OSV News

The U.S. Catholic bishops voted Nov. 12 at their fall meeting to support the local advancement of the sainthood causes of two women: Benedictine Sister Annella Zervas and Gertrude Agnes Barber, a laywoman. The two women died 74 years apart —  Annella in 1926 after suffering horribly from a rare skin condition, and Barber in 2000, after becoming a national leader and advocate in her field. Postulators for both causes are currently gathering information locally about the two women with plans to prepare a "positio" for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. 

The nuns and youth are trained to combat human trafficking, child marriage, and forced marriage.

Derry-born Sister Clare Crockett was a promising actress with little interest in religion when she went on a Holy Week retreat in Spain in 2000 that changed her life. The then 18-year-old self-confessed "wild child" felt a profound call to religious life, and entered the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.

Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, is the medical director of St. Mary's Legacy Clinic, a ministry of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Throughout America and the world, thousands of religious sisters are daily witnessing to the environmental care commitment urged by Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si', and its 2023 sequel, Laudate Deum. It's a congregational concern that, for many of them, often predates the pontiff's writings — but the merging of their own environmental priorities with official papal pronouncements has helpfully amplified sisterly endeavors.

When three Loreto Sisters from Ireland arrived in Rumbek, South Sudan, in 2006, only 13 girls were in secondary education in the capital of Lakes State. The sisters opened the first secondary school for girls in 2008 with 35 students. Eighteen years later over 500 girls have graduated from Loreto Rumbek and many are now completing a post-secondary education.

The silver coffin of St. Teresa of Ávila was opened in Alba de Tormes Aug. 28 only to confirm her body has remained incorrupt since her death in 1582. The opening of her tomb marks the beginning of a study of her relics, which will be carried out by Italian doctors and scientists — with the approval of the Vatican.

Bishop James V. Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, released results of the investigation by medical experts into Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster's incorruptibility in a press release on the diocesan website Aug. 22, the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A convert to Catholicism from Buddhism, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa, a member of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist in Akita, Japan, experienced several apparently miraculous events centering on a statue of Mary from 1973 to 1981.

A trio of bills to combat human trafficking sought by Catholic advocates faces an uncertain future in Congress amid a wider debate over immigration policy.

It was an emotional welcome when 48 veterans from around the U.S. arrived at the Deauville-Normandy Airport June 4 on board a special flight from Atlanta to celebrate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6.

A group of Ukrainian youth have made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, asking Mary to bring peace as Russia doubles down on its 11-year war in Ukraine and brutally targets civilians.

A religious sister best known for helping more than 100,000 migrants and asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Texas was in Chicago April 15 to share her artwork nationally for the first time and reiterate a message of love.

On a cold day in January of 2000, Sister Joaquína Hernández Pereira rode in the back of a truck, laden with supplies and religious habits, into a rural town in the mountainous region of Oaxaca, Mexico. She had a near-impossible mission ahead of her.

The religious sister experienced an expulsion described by the court as "infamous and vexatious," without having committed "the slightest offense," and on the basis of "non-established motives," adding she was "sent back to lay life without mercy." The ruling was made public April 3.

Sisters from the Russian Orthodox convent of St. Elizabeth the Royal Martyr in Minsk, Belarus, said they have received a warm welcome in Ireland despite their country's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Ireland's strong support for Ukrainians.

Catholic Extension Society recently honored Dominican Sister Jane Meyer, former head of school at St. Agnes Academy, with its seventh annual Houston Spirit of Francis Award for her decades of commitment to Catholic education and promotion of social justice.

Catholic leaders and local officials condemned Feb. 23 an attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to shut down a Catholic nonprofit serving migrants and asylum-seekers at the Southern border, calling it an abuse of power and a violation of religious liberty.

On Feb. 22, the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great were formally presented with the 2023-24 Lumen Christi Award, the highest honor conferred by Catholic Extension.

Srs. Juliana Alfonso and Nicole Daly ran a 13.1-mile half marathon in Naples, Florida, Jan. 14, wearing full habits. The two Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco finished the race in 2 hours, 21 minutes.