An international network of priest associations and reform groups gathered in Chicago last October. I was eager to see if wounds previously felt by the group around women's issues in the church had healed. Would there be any movement in the group's willingness to accept women in more visible liturgical roles? Or would the same fears and concerns resurface?

Sr. Mary Joan Njeri, an OB-GYN, made a conscious decision to work in a public hospital where women in Nairobi's largest slum who can't afford to go anywhere else come and give birth.

"I am hopeful to maintain this awakened outlook in the face of a world seeming to bleed and disintegrate endlessly as it cries for release from the force of some kind of captivity.  "

After the Cold War, Catholic sisters and peace activists never entirely dropped the issue of nuclear disarmament. But now, rising international tensions and the election of Donald Trump have renewed worries about the proliferation and the nuclear threat to life on Earth.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious issued a statement Monday about the executive orders that President Donald Trump issued Jan. 27, saying they show "misplaced priorities," denigrate American values and endanger all citizens.

The complex struggles of migrants reached a peak in 2016; at the same time, nations receiving or refusing migrants were involved in bitter debates and social crises. Global stability trembled with protracted regional wars and uneasy economic situations; political pressure toward isolationism was associated with rampant terrorism across borders. Migrants were literally left out in the cold, reviled and dying on borders that were next to what seemed to be rich utopias.

Sr. Roseline Lenguris is the first woman from the Samburu tribe to become a Catholic sister. When the elders of the Lkichaki village, on the windswept plains of central Kenya, heard that Lenguris wanted to pursue such a vocation, their response was unanimous: "You had rather be dead than to live in this world without bearing children like a dry stick," they told Lenguris, a sentence that still makes her tear up, more than 15 years later. Now, she is welcomed and is a role model for girls in her village.

"My brain may be foggy about solutions to the world’s problems, but like the sunrise over the farm, hopefully the fog will burn off to birth a new vision."

I made my way to the Women's March on Washington last Saturday filled with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I had gone back and forth about whether I should go, torn between a deep-seated conviction that there are matters of basic human rights, dignity and justice that need to be defended, and an internal disquietude about a broad protest platform that included certain positions I didn't agree with.

See for Yourself - "How about it? Say yes. They need you. They really need a piano player for the non-denominational church services on Sunday afternoons. You'd be perfect!"