I attended a roller derby. I was expecting a brawl-type atmosphere, which was erroneous. Today's roller derby skaters do block and push and pull to accomplish each "jam," but it's done with integrity, good sportsmanship, and skill.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - Almost-Sister Jane joins Sister Maxine as they ponder what they'd ask an extraterrestrial about religion, and what popes and a Vatican astronomer have had to say about life on other planets.

Worried about the unresolved tensions between the United States and North Korea, Catholic sisters are adding their voices to those calling for diplomatic efforts to ease recent hostilities.

Some tear at the roots of violence by running schools, health clinics or social programs. Others do it in smaller ways, concentrating not on changing neighborhoods or even city blocks, but individual lives. "We're under no illusions," says Dominican Sr. Joanne Delehanty. "Our energy goes into being church and being good neighbors."

This Sister of St. Joseph of the Apparition began her ministry as a simple gesture to bring soup to the dying. Her work has grown to partnerships with the U.N. and international HIV/AIDS organizations to bring life-saving treatments to people who have the disease.

Sr. Teresa Nguyen Thi Duc helps villagers abandon expensive and harmful burial customs, and brings them towards Catholicism. She spoke with GSR about her evangelization work with Ede ethnic villagers, whom she has served for 45 years.

LCWR 2017: Beyond some annual processes and business sessions, the three days in Orlando hosted profound conversations regarding grief and vulnerability, the presence of love, and communion.

LCWR 2017 - A familiar Spanish saying defines the experience and worldview of Sr. Teresa Maya: Ni de aquí, ni de allá ("from neither here nor there"). A Mexican-American Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word, she transitions to become president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious on Aug. 11, the final night of its annual assembly.

LCWR 2017 - Switching between podium and piano, keynote speaker Pramuk, a Regis University theologian, tied together the concepts of music, grief and refuge: "We sing our way from fear and hesitation to courage and fresh hope."

Sr. Barbara Paleczny, a Canadian School Sister of Notre Dame, has lived in South Sudan for nine years. Based in Juba, she travels throughout the country, her work focused on healing through workshops that offer trauma/psychosocial support for those affected by the country's ongoing civil war, and on training others to lead these workshops.

Despite South Sudan's civil war, Kabu is a community trying to work out its destiny peacefully. The common goal? Grow enough food to sustain the village. And the India-based Daughters of Mary Immaculate have a key role in that.

LCWR 2017 - A learner, a visionary, a strategic thinker, a source of energy — those close to St. Joseph Sr. Mary Pellegrino have no shortage of buoyant words to say about the outgoing president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization facing the challenge of "reconfiguring ourselves to the future." Pellegrino will become LCWR's past president Aug. 11.

LCWR 2017 - As hundreds of sisters in leadership gather Aug. 8-11 in Orlando, Florida, planners are looking for the meeting to be a spiritual experience, not a business meeting. As in 2016, the conference format involves contemplative dialogue; current issues to discuss include being a countercultural presence in the world, restructuring the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, addressing loss, and shaping the evolution of religious life.

GSR Today - A 20-something raging extrovert walks into a Benedictine monastery. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn't it? It actually happened. I walked through the doors of Mount Saint Benedict Monastery in Erie and began a 10-week internship with Sr. Joan Chittister.

Over the past six years, Sr. Martina Leaka has helped more than 60 young people in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, find meaning in their lives and has prepared them for adulthood by training them at a center called Porter's House. There, they learn skills that enable them to be self-reliant, including sewing and baking products sold across the city.

The U.N.'s  World Day against Trafficking in Persons may prompt renewed debate over prostitution. The debate splits groups often allied in other causes, including Catholic sisters and human rights advocates.

The Wheaton Franciscans, a community of about 45 vowed members, are finishing a transfer of their affordable housing properties to Mercy Housing, after discerning a need to ensure the long-term future of their ministry. They had worked with the Religious Sisters of Mercy earlier to transfer their hospitals in Iowa to Mercy Health Network.