of selling thousands of guns per year, after 68% of the company's shareholders approved a proposal that was backed by Catholic sisters.

Monday Starter - Six communities of women religious have banded together to speak against gun violence. "How long will we continue to accept mass shooting after mass shooting?" the congregations asked in a statement.

Congregations of sisters own properties or buildings that are larger than they need or too expensive to keep. But resources exist that can help congregations discern the best future for their land and buildings.

Since 2011, Sr. Mary Gemma Harris has been writing songs as they come to her and putting them to music. Most of those songs have been collected into an album, released last fall. She spoke to GSR about how it happened.

Stringing Rosaries by Denise Lajimodiere, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in Belcourt, North Dakota, shares 16 oral histories of boarding school survivors.

Author Shannon Dee Williams' extensively researched Subversive Habits tells the history of Black sisters in the U.S. She spoke to GSR about the toll of the project and why the truth is not something to be afraid of.

Through a new initiative, congregations, federations and conferences around the world will work to ensure Catholic sisters with dementia and cognitive impairment will live their best lives both physically and spiritually until the end of their days.

A chapel at the oldest Jesuit university in the United States is now named for Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman instead of a priest who once fought in the Confederate army.

A year after stepping down as executive director of the Catholic social justice lobby Network, Sr. Simone Campbell is working on a project that tries to create dialogue between Democrats and Republicans.

Congregations of women religious struggling to find the resources to run a novitiate program now have an alternative: The InterCongregational Collaborative Novitiate, a yearlong novitiate program open to all.

As Network celebrates 50 years, it plans to continue work on dismantling structural racism, forming a truly inclusive and multiracial democracy, and building new political structures that put human dignity over profits.