GSR Today - Over the past month many friends have shared links on my Facebook page of Ursuline Sr. Cristina Scuccia, the singing nun featured on Italy’s “The Voice.” I have to be honest in saying that up to this past weekend I have resisted watching any of the clips, silently objecting to the stereotypical image of a Catholic sister in popular media.

As more Central American migrants cross into the Southwest United States, the Department of Homeland Security wants community organizations to help care for detained families. Churches and nonprofit organizations are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure that the families have access to food and services upon their release, said Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, at a press conference Monday.

This story appears in the LCWR feature series. View the full series.

On Saturday, people had an opportunity to learn first-hand about spiritual leadership – the LCWR's particular flavor of contemplation-based, collaborative leadership – at an all-day conference at Catholic University sponsored by Solidarity with Sisters and the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

This story appears in the HIV/AIDS Ministry feature series. View the full series.

by Delia Robertson

Contributor

View Author Profile

Dominican Srs. Sheila Flynn and Mary Tuck established Kopanang Community Trust in 2001 to help South African women who face grinding poverty and are affected directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. There, they offer spiritual support, access to medical care and therapy, and their embroidery program allows the women to make money to feed their families and improve their homes.
Related - Sharing her art: A profile of Sr. Sheila Flynn
 

Delia Robertson is a South African writer and editor who was foreign correspondent for Voice of America for three decades, covering southern Africa. She is the great-great grandniece of Archbishop Charles Constant Jolivet (1826-1903), the first Catholic bishop and archbishop in what is now South Africa; his sister, Mother Margaret Mary (Céline Léonie Marie Jolivet, 1846-1881), was first Superioress of the Loreto Convent, Pretoria, Transvaal.

by Marya Grathwohl

Contributor

View Author Profile

In July, 2003, I signed a book contract with Riverhead Publishers. Little did I suspect how dramatically that summer day signature in the living room of Prayer Lodge in Northern Cheyenne country would change my life. Nor did I imagine how much inner work my book about spirituality and care for Earth would demand. Despite having the mission, outline and sample chapters of my book proposal, the manuscript keeps changing as I write: meandering, expanding, deepening.

An Oldenburg Franciscan Sister since 1963, Marya Grathwohl lived for more than 30 years in African American, Crow and Northern Cheyenne communities, as teacher, principal and pastoral minister. While on her congregation’s leadership team, she initiated the revitalization of her community’s farm in Indiana, which employs integrated natural farming methods with vegetable gardens, chickens and heritage breed cattle.

Fr. Michael Crosby belongs to the Midwest Province of the Capuchin Franciscans and is a frequent contributor to National Catholic Reporter.