What Catholic sisters wish they had learned sooner

A car's rearview mirror shows a horizon full of bright orange and dark clouds. (Unsplash/Jake Weirick)

Religious life is full of lessons that shape and transform us over time. This month, we asked panelists: What is something you have learned in your religious life that you wished you had learned sooner?

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Latest Columns

Dark silhouette of a person on a small boat in deep blue waters pulling a white fishing net into an orange bucket.

Empty nets: We need a new spirituality of failure

"Failure is painful," writes Stephanie Peirolo, reflecting on the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5. "But we should not close ourselves off to hope and grace."

Statue of St. Veronica

Fourth Sunday of Lent: Celebration and reconciliation

Sailboat on dark blue waters (Unsplash/Vidar Nordli Mathisen)

Faith provides both anchor and sails on the journey

Editors' Choice

Focus

Cleveland Ursuline Sr. Gretchen Rodenfels holds a portrait of Sr. Joanne Marie Mascha, who was raped and murdered in 1995. Rodenfels taught at the same school as Mascha, and later lived with her at the motherhouse. (GSR photo/Dan Stockman)

In Focus

Nearly 30 years after he raped and murdered a nun, an Ohio man asked for forgiveness

Spared the death penalty, the man who murdered an Ursuline sister 30 years ago writes to ask them for forgiveness. They give it, and transform their healing into activism.

News

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Rescuers work at the site of a damaged building in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 30, in the aftermath of a strong earthquake that struck two days earlier. People in Myanmar are in desperate need of humanitarian supplies and medical support as the death toll from the devastating earthquake that rocked central Myanmar continues to rise. (OSV News/Reuters)

Indian church expresses sorrow, support for earthquake-hit Myanmar and Thailand

Women religious leaders and Catholic bishops in India have expressed solidarity with the people of earthquake-hit Myanmar and Thailand.

Pope clears way for 3 new saints, including first woman from Venezuela

Pope Francis has cleared the way for the canonizations of three blesseds: an Armenian Catholic archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during World War II and a Venezuelan religious sister who dedicated her life to education and the poor.

Sr. Pepa Torres, a member of the Apostolic Sisters of the Heart of Jesus, walks around the Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid. "This neighborhood is a world where many different worlds fit," Pepa said. (Luis Donaldo González)

Q&A with Sr. Pepa Torres, serving in Lavapiés barrio, Madrid's migrant heart

"I truly believe in the power of community initiatives to drive social change," says Sr. María Torres Pérez, or Pepa Torres as people know her. "We have to raise our voices and gritar to denounce injustices."

Benedictine Sr. Mary Elizabeth Schweiger holds a petition against mining in El Salvador March 24 signed by women religious at Mount St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison, Kansas. The Benedictines joined the Sisters of Charity in nearby Leavenworth as well as other Catholics from Kansas showing solidarity with the Catholic Church in El Salvador fighting a new law that allows metal mining. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Kansas Catholics, sisters join anti-mining fight in El Salvador

"It's to show solidarity that we're very much their partners. We just feel like they've gone through so much," said Benedictine Sr. Mary Elizabeth Schweiger. 

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Nigerian sisters help young women overcome homelessness in the heart of Lagos

Kansas Catholics, sisters join anti-mining fight in El Salvador

Catholic religious sisters attacked in Congo as crisis continues

Feature Series

Out of the Shadows: Confronting Violence Against Women

"Out of the Shadows: Confronting Violence Against Women" is a yearlong Global Sisters Report series on the ways Catholic sisters are responding to this global phenomenon.
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Arlington Carmelites in controversy

Fort Worth bishop takes over a Carmelite monastery and accuses cloistered nun of adultery with a priest. Discalced Carmelite Nuns say the bishop does not have authority over them and call his actions a land grab.
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LCWR 2024

The 2024 general assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
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Religious Life

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Rescuers work at the site of a damaged building in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 30, in the aftermath of a strong earthquake that struck two days earlier. People in Myanmar are in desperate need of humanitarian supplies and medical support as the death toll from the devastating earthquake that rocked central Myanmar continues to rise. (OSV News/Reuters)

Indian church expresses sorrow, support for earthquake-hit Myanmar and Thailand

Women religious leaders and Catholic bishops in India have expressed solidarity with the people of earthquake-hit Myanmar and Thailand.

A car's rearview mirror shows a horizon full of bright orange and dark clouds. (Unsplash/Jake Weirick)

What Catholic sisters wish they had learned sooner

Religious life is full of lessons that shape and transform us over time. This month, we asked panelists: What is something you have learned in your religious life that you wished you had learned sooner?

Catholic religious sisters attacked in Congo as crisis continues

Missionary Sisters of Santo Domingo in the municipality of Kimbanseke in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, fell victim to the attack on March 18. The attackers smashed the wall of the congregation's residence to gain entry.

Wildfires force 3 Missouri religious communities to evacuate temporarily

The communities at Assumption Abbey, the Monastery of St. Joseph, home to the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, and Nazareth Hermitage all left their properties in the early afternoon of March 19 as wildfires inched dangerously close.

Community News

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Human Trafficking Response for Faith-Based Leaders

April 3
Join the Alliance To End Human Trafficking for a discussion on April 3, 2025, at 2:00 PM EST for

GLOBAL: Salesian Missions highlights educational work combating crisis of 250 million youth out of school

March 28, 2025
Salesian missionaries establish primary, secondary and vocational schools in poor, remote pla

KENYA: Salesian Missions provides funding for new bathrooms at Don Bosco Utume

March 24, 2025
Bathroom facilities include access for people with a disability
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Ministry

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Hmong students from the Sa Pa Parish-run hostel head to school in cold weather on Dec. 12, 2023, in Sa Pa town, Vietnam. (Joachim Pham)

Vietnamese sisters work to prevent child marriage in Hmong communities

In a 2019 Vietnam census, the rate of child marriage among the Hmong stood at 51.5%. Through education and other support, Catholic sisters aim to encourage people in ethnic communities to wait to marry at a legal age.

Sisters and residents discuss plans for a musical at Jyothis Bhavan, a short-stay home in Kochi, southern Kerala, India, for young transgender people hoping to integrate into the social mainstream. (Binu Alex)

Kerala nuns run Jyothis Bhavan, a home for struggling transgender youth

God "does not disown his children": Jyothis Bhavan, a home run by the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel in Kochi, Kerala, India, offers a lifeline to one of society's most marginalized groups.

Screen in St. Peter's Square shows clergy saying rosary.

At the Vatican switchboard, nuns soothe anxious callers about Pope Francis

The Vatican's central number is public — and the sisters of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master make sure all who call it get a real person, not the "press 1 for English, 2 for Latin" version of the automation that's become the norm at major institutions and businesses worldwide.

Supporters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, gather near the U.S. Capitol Feb. 5, to rail against the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the humanitarian agency. However, the Congressional Research Service raised legal questions Feb. 3 about whether the agency, which helps with job training, education, clean water projects and other humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries can be dismantled without congressional approval. (NCR/Rhina Guidos)

As Trump cuts humanitarian aid, sisters say they'll persevere

The Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University organized a panel highlighting the downstream and life-or-death effects of the recent cuts to USAID.

GSR in the Classroom

Youth in a classroom raising their hands to answer questions

The project shines light on the mission and ministry of Catholic women religious around the world.

Each lesson connects articles about sisters or columns written by sisters to the good news found in scripture and church teaching. Action ideas and compelling prayer bring new learning alive. Teacher guides provide vital context and engaging activities to launch group discussions.