This illustration, provided by the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, announces an upcoming celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of her canonization. (Courtesy of the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
by Rhina Guidos
The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton shrine in Emmittsburg, Maryland, will celebrate Sept. 12-14 the 50th anniversary of her canonization with prayer, music and other community activities.
The shrine will host a talk by historian Kathleen Sprows Cummings, professor of American studies and history at the University of Notre Dame, on the importance of her canonization. The event also will include reflections about the saint from women religious and lay leaders, and end with a Sept. 14 Mass at the shrine.
Mother Seton, as she is popularly known, founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's, the "first community for apostolic, religious women established in the United States," according to the shrine's website, and was an early champion of Catholic education in the country.
At her 1975 canonization, she became the first U.S.-born saint. Click here for more information on the celebration.
In a public square in Guatemala, Sr. Angélica Segoviano, center, and other local sisters and volunteers set up a demonstration with banners and brochures, handing out information regarding human trafficking. (Courtesy of Lisa Kristine)
Free webinar to help combat human trafficking
In recognition of World Day Against Trafficking In Persons, the Alliance to End Human Trafficking — an initiative founded and supported by Catholic Sisters in the U.S. — is hosting the free webinar "Unmasking the Network: Human Trafficking and Organized Crime," July 30 at 2 p.m. EST via Zoom.
The webinar will explore how human trafficking is deeply embedded within international and domestic organized crime networks, how organized crime syndicates engage in and benefit from human trafficking, and the vital role of faith communities in confronting trafficking through education and advocacy.
Attendees will hear from a panel of experts and advocates, including a veteran law enforcement official with experience dismantling trafficking operations, a criminal justice strategist focused on organized crime, and a survivor and now international advocate for human rights.
Though the event is free, participants must register in advance.
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Sister wins medal in weight lifting competition
A 72-year-old Dominican Sister of San Rafael, who was looking to improve her health, received a medal in a power lifting competition in San Francisco in mid-July.
Sr. Pat Farrell made headlines before the competition, as TV stations covered her training for the contest. She told reporters that lifting weights, which she started doing months before the contest, has helped improve her health and diminished back problems. She competed in the deadlift and bench press competition.
San Francisco television station ABC 7 News has video of Farrell training but also in the competition and holding her medal. In an earlier video, she gave a shout out to her religious community, using the opportunity to talk about the sisters' work in education and their commitment to social justice.
Sisters to pray and observe anniversary of U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Women religious around the U.S. will remember the more than 200,000 who died after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in 1945, during a virtual prayer service via Zoom Aug. 6, at 6 p.m CST.
The event organized by the Franciscan Peace Center, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa, and Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, marks the events of Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
The event is sponsored by more than a dozen communities of women religious in the U.S. and seeks to highlight "80 years of advocacy by Catholic women religious against nuclear weapons production and use," according to a press release.
All are welcome to register to join the sisters in prayer.
A protester holds up a sign that reads in French, "Security is a right, Haiti deserves it" during a protest against insecurity April 2 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Two women religious, Sr. Evanette Onesaire and Sr. Jeanne Siliane Voltaire, were killed March 31. (AP photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Killings and violence in Haiti hamper missionary work
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported July 11 that more than 3,000 people have been killed in Haiti from January to June of this year and two of those killings involved women religious.
Srs. Evanette Onezaire and Jeanne Voltaire, of Little Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, were among five people killed in late March when gangs attacked Mirebalais, near the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The increase in violence has led women and men religious, as well as other members of the Catholic Church to leave Haiti, hampering missionary work to the troubled island nation.
