As our U.S. Dominican Sisters Delegation to Iraq moved from one refugee camp to another in Kurdistan-Iraq, children seemed to be everywhere! It’s not surprising, since over half of the 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced by years of war and recent attacks by ISIS/L, are children. I wondered: How can we, members of the global community, help shape the future of Iraq by advocating for the rights of the Iraqi children now?
Led by Sr. Mary Vu Thi Ngoc of the Daughters of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception volunteers take advantage of the Tet (new year) holidays, as a time when Vietnamese migrant workers return home from Laos temporarily. The sisters, doctors and others educate at-risk people about the way HIV is transmitted. For example, in Thua Thien Hue Province’s Loc Bon Commune, which recorded that 4,000 of its citizens worked in Laos in 2014, have had at least 12 migrant workers die from HIV/AIDS since 2004. This does not count those who died in Laos, where AIDS patients are shunned.
GSR Today - When you read about these crisis and pray for the people involved, or make a donation, or even go out of your way to spread other good in the world, you become part of the solution – you become one of the helpers. And no matter how bad the news, that’s something we can all take comfort in.
Sr. Helen Prejean asked the students a direct question: If in some way you're not engaged in resisting state-sponsored execution, can you be said to be complicit in the person's death? An activist against the death penalty, Prejean is best known as the author of "Dead Man Walking," an account of her friendship with a death-row inmate who was executed in Louisiana that was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. The Sister of St. Joseph gave a luncheon presentation to small groups of students from Juan Diego and Judge Memorial Catholic high schools and Westminster College.
I hold memories of the Easter Triduum dear. They take me to special times and places in my life. They speak to the grace and new life found in these Easter days, the joys and hopes of faith revealed. The lessons of these days were bold: Faith is what we carry with us through the darkness; it burns brightly when we cannot see. The feet we wash lead us out to serve, making the days of Triduum stretch far beyond the three days they occupy on the calendar. This year was not like that. This year, my Triduum celebration, liturgically speaking at least, was a bust.
St. Joseph Sr. Bette Moslander, "a quiet woman of small stature" who for the past 50 years was a powerful voice for women in the church, died March 22 at age 92. In addition to 18 years in leadership positions in her own community – the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia – Moslander had national and international roles throughout the decades following the Second Vatican Council.
Patients from all seven states in the northeastern region find healing power in Sr. Monica George, a native of the southern Indian state of Kerala. She is a member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), also known as the Ferrandini Sisters, the region’s first indigenous religious congregation, and uses traditional methods of healing to serve people where they are. “With a little knowledge of alternative health care practices,” George said, “and a lot of faith that God can bring about healing and wellness for his suffering children through you, anyone can provide immediate relief to the suffering patient.”
Salesian Fr. C. M. Paul, Head of Mass Communication Department at Assam Don Bosco University, is a veteran journalist writing for Matters India, a news portal started in March 2013 to focus on religious and social issues in India.
" . . .be harbingers of peace, forgiveness and love, respecting and working for the dignity of women and the girl child. . . ."
See for Yourself - "Keep an eye out for a parking space, Nancy. You know the kind we need." "OK, Grandma," I chirp eagerly as she slowly negotiates her blue sedan up and down the grocery store parking lot aisles. I’m in the front seat next to her, eagle-eyed, as she and I both fix our gazes on the parking prospects around us.