“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Patty Gillis, a one-time pastoral associate at a Detroit parish who now is the executive director of Voices for Earth Justice, founded the organization with Dominican Sr. Janet Stankowski in 2002. Amid Detroit's many needs, it focuses on environmental education. By 2011 the organization evolved enough to consider purchasing property in Brightmoor to help connect people with the environment. That property turned into Hope House. Hope House and its parent program, Voices for Earth Justice, an interfaith ministry with strong Catholic roots supported by the Dominican sisters of Adrian, 70 miles southwest of the city.

Commentary - I am among those 60-something nuns blessed to accompany our 80-something sisters as they gently weave the final golden threads into the rich tapestries of their lives. Today, I honor one of my personal "sheros," Notre Dame Sr. Mary Louise Trivison, whose wake service and funeral were celebrated in Chardon, Ohio, last week. I knew Mary Lou because she is the sister of late FutureChurch co-founder Fr. Louis J. Trivison (aka "Father Louie").

The struggling Daughters of Charity Health System, which owns six hospitals in California, has accepted a proposal by BlueMountain Capital Management to provide over $250 million to “recapitalize” the hospital chain. In doing so, DCHS will transfer control of the hospitals to an independent board of directors and to Integrity Healthcare, which BlueMountain has formed to manage and operate the facilities.

On Dec. 11, 2001, Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Kristin Hokanson was on sabbatical after serving nine years as principal of Pope John XXIII High School in Everett, Massachusetts. Hokanson had been in education for more than 28 years at that point, but as she was reading the thought for the day from the Sisters of Notre Dame St. Julie Billiart, she had an idea about a new way to do school.

"New vision should come from those who suffer most and who love life the most."

Commentary - While I feel deep sympathy for the personal toll suffered by the leaders of LCWR who went through the doctrinal assessment and mandate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I also feel deeply troubled by the structural implications of the settlement. I believe the two main pillars of the church’s bureaucracy have been maintained. There is still secrecy and there is still self-silencing.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - The theatre was an early form of teaching people in the medieval church (when most people were illiterate), but there's even more connection between the theatre and religious life.

Notes from the Field - Sr. Netsanet Asfaw is dean of the Mary Help College. One of the most rewarding things for her, she says, is to see students pass the Certificate of Competency exams. She knows that, if they pass them, they will be able to get jobs, because most of the students have been able to get jobs after graduating from Mary Help College.

A federal judge’s ruling against the federal government’s detention of immigrant women and children has led to questions among advocates and attorneys who cheered the decision but wondered whether the federal government will appeal and how immigration officials will comply with the decision.