Dan Stockman

Tornadoes tore through the South and Midwest overnight Dec. 10, leaving paths of destruction that may be unprecedented and killing up to 100 people or more. Catholic sisters are answering the calls for help.

Events for Network's 50th anniversary will celebrate sisters' "bold, radical, joyful, and inclusive energy that motivated Network's founding and continues to animate Network's political ministry today."

Voices of Faith's series against gender-based violence continued Dec. 7 with a panel that discussed historical and modern practices within Catholic religious institutions that discriminate against women of color.

Sr. Dianne Fanguy traces her fight against a proposed $9.4 billion plastics complex in Louisiana to her congregation's 2018 Chapter meeting. "Everybody wants to come to Louisiana [to build factories] because we're poor and willing to give big tax breaks to anyone who brings jobs," she said.

If investments are part of a congregation's charism, then those investments should not harm the Earth, and should actively improve it, attendees heard at the Resource Center for Religious Institutes conference.

The National Black Sisters' Conference said anti-racism efforts are not only far different from Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez's characterization of them as "pseudo-religions," they are in line with the Gospel.

Monday Starter: Sister Anita Baird of the Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary will present the history of the National Black Sisters Conference in a Nov. 30 virtual conference hosted by FutureChurch. The event marks Black Catholic History Month.

As participants at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, discuss ways to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis, places like North Dakota are grappling with how to handle the effects of an oil boom while laying the groundwork to tap other forms of energy.

Shannen Dee Williams told attendees at the Religious Formation Conference's 2021 Congress that the history of Black Catholics, especially of Black Catholic sisters, has been obscured or even erased by those who want to hide the past.

During a Resource Center for Religious Institutes' annual conference session, Benedictine Sr. Nancy Bauer addressed the challenges and gifts of Cor Orans ("Praying Heart") and Vultum Dei Quaerere ("Seek the Face of God"). Pope Francis "expects nuns to follow the new rules," she said.

The coronavirus has impacted religious orders on almost every level. The question, a risk manager told religious and lay professionals, is whether congregations will learn from the experience and be prepared for the next natural disaster.

Sr. Helen Prejean told the Resource Center for Religious Institutes conference that she depends on her St. Joseph community to sustain her in her spiritual life and her ministry campaigning against the death penalty.

Dozens of sister congregations called on U.S. President Joe Biden in an open letter to stop using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to expel asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. They say this violates his promise of a more humane immigration policy.

Monday Starter: Mary Proshanta, a member of the Associates of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, compiled Go to Saint Joseph from previously published works and translated it to Bangla. "This book has enriched Christian literature," said Archbishop Bejoy D'Cruze of Dhaka.

After 18 months of turmoil, stress and watching COVID-19 victims die, and with millions of Americans choosing not to be vaccinated, caregivers at Catholic health facilities are reaching their limits.

Monday Starter: The Gospel message is threatened by state laws seeking "in subtle and not so subtle ways" to make it difficult for the impoverished and marginalized to vote. Catholic sisters support the Freedom to Vote Act, federal legislation that would address these "shameful challenges."

Monday Starter: "It is immoral and abhorrent to deter people who are legally and peacefully seeking safety in the United States by deliberately exposing them to the very perils that they are hoping to escape," Sr. Norma Pimentel wrote. 

Monday Starter: Many New Orleans sisters made it through Hurricane Ida unharmed, but "there's no electricity, and it is hot"; Sisters in Haiti mobilize to help survivors of the Aug. 14 earthquake; and sisters donate land for a future bike path in rural Ohio.

Sr. Rebecca Ann Gemma of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, officially became the president-elect of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious on Aug. 13.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious assembly, which closed Aug. 13, was more retreat than business meeting, with a condensed schedule and shortened sessions and more opportunities for contemplation and small group discernment.