This column is about religious thuggery. It's about people who are driven by a kind of primitive energy devoid of thought, philosophy, or human compassion. It is thuggery based on the purported directions of a God who they say destroys those who find spiritual wholeness differently than this God commands. It is thuggery justified by a distorted notion of religion. It is a religious thuggery that in this case distorts the very Islam out which of it claims to grow.

GSR Today - Is Ebola over or not? The Kenyan refugee camps for the South Sudanese are scorching. Smarter irrigation is taking hold in drought-stricken Tanzania.

In the last decade, a worldwide boom in mining has ravaged delicate regions of developing countries like Guatemala. Governments give concessions for the extraction of raw materials to foreign companies, especially from Canada, the United States and China, without consulting local residents, ignoring the threat to wildlife and even to water. Good market prices and new technologies are encouraging extraction in areas once considered marginal. Sr. Dani Brought, a Sister of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, stands with the people here who are part of a growing world-wide movement of resistance against outside exploitation.

"Water is the same in all languages; water is the same to all living beings."

GSR Today - Buddhism came to this Southeast Asian nation as early as the 5th century and became the official state religion in the 13th century, its footprint since permeating the culture. Christianity, by comparison, has had only a modest impact. A few Catholic sisters, though, are doing what they can to provide education and esteem to some of the economically poorest children in the nation's capital.

Periodically during contemplative prayer, a random distracting thought pops into my mind and catches my attention, no matter how pious or spiritual my intentions when I first sit down to pray. It might be as simple as what I plan to cook for dinner that evening or as complex as composing an email. Every once in a while, however, a thought drifts in which is indeed worthy of further prayer and reflection, no matter how random it might at first seem. About a month ago, for example, I found myself contemplating “Downton Abbey” from my perspective as a younger Catholic Sister. 

See for Yourself - The winter of 2015 is surely headed for the record books as people across the country have experienced record snows, sleet and bitterly cold temperatures. Week after week kept the lock on the weather freezer. School closings were matched by business closings. It wasn’t safe for anyone to venture out during this most extreme weather.

In the Scripture, widows more often than not were cast as helpless. But rereading this passage of Acts from the perspective of the Good News for the poor allows one to see the action of the Spirit in lowly situations. The action of the Spirit, transformed in these supposedly passive members of the primitive church, moved the story of the Christ-event forward and outside its Jewish enclave. Again the unusual power of women in shaping the Jesus movement continues to unfold as we pay closer attention to issues of gender in this passage.

Heart patients in the state-run Central Hospital in Hue, central Vietnam, know Sr. Anne Le Thi Hue of Daughters of Our Lady of the Visitation as the “Sister of Heart Surgery.” For the last decade, Hue has given financial help to parents of limited means whose children have congenitally bad hearts, helping thousands of them to get access to heart operations and return to a normal life. Hue, 69, who is also head of the congregation’s charitable activities, serves as an intermediary between the young heart patients and the Medical Aid Project – Medical Aid for Vietnam.

A symposium this week at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio focuses on the legacy of Las Hermanas, a grass roots organization for Latina Catholics. The program, “Las Hermanas, the Struggle is One,” will highlight the group’s 44-year history, its impact on Latina Catholics, its role in fighting discrimination in the church and its establishment of mujerista theology. “The symposium is bringing together scholars and leaders in the field of Latina ecclesiology,” said Adrienne Nock Ambrose, 50, an assistant professor of religious studies at University of the Incarnate Word and one of the organizers of the March 19-21 conference at the university.