Community News

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

Throughout January, many organizations, including Women Religious, will be observing National Human Trafficking Prevention Month and raising awareness about the horrors of human trafficking that still occur today.

Presently, nearly 25 million people, including adults and children, are subjected to human trafficking. This number has risen throughout the years due to traffickers taking advantage of fallout caused by natural disasters, conflict, and even the pandemic. (1)

The crippling effects of a successful and sustainable national healthcare system in the United States has long been a swinging pendulum of high expectations and abysmal failures. The skyrocketing costs of insurance and premiums, the unemployed without the means to matter to those with means, the costs of prescriptions required to keep one alive versus the cost of feeding one’s family, has led to a crisis of seemingly insurmountable proportions for the majority of persons in need of care within our country.

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

After two years of adapting to changes brought on by the pandemic, Sr. BarbaraAnn Sgro, OP, is looking forward to starting 2022 on an optimistic note.

Sr. BarbaraAnn, a Sister of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, shared, “We have to learn from our past, but not repeat the mistakes of our past to help us inform our future.”

Sisters of Charity Federation Discernment Night

Join other women discerners and Charity vocation ministers on Zoom to explore religious life in the spirit of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton!

Sunday, January 9, 2022
7 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time
For Zoom link or questions, contact vocations@sistersofcharityfederation.org

The North American Vocation Team (NAVT) of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) present “Living our Call as SSND: Transformative Education, Part 2 – On the margins” Wednesday, January 19 at 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CST). This second of a three-part online series is intended for single women ages 18-45 to learn more about SSND and their ministry with and among those who are poor and marginalized. More information and registration for the Zoom link is available at ssnd.org/events/1-19-22.  

Education not only shapes values and beliefs, but it also helps people grow and develop physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Education empowers people to address the urgency of our time and to act. Lack of access to quality education is one of the root causes of poverty and economic hardship which in turn drive people to choose migration as a means of seeking job opportunities and improving their lives.

Sister Maria Guadalupe Martinez Lopez (Home Diocese: Raleigh North Carolina) Sister Carmen Marie Diaz (Home Archdiocese, Los Angeles CA), converse candidly and thoughtfully about the similarities and differences of their discernment journeys.

https://fscc-calledtobe.org/

“The Lord has been there helping day by day and there is also a lot of joys in living in community, joys in the sacraments, learning from the priests, learning from the Sisters and living close to the Lord.”

By Katie Beckmann Mahon, Communications Manager

Many of the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, have spent their lives and ministries dedicated to the congregation’s mission of caring for those in need.

Sr. Liz Engel, OP, has lived faithfully to that mission as Executive Director at Downey Side Adoption Services for the past 30 years.

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

For a young person, spending their time in their late teens and early twenties will often provide them with a path to a blossoming career and desired adult life.

For Maria Bohan, a graduate of Pearl River High School and Bryn Mawr College, choosing to spend her “pivotal years” working at the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, helped her “development as a young professional.”

The Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York are grateful for the call of Pope Francis to Hear the Cry of Earth and the Cry of the Poor.

The Vatican’s 7-year Laudato Si’ Action Platform calls the worldwide Catholic community and “all men and women of good will” (LS 3) to publicly engage in the work of transformation through integral ecology.

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

Over Thanksgiving, many of us gathered with loved ones to celebrate the holiday by being together, enjoying a delicious meal, and expressing our gratitude.

While it is meaningful to express our gratitude for our loved ones and the joys in our lives, it is also just as special to reflect on the meaning of gratitude, why it matters, and how it can lead to a more profound sense of inner peace in our lives.

On November 9th at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, NY, sisters gathered for a special workshop called Artful Contemplative Practice by Maureen Carey. Maureen is a former sister and a recently retired professor in the social work department of Molloy College. With quiet music in the air, sisters dripped drops of paint onto wet paper to watch the colors mingle and swirl into a beautiful design. What were the life lessons learned? "Not all things are in our control," said Maureen. And there is beauty in that!

School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) invite young adults (ages 18+) to their December online evening prayer which will be the fourth night of a chanted, candlelight Christmas novena on Sunday, December 19 at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. MT / 5 p.m. PT. Learn more and register for the Zoom link at ssnd.org/events/12.19.21.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Atlantic-Midwest Province is excited to announce the appointment of their new leadership.

The basic human need for shelter is often unattainable for those at the mercy of the elements, job layoffs, economic downturns, overcrowded projects.  Affordable housing seeks to address how to determine eligibility of those who seek a place to live.  But data cannot compute what needs to be done; it is right before our very eyes.  

Join us January 13 at 8pm ET in exploring how dioceses and religious communities are working together to promote a full understanding of vocation among Catholics. This free one-hour webinar requires registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpcOGqrTovHNZoFQJyELl867q-AzSYl5_b

After the event, registrants will receive an on-demand link to watch the webinar whenever they wish.

Women religious in the Dubuque, Iowa, area are the prime sponsors of a bus wrap featuring a photo of a young girl to drive home a growing reality: “Not for Sale: Stop Human Trafficking.”

The wrapped bus will spread this message for the next year as it travels all the city routes. It is a follow-up to human trafficking awareness training sessions given to approximately 70 local bus drivers at the Jule Transit Company.

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to pause and remember a simple concept that we often forget, being kind to one another.

On a recent episode of the Hearts Afire Podcast, Sr. Grace Augustine Canevari, OP, reflected on this topic and shared her views on the importance of kindness.

“I think we can reveal God’s kingdom by our acts of kindness,” said Sr. Grace.

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri, will host a Virtual Monastic Experience Nov. 19-21, 2021.

The experience will include a digital tour, meeting with our Sisters, tips on prayer and discernment, and one hour of daily input. There will be opportunities to connect with our vocation director one on one. The event is for single women, ages 18-40, who are interested in religious life.

The entire event will be online. Start times for each day are 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19; 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20; and 10 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21.

By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager

For over 40 years, Sr. Noreen Walsh, OP, has been a fierce advocate for healthcare, patient rights, and compassionate care.

In her ministry as Health Care Coordinator for the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, she has worked closely with geriatric patients in the hospital setting, home care setting, as well as tending to all of the health needs of her fellow sisters.

On a recent episode of the Hearts Afire Podcast, she discussed her ministry in detail.

On Tuesday, Nov. 9 from noon to 1 p.m. Central Time, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Ecospirituality In Action Team will present “Laudato Si’ and FSPA,” via Zoom. This is an opportunity to learn more about the FSPA’s commitment to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, how ongoing efforts fit under the seven goals and how FSPA will develop future programs and projects to increase action to address our ecological crisis.

The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, Kansas, were featured in a new series of reports on the Newsy channel titled, "Our New Reality: A Changing Planet," which aired November 1, 2021. Reporter Amber Strong, along with videographer Stephanie Sandoval, had visited Mount St. Scholastica earlier this year to do the interviews, getting a close-up look at the many beehives on the monastery grounds, the solar panels, and the honey processing room.

Victims of crime often find forgiveness too raw to reach; the sense of injustice outweighing the act of turning one’s cheek. For the perpetrator, the sense of injustice is equally strong; living in a world beyond one’s control, where societal standards hold no applicable meaning. Restorative justice seeks to balance the judicial scales with an organized approach and open dialogue between the victim and the criminal in achieving resolution between the two and creating harmony within the community. 

World-renowned author John Grisham will be chatting with Sister Joan Mumaw, IHM, president and CAO of Friends in Solidarity. The free webinar, “Sooley: A Conversation with John Grisham,” is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. Eastern. 

John is the author of 37 novels, one work of nonfiction, a collection of stories, and seven novels for young readers. His novel “Sooley,” published in April 2021, tells the fictional story of a 17-year-old South Sudanese basketball player and the experiences of his family in South Sudan. 

 Amityville Sister Barbara Schwarz marvels at how her artwork, like pint-sized preachers, gets around! Like St.