From 1979 when Sr. Teresita Weind was invited by the pastor to join the parish staff, to preach, to minister, until 1991 when another pastor booted her from the parish for overstepping boundaries set by the archdiocese, she had been in the pulpit at least monthly. She had also led retreats, ministered to the sick and helped Carolan and others create and nurture a racially integrated faith community that continued to encompass both Oak Park and Austin, just as St. Catherine's and St. Lucy's parishes had done for a hundred years.

An afternoon spent listening to Sr. Bibiana Anena and other members of the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gulu is bound to circle around the word “isolated” and the attendant idea of service to others. “In a remote area like this, you can really help the doctors – because there aren’t enough of them to run all the cases,” said Anena, 64, a veteran nurse who lives with her fellow sisters in a residence within an earshot of the Kotido diocese’s office. Kotido is the commercial hub of Kotido district, part of the wider Karamoja region.

I admire my sisters’ tales of trunks. Long before I entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration – and long before Vatican II for that matter – the common, communal practice was that every sister had to fit all of her personal property into one trunk.

There are no bail bondsmen in St. Joseph County, Indiana; for the past 40 years, Holy Cross Sr. Sue Kintzele has been filling that gap, helping families meet the price of getting someone released from jail until the trial date, so he or she can go to work and take care of children. "A lot of times, I do it for the mothers and grandmothers – they’re the ones stuck taking care of everyone while the person’s in jail.”