A controversial three-year program of Vatican oversight of the main leadership group of U.S. Catholic sisters has come to an end, with the sisters and the church’s doctrinal office announcing that the goal of the oversight “has been accomplished." The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted a final report of the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, “marking the conclusion” of the oversight, the Vatican announced Thursday.
• Click to read the Vatican press release on the end of the mandate for LCWR and the joint statement.

See for Yourself - Waiting in line is unproductive; all it does it secure a place, and in the case of getting your children into schools, that time could surely be better spent.

From a Nun's Life podcasts - How long does it take to discern a call to religious life, and what are some things to consider along the way?

"How long it will be until the process bears fruit remains to be seen."

Three Stats and a Map - Last year, the Social Progress Imperative released its first-ever full report on social progress around the world. The report detailed some 130 countries’ ability to “meet the basic human needs of its citizens.” This year, the group has released another report, this time covering 99 percent of the world’s population.

GSR Today - The story of copper has been intertwined with Zambia’s history since it was a British colony in the late 1800s and British mining companies set up operations. Recently, I traveled through northern Zambia with Presentation Sr. Lynette Rodrigues, a passionate environmental crusader, and learned more.

Nigeria enacted a law in 2003 prohibiting the trafficking in persons and established the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). Yet, from its porous borders, women and children continue to be trafficked within, across and beyond the country for forced labor and sexual or physical exploitation. Even babies are sold for money. Why is human trafficking such a huge industry in Nigeria despite Nigerians’ collective value for abundant life? Why, regardless of the efforts to combat this nefarious industry, especially by the women’s religious communities in Nigeria, does this inhumanity to human persons continue unabated?

A year has passed since a global jolt awoke the world when over 200 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria on April 14, 2014. Across the world a chant resounded: “Bring Back our Girls.” It seems now the world has fallen to sleep, numb to the peril of girls; or maybe events just pass too rapidly to keep attention. If global Twitter campaigns and the voices of first ladies and prime ministers in globally dominant countries have no effect, what will wake us again?

GSR Today - In a lot of ways, Global Sisters Report, is all about confronting invisibility. The stories we write are often about people on the margins, but the stories of the sisters themselves could also be included in that categorization. Obviously, women religious aren’t looking for fame or recognition, but often, sisters don’t get credit for their ministries because no one knows about them.