GSR Staff

In what has become an annual tradition of assessing the year, Global Sisters Report held an extended discussion with the leaders of the International Union of Superiors General and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The sisters spoke with GSR on Dec. 10; the 2020 conversation, naturally, focused on the effects of COVID-19.

Live blog - It's Election Day in the United States. Women religious across the country are observing it in different ways. 

GSR Today - Welcome to the fourth year of our monthly series called The Life. Our 2020-21 panel of 20 sisters from around the world will share their reflections on the unique, challenging lives of Catholic women religious.

Women religious continue to minister to those who need help. Updates from sisters and their adapted their ministries during COVID-19 include Tanzania, Panama, Nigeria, Vietnam, two places in India, and Kentucky in the U.S. 

Women religious continue to minister to those who need help in the face of a deadly, ongoing pandemic. This week, GSR writers provide updates on how sisters have adapted their ministries during COVID-19.

Between Good Friday, April 10, and May 10, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice, or Felician Sisters, in Livonia, Michigan, lost 12 sisters to COVID-19.

GSR Today - In February, months before the global spread of the coronavirus, Global Sisters Report launched a series focusing on Catholic sisters helping those who are homeless or lack adequate shelter worldwide.

GSR Today - In February, months before the global spread of the coronavirus, Global Sisters Report launched a series focusing on Catholic sisters helping those who are homeless or lack adequate shelter worldwide.

"We're taking this as an opportunity to grow spiritually and to fall in love with the life again. We're trying to see this as a gift from God, as time we can set aside without needing to ask permission."

Congregations share how they are reacting to the crisis — praying, bringing people together online, making masks for health care workers, carrying on limited ministries. "Religious life has prepared me for this," says one sister.

Social distance prayer, done creatively, still produces spiritual unity. That’s what sisters are finding amid strict separations from each other and their usual ministries during the indeterminate period of the coronavirus’ spread around the world. GSR talked to a number of congregations to find out how they were maintaining a core aspect of religious life — community.

We would like to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected your community's ministries and how you connect with one another. 

Global Sisters Report's 2019 coverage of Catholic women religious around the world was recognized recently with seven awards by the Associated Church Press, which also recognized National Catholic Reporter with three awards for Vatican-related news.

"Now is the time for each one of us to respond to the worldwide coronavirus crisis by being in solidarity with others," said Sr. Jolanda Kafka, president of the International Union of Superiors General.

Sr. Patricia Murray, executive director of the International Union of Superiors General, spoke with Global Sisters Report about UISG's key goals for 2020, changes in religious life and more.