Organizations responding to the immigration crisis on the United States’ southern border initially faced their biggest challenge in the overwhelming numbers of refugees coming across. Now, their challenge is a federal administration bent on sending them back: “We are very disheartened by the President’s aggressive actions towards immigrants,” said Holy Cross Sr. Suzanne Brennan, who directs Holy Cross Ministries in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) has called on the sisters in the ACWECA region to build a network of information through research and data collection that shows the gravity and scale of the problem of human trafficking. CCJP Secretary, Chris Chisoni said this when he gave a presentation on human trafficking at the just ended 16th ACWECA General Assembly in Lusaka, Zambia.

Hundreds of protesters took part in a rally and march in Washington Aug. 28 chanting: "Not one more! Not one more!" to urge President Barack Obama to stop the deportation of immigrant families, workers and children. Mercy Sr. Anne Curtis, joined by a group of women religious, stressed the sisters' long-term commitment in working with immigrant families and trying to secure a just immigration reform. "We're concerned about families that are separated and what happens to these women and children," she told CNS.

GSR Today - What a bumper crop of feel-good stories this week from the mainstream media that show the depth and breadth – and occasionally oddball joy – of life as a sister. And one of these stories simply cries out to be discussed during happy hour.

GSR Today - The open-ended ceasefire in Gaza and Israel provides an opportunity to negotiate an end to the violence, including the blockade of Gaza. The situation was looking very bleak. Civilians in Gaza have been bearing the brunt of it. News from the West Bank is indicating that the situation there is also deteriorating. Most of us probably wouldn’t want to go there. But Allegany Franciscan Sr. Kathie Uhler is doing just that. 

It was one of those conversations that happens when you ask the right question without intending to ask the right question, and then someone is willing to show you a piece of their soul. I was strolling along with Ana (name changed), a Guatemalan woman in her early 40s, as the golden afternoon sunshine bathed the hills surrounding Guatemala City.

As Pope Francis' plane was cruising through Chinese airspace in mid-August en route to his first visit to the Far East, 20 Chinese priests and nuns were assembling halfway around the globe at a retreat house in the United States, preparing to begin a week of quiet prayer and reflection. The gathering at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Long Island, N.Y., was affiliated with the Chinese Seminary Teachers and Formators Project, an initiative launched by Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1991 to help train priests and women religious for various leadership roles in the church in China.

A Missionary Sister of the Precious Blood, Sr. Clara Mangwengwe is secretary to the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Zimbabwe (CMRS). It is a long way from her home in the deeply rural central province. She is the communications’ hub for the conference and runs the organization either electronically from her convent 55 miles outside Harare or her office in the capital city twice a week.

Bishop Salvatore Matano, the new bishop of Rochester, N.Y., is in the process of ending a 40-year custom of permitting lay ministers to preach at Mass. Most are women commissioned to preach by the former bishop, Matthew Clark. Rochester isn't the only diocese to shut down long-established lay preaching customs. In 2008, outgoing St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn instructed pastors to discontinue a 25-year-old practice even though 29 parishes had active lay preaching programs in place.

"A loving God must have a new life of unimaginable joy and peace prepared for these precious unknown, uncelebrated martyrs . . . ."