Dan Stockman

Mercy Srs. JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy, along with Mercy Associate Carol Conway and dozens of volunteers and donors, have been hard at work delivering peace and mercy to asylum seekers in Chicago.

The sisters say corporate directors at Smith & Wesson Brands have exposed the company to massive liabilities by its manufacture, sale and marketing of AR-15 style rifles.

Sr. Patricia Murray said the Holy Spirit guided the journey through deep listening to one another, which connected participants as individuals and also as a global church.

Insurance expert Stephen Waldorf says that congregations are facing a triple whammy that will make insurance not only far more expensive, but in some cases unavailable. And all of it is driven by climate change.

For the Erie Sisters of St. Joseph, their annual Thanksgiving meal is one of their biggest undertakings of the year. Last year, their army of volunteers delivered 1,200 turkey dinners with all the trimmings.

"That's why we often say you can't be pro-life and ignore gun violence," said activist Shane Claiborne at a webinar hosted by Nuns Against Gun Violence.

Because consecrated men and women have already largely embraced synodality, their prophetic voices can teach the universal church to follow the path the Holy Spirit is leading us, Cardinal Robert McElroy said. 

The inaugural Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards were held Oct. 31 in London, honoring Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem from Nigeria, Sr. Seli Thomas from India, and Sr. Francoise Jiranonda from Thailand.

"I won't use the term success, but it has been fruitful. It's a new state in the experience of synodality," says one sister who was a voting member at the first session of the Vatican's multiyear synod.

Monday Starter: Several women religious congregations and organizations released a statement on Oct. 20 urging the Biden administration to publicly call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A consortium of four sites is working to collect and preserve religious archives and eventually be linked together to provide access to the holdings of all four facilities. At risk is the history of Catholic sisters.

Panelists at the National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice say that great strides have been made in some areas by the church to ensure widespread abuse and cover-up do not happen again, but failures continue to arise.

Mercy Sr. Mary Haddad, head of Catholic Health Association, embraced Pope Francis' Laudate Deum, calling for urgent efforts to fight the climate crisis. Also: news about Catholic sisters' anti-trafficking efforts.

In recent decades congregations began moving investments into companies and funds that make a positive impact on the world. Now, some are even using their money to change the investing landscape itself.

Sr. Sue Ernster recently became president-elect of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about two-thirds of the Catholic sisters in the U.S. She spoke about what excites her about this time with LCWR.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, says Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, the nun at the center of a dispute over allegedly broken vows, may be excommunicated, along with the rest of the nuns at her monastery.

A course in September at the headquarters of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in Rome will help women religious learn more about migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. 

Serving those desperately in need can be dangerous, exhausting and costly, Sr. Donna Markham said, but it is at those moments, "standing with holy suffering," that fear diminishes, caution drops away, and a deep connection to the sacred becomes tangible.

Discussion and questions during workshops at the annual Leadership Conference of Women Religious assembly pointed to the stark reality of a dearth of members able to serve as congregational leaders: Even congregations able to currently install leadership teams have to prepare for a future in which they may not be able to do so. 

At the Leadership Conference of Women Religious' annual assembly, president Rebecca Ann Gemma, a Dominican Sister of Springfield, Illinois, gave the presidential address, telling the sisters they should never lose hope, even with the changes taking place in religious life.