Catholic News Service

The global network of women religious fighting human trafficking was offering a virtual tour of its work helping survivors as a way to mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

French Salesian Sr. Yvonne Reungoat told Vida Nueva, a Spanish publication reporting news about the Catholic Church, that "the ideal bishop does not exist." But he has to be a shepherd who is "close to the people entrusted to him, he has to know how to involve priests, laity and religious, and people of different generations."

Religious superiors in the Philippines have vowed not to back down from taking a strong stance against government mismanagement and corruption despite a political threat of being labeled "communists."

It took just four days between the creation and the revocation of the settlement named for a U.S.-born nun intended to give 73 rural families deeds to public land in Brazil's Amazon region.

The Second Assembly of Australia's Plenary Council prepared to close July 8 after two days of catching up and passing almost all of the motions in its guiding document including a revised version of the section on the equal dignity of women and men in the Catholic Church.

Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell, a longtime advocate for economic justice and health care policy, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in a White House ceremony July 7.

When the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg opens its new $4 million museum and visitor center next year, it will be a milestone for those with a deep devotion to America's first native-born saint.

Congregations of women religious throughout the world can feel overwhelmed with the care needed by older sisters, but often, resources taken for granted in developed countries do not even exist in other countries.

The Missionaries of Charity have been expelled from Nicaragua, the latest in a series of attacks on the Catholic Church and its ministries from the Central American country's increasingly repressive government.

It is striking to hear from so many parts of the world where people had the opportunity to take part in a true synodal consultation like this.

In Alitena, a remote village in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, the Daughters of Charity host a gathering to support each other in their grief, mourning and trauma in the wake of the terror and violence that has raged in the region since November 2020. 

Participants said they hoped the June 18 Moral March on Washington, organized by the Poor People's Campaign, would get more people "to understand the plight of the poor in our country."

Polish families and women religious have opened their homes or assisted in some way the estimated 3.6 million Ukrainians who fled the war in their homeland. 

Activists called on Sri Lankan authorities not to arrest an activist nun who has supported anti-government protesters.

Senior Catholics see the beatification of 10 Polish nuns murdered by Russian soldiers at the end of World War II as highlighting the need for radical Christian witness while offering a prophetic reminder of current sufferings in Ukraine.

By sharing their experiences of working with the poor and the marginalized and building partnerships with government and business leaders committed to improving people's lives, religious sisters are convinced that "we can bring about substantial and systemic change," said Loreto Sr. Patricia Murray.

In what may have been the first such ceremony held by a Catholic religious community in Wisconsin, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross hosted a land acknowledgment ceremony on the grounds of St. Francis Convent on May 14.

Good Shepherd Sr. María Agustina Rivas Lopez, who was murdered by terrorists during Peru's political violence, was beatified May 7 during a liturgy in the same plaza where she was shot to death in 1990.

The Christian vocation is for all members of the church to work together and show that one human family united in love is not a utopia but is the reason God created humanity, Pope Francis said.

The leaders of religious orders around the world are taking very seriously not only preparations for the Synod of Bishops assembly in 2023, but the whole idea of making the Catholic Church more "synodal" -- a place where everyone is called to prayer, discernment and responsibility for the church and its mission.