Over the years of my active life, I thought I was living the basics of Franciscan religious life. Now I am being taught by young people who practice what I only preach.

As Sr. Larraine Lauter held the tiny hand of an infant patient at a cholera clinic in Verrettes, Haiti, two years ago, she made a silent promise.

Sr. Pilar Chagoya Mingüer, of the Servants of the Holy Spirit, is a practicing dentist, licensed attorney and longtime advocate for social justice. Three years ago, she teamed up with Fr. Lionel Cárdenas in the Social Projection of Faith Program to promote interest in the Oaxaca Diocese where social programs had been a low priority.

Jesus cares enough about our safety to stay with us in the fields. I find this Christian image still comforting in a world far removed from the hillsides with grazing sheep of biblical times. Fear and vulnerability live within us even today.

At a recent training workshop, religious from three continents were urged to collaborate in trafficking prevention, rescue, protection and prosecutions in partnership with the government, NGOs and the church.

In Kenya, society frowns upon early pregnancy, viewing it as a result of poor upbringing by parents or of teenage promiscuity. But in this country of nearly 50 million people, almost one in five girls aged 15-19 has already had a baby or is pregnant. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd welcome young women at their Annunciation Home Crisis Pregnancy Center, providing shelter, food, access to education and child care, and reconciliation with their families when possible.

For what could be the first time in the 176-year history of the Diocese of Little Rock, a diocesan tribunal submitted formal documentation to the Vatican on an alleged healing miracle of a former Arkansas college student.