Dan Stockman

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.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious' president began LCWR's annual assembly with an indictment on the Catholic Church's role in racism. The triumvirate presidency and executive director offered "a profound apology" for women religious' role in it.

On Aug. 13, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will hand out three Lifetime Achievement Awards, the first time the organization has given the award. The inaugural recipients are an economist, an advocate and a world traveler.

Sr. Jane Herb will move from being president-elect of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to serving as president on Aug. 13. Many who have worked with Herb spoke to GSR about her emphasis on collaboration.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious' annual assembly will again be virtual, due to the pandemic. But organizers say the event will be less like an online meeting and more like a retreat.

A nonprofit serving women who are deaf is asking courts to allow a class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 40 of its members who say they were sexually, physically and psychologically abused at a school for the deaf run by sisters.

Dominican Sr. Rebecca Ann Gemma will join Dominican Sr. Elise García and Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Jane Herb in the presidential triumvirate at LCWR's annual assembly in August. 

Monday Starter – Sisters denounce Senate Republicans who blocked debate on voting reforms; Brooklyn's new Mother Cabrini statue; Mercy Sisters to open a new Catholic career and technical junior and senior high school

GSR requested reports from sisters who have been volunteering in response to the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where they do what they can to make room at the table for another hungry soul.

Monday Starter - The former studio of Corita Kent appears to have been saved; seven sisters among the nominees for Catholic Extension's Lumen Christi Award; Chicago sister celebrates 90 years of religious life.