"I have never seen such heartless people": Nuns who live and work in Catholic-run medical facilities in Eritrea have been forcefully evicted from their residences, as the government seized and closed down the country's Catholic hospitals and health centers.
Run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ugwuomu Nike, an isolated community in Nigeria's Enugu state, Notre Dame Nursery and Primary School provides basic education to children of farmers and artisans who lack access to it. "We see how these children defy the odds and trek long distances to school and how eager they are to learn," says headmistress Sr. Ifeoma Ubah.
Pimentel told the annual assembly of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests on June 25 stories about the people she and the other sisters serve at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the Diocese of Brownsville.
Servants of the Blessed Sacrament sisters founded the Eucharistic Adoration Association in 2005 at their motherhouse based in Bien Hoa City. What began with nine people now has 8,000 members throughout Vietnam. Sr. Maria Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan said the association aims to help promote devotion to the Eucharist, the "great mystery of faith," to live by it and to bear witness to it.
After five years serving 10 U.S. dioceses with burgeoning Latino populations, 36 sisters have graduated from the U.S.-Latin American Sisters Exchange Program. They're returning home with Boston College degrees, English skills, and pastoral experience. And for those U.S. dioceses, the sisters leave behind ministries they have built and local leaders they have trained to keep those ministries sustainable.
Orders of women and men religious received, collectively, $28 million in financial help from the National Religious Retirement Office, the umbrella group that coordinates the annual Retirement Fund for Religious campaign in parishes and dioceses nationwide.
The $28 million distribution, announced July 8, took place in June. It totals more than the amount raised in last year's collection, which was $27.7 million. The distribution also is $3 million more than last year's disbursement of $25 million.
Sr. Teena Menomparampil has rescued hundreds of young village girls from the cultural realities of early marriage, female genital mutilation, child trafficking and child labor that plague so many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. After offering them care and education, she finds many of the girls gravitate toward sisterhood.
Dominican Sr. Mary Jo Sobieck might be the only Catholic sister to have both her own bobblehead and Topps baseball card. Now she might just win an ESPY for Best Viral Sports Moment. "It's kind of surreal. Wanting to grow up to be an athlete and then to know I'm going to be there in the midst of the greatest of this generation — it's going to be phenomenal."
The Los Angeles-based playwright's latest work with History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, tells the true story of four biological sisters who all became Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and became celebrated fixtures in the St. Paul-Minneapolis peace community.
At least 250 people died on Easter when suicide bombers attacked three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka. As suspects have been arrested, the Catholic sisters have been visiting with people affected by the loss, listening to them and helping them process anger, shock, guilt and sorrow. More than 200 sisters have been assigned by the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Sri Lanka with the mission of healing, providing psychological support to the parishioners.
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