"As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling."

Notes from the Field - This week, we will read a new encyclical from Pope Francis on the topics of Earth’s resources and environmental justice. In the Dominican Call to Justice, a document put forth by the North American Dominican Justice Promoters, climate justice is listed first in the series of issues to which congregations across the country should turn their attention.

Three Stats and a Map - June is LGBT Pride Month, a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots – demonstrations that followed a police raid on a popular gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn. Most Catholics support same-sex marriage, but what about gay clergy?

Twice in recent months Catholics have breathed a sigh of relief when press conferences in Rome announced the friendly settlement of difficulties between Vatican officials and American women religious. Although Pope Francis gives evidence of androcentric thinking, I believe his commitment to initiating processes of reform that allow for the voicing of divergent views is promising where justice for women is concerned.

"Radical Grace" is the directorial bow of 32-year-old Chicago filmmaker Rebecca Parrish, who by sheer happenstance found herself in the lives of three nuns – Sr. Christine Schenk, Sr. Simone Campbell and Sr. Jean Hughes – at a time of high drama for American women religious. The film was a hit with the fans at the Hot Docs Canadian international documentary film festival, where it drew sold-out audiences at its world launch and was voted an audience favorite. The documentary will debut in the United States on June 20 at the AFI Docs festival in Washington, D.C.

GSR Today - In the last few days, many people have tried to tie together white rapper Iggy Azalea and Rachel Dolezal, the now former-president of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter who was outed as white by her parents on Thursday. That comparison is false.

She sits with two others in the dining room, all of them wearing bibs and waiting for lunch. Fifty years ago we all wore white plastic bibs, but these are long, wide and brown, designed to catch food that fails to reach their mouths. I hug all three and sit next to one who recognizes me. I haven’t seen her recently, but her eyes are still striking blue.

Kenyans, hard pressed to define terms such as servant of God, canonization and sainthood, were full of wonder as they witnessed the first beatification in their country on May 23 in a Mass that attracted more than 100,000 people to the Dedan Kimathi University campus in Nyeri. Sr. Irene Stefani, an Italian nun known for walking long distances to minister to the sick, measured her journeys by how many rosaries she said on her way.

Our Lady Star of the Sea, a religious park in Da Nang City, central Vietnam, draws hundreds of visitors and pilgrims daily to its bonsais, trees, flowers, grass and winding concrete paths. On the grounds owned by the sisters of St. Paul de Chartres before the government took the lands, people pray and leave incense and bouquets under the Christian statues. Sr. Anna Nguyen Thi Hoa, who was assigned to this convent in 2004, said after 1975, when the country was reunified under communist rule, the government confiscated 5,000 square meters out of the nuns’ properties and reallocated them to local officials. Then the officials sold the land to others, who built restaurants, hotels, bars and other leisure facilities.

GSR Today - It hasn’t gotten much attention since Russian and their aligned forces stopped moving, but things in Ukraine have not improved.