Rhina Guidos

A group of pilgrims with the Ecclesial Conference on the Amazon and Discerning Deacons took part in programs and church visits in Rome at the start of the synod discussing the spiritual call many women have to be deacons in the church.

Where neither deacons or priests can be found to tend to the local population in remote regions of the world, sisters keep Catholic customs alive by carrying out a form of the diaconate.

A group of men and women gathered at a chapel near the Vatican, confidently praying that the church would restore the female diaconate Oct. 3, the day after synod participants were told it would not happen now.

Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA joined other advocates for women's ordination in Rome, where they prayed near the site of synod on synodality.

Regardless of what the synod says about women's ministries, Catholic women in Latin America will continue serving the poor and want to maintain dialogue on the issue, says Dominican Sr. Mila Díaz Solano.

GSR is looking for women religious to participate in the 2024-25 panels for The Life and La Vida. If you are interested in writing about your experiences in religious life, we would love to hear from you.

AHLMA accompanies Latin American missionary sisters serving in the U.S., providing them with support to adapt to a new culture and society.

A California nonprofit run by a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet helped migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border find temporary respite as temperatures rose to 115 and above this summer.

The Nicaraguan government stripped the legal status of 26 Catholic congregations, the majority of them communities of women religious, whose ministries provided food and services for the elderly and poor.

Through the Sowing Seeds of Hope project, Catholic sisters from various congregations in El Salvador promote a dignified future for vulnerable and impoverished children.

In the mountainous areas of Guatemala, roughly 50 Indigenous nuns of the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist assist fellow Indigenous communities through education, spirituality and care for those most in need.

Social Service Sr. Elizabeth Lopez is as comfortable serving a bowl of soup to migrants on one side of the border as she is fighting for them in immigration court on the other. 

The Benedictine sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, who co-founded and co-sponsor Benedictine College, have joined the chorus of voices denouncing remarks made by commencement speaker Harrison Butker.

Survivors of the Sumpul River massacre share their stories with young people, raising awareness and promoting a future of peace, in a meeting alongside Providence Sr. Vilma Franco, who also witnessed the war's horrors.

Monday Starter: More than 150 sisters have signed a letter urging international leaders to do more to end hostilities in the Holy Land.

At their annual CLAR leadership gathering, this year held in Honduras, Latin American men and women religious reflected on their role as a synodal church amid political instability, persecution and economic inequality.

The bishop leading the U.S. Catholic Church's response on migration issues said that both major political parties are participating in anti-immigrant sentiment in the country. 

There's no signage to point out who's buried there, but the fenced-off, arid field in Holtville, California, is the final resting place for many border crossers who died in anonymity in the surrounding area.

A generation of younger women religious in Latin America say St. Oscar Romero, martyred in 1980 in El Salvador, inspired their vocations and guides their ministries.