Mary Killeen, a Sister of Mercy from Ireland, didn't choose to come to Kenya. She was in her late 20s, happily teaching in Ireland, when another sister got sick in Nairobi, and Killeen was asked to fill in. That was 42 years ago, and Killeen has been in Kenya ever since.
It was Jan. 20, 2017, and Sr. Susan Rose Francois, a member of the Congregation Leadership Team for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, believed she needed to respond in some way to the presidency of Donald Trump. Almost two years later, Trump is still president and Francois is still tweeting her prayers, which usually focus on leadership, healing divisions and choosing goodness over evil. She tweets a prayer every day except when she is on retreat and during Holy Week.
In northwestern Vietnam, ethnic minority groups live in extreme poverty. They lack health care and education, surviving on little food. But for the last decade, nuns from the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Hung Hoa have quietly built and served many Catholic communities in those provinces. One of the nuns, Sr. Maria Do Thi Quyen, spoke to GSR about their work.
In Zimbabwe, more than three-quarters of the population lives in rural areas with poor infrastructure and nonexistent roads. The lack of services critically affects expectant mothers in rural areas, who have difficulty getting to necessary health services before and during birth.
Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, raises awareness about human trafficking through the Task Force to Eradicate Modern Slavery, working alongside other groups. "We all have to work together because the survivors come to us through various venues."
Maryknoll Sr. Rosemarie Milazzo, 86, has pursued missionary work in various countries for decades. She spoke with GSR about her most recent assignment to the Greek island of Lesbos, where she saw firsthand the conditions refugees endure in camps.
Even before she could go to school, Sr. Carole Eschen wanted to be a teacher. At age 17, she joined the Sisters of Loretto and taught math and science at three schools, landing at Kansas City Academy in 1985. The school is known for its inclusive environment that attracts a large LGBTQ population.
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Sr. Anna Ngo Thi Phuc provides free medical treatment to leprosy patients at a state-run hospital in south-central Vietnam. Many patients live in poverty, abandoned by relatives. Phuc visits them daily, tends to their wounds and listens to their feelings. She spoke to GSR about her ministry.
Sr. Véronique Rouquet is one of the four people who run Notre Dame du Web (Our Lady of the Web), a portal created by the Ignatian family in France in 2000 to faciliate retreats and share ways to pray — to provide a link between daily life and spiritual life
Daughter of St. Paul Sr. Rose Pacatte, the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies and a film critic for National Catholic Reporter, takes inspiration from the words of French film critic André Bazin: "Cinema has always been interested in God."
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