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.

GSR Today - A lot has happened since last week when I first wrote about Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old woman who died in jail — by hanging herself with a trash bag in her cell, according to law enforcement — after being arrested during a traffic stop. Discrepancies in Bland’s intake forms have fueled rumors that she was murdered and the county is trying to cover it up, as have questions about Bland’s mugshot and the prosecution’s emphasis on Bland’s use of marijuana. 

Commentary - On April 25, 2015 the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal in over 80 years came in the form of the Gorkha earthquake named for the geographic district hit by the epicenter. Relief work continues. This report comes from written reports and email interviews with  Sr. Taskila Nicholas, a Sister of the Good Shepherd, who has been on the ground since day one, working in collaboration with government agencies, diverse NGOs and religious groups. Can one still call it a crisis when the situation has turned a time corner toward the chronic, even as the level of human ruin remains acute?

Commentary - Centuries have passed, civilizations have changed, and technologies are evolving at breakneck speed as the human brain works overtime to conquer new frontiers. Yet human mindsets remain closed. That was what I learned from a recent experience at a Jesuit center that works for tribal people in the southern Indian state of Kerala.