Sr. Reine Marie Badiane of Senegal is a member of the Daughters of the Holy Heart of Mary, the first congregation of sisters founded on the African continent. Begun in Senegal in 1858, the Daughters continue their mission to promote education and self-sufficiency in multiple African countries and in France.
"I object to the notion that anyone can be trafficked as if everything can be reduced to girls and young women being plucked from the streets. ... The larger dynamic is that trafficking tends to be at the far end of a continuum of violence and exploitation that already existed in many girls' lives."
Sr. Kathleen Warren of the Sisters of St. Francis of Rochester, Minnesota, spoke to Global Sisters Report about the Catholic roots of interreligious dialogue, different kinds of dialogue, and why that dialogue is so important in the face of rising Islamophobia.
Running an eight-bed intensive care unit at a long-term acute care facility has its ups and downs, Sr. Magdalena Rybak says. But the 42-year-old Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth says it's all part of a calling that is alive and well more than 20 years after she entered religious life. She talked to Global Sisters Report about nursing, her life's passion.
Sr. Elenita Belardo, a the Religious of the Good Shepherd, is the current coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, a broad alliance of lay and religious missionaries who journey in solidarity with peasants from northern, central and southern Philippine provinces in their quest for land justice and freedom.
Sr. Judy Byron is coordinator of a coalition of faith-based investors that uses a shareholder platform to start dialogue for change. Bryon co-filed a successful resolution that now requires gun manufacturer Sturm Ruger to report on its gun safety efforts. She spoke to GSR about this very public win and how it compares to the coalition's other efforts.
Sr. Rosa Maria Troches, a School Sister of Notre Dame, joined a delegation to the U.S., where she spoke of her deep worries about the political climate in Honduras, human rights abuses there, and the fate of Hondurans whose temporary protected status in the U.S. has been rescinded.
Sr. Mercy Kuriakose, a member of the Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit, practices homeopathy, an alternative medical practice that uses a small amount of an active ingredient to help treat or cure a disease. She has treated approximately 130,000 patients in her 26 years of service as a homeopathy doctor in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Sr. Maureen McGowan, is the province leader of the New York-Toronto Province of the Good Shepherd Sisters. The sisters' first ministry in Manhattan has grown into Good Shepherd Services, which today serves over 30,000 children and families. McGowan spoke with GSR as the community prepares to celebrate its 175th anniversary.
"You are wedded to a community, and these are the people you are committed to and let yourself be formed by. We are growing together in faith."
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