This week in the mainstream media: a sister doles out massages at the ballpark, one shares the secret of a long and happy life, and Russell Crowe goes all paparazzi on a couple of women religious in Rome.

The image that surfaces when Sr. Teresa Forcades speaks is evocative of spiraling energy, bubbling in spirit, and of being on the ground with the needs of the people of God.

Something new to address aging is taking shape in northern California. Looking toward an innovative model of healthy age-in-place and community hospitality, the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose broke ground this week in Fremont, Calif., on a new residence for themselves. This opens the way for their existing Siena building to be re-purposed as a dementia-specific community health and wellness center for the people of Fremont.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, a Vietnamese sister who is a psychologist urged women to have self-confidence in their abilities and values. She encouraged them to enhance their confidence to gain more respect from society.

"I lost my job, lost my house, and lost my children to children's services. I was homeless and a former drug addict, but I'm clean and sober for five years now, and I have my own apartment."

By March 8, International Women's Day, more than 160 women had arrived on the wintry campus of St. Catherine University here for the first National Catholic Sisters Week.

First, a welcome! In this spot every week Global Sisters Report will look at stories that the secular, mainstream media – newspapers, magazines, TV, Internet blogs, etc. – are doing about Catholic sisters. We will cast a wide net, reporting on the good, the bad and the “ugh, what were they thinking?” stories out there.

Katie Hoormann stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. She waved the bat around and got set.

The young man who was the pitcher let an underhanded toss soar. Katie swung and made contact, driving in a run for the Little Sisters of the Poor residents' team. Applause erupted in the open-space auditorium.

"She's 96 years old," exclaimed a gentleman sitting in a chair, with his walker at his side.

Pope Francis seems to be doing everything he can to remind Catholics that they are buried holding rosary beads, not checkbooks. The spring cleanup has begun in Rome.

There is a new Secretariat for the Economy to oversee how the Vatican handles money. There is a new Council for the Economy to analyze internal controls and governance. Francis even recently called for a meeting of religious orders' money managers.

Will any of this make any difference? And whose money is it anyhow?

Today’s letter, written on March 4, comes from Lasallian Br. Bill Firman, executive director of Solidarity with South Sudan. Furman writes from Juba, South Sudan’s largest city, where BBC Africa reports violence has broken out among the military in the last week.