Rhina Guidos

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.

Sisters are participating in the church's campaign: "Yes to life, no to mining," calling for the restoration of a law against metal mining in El Salvador. 

Sr. Lucia Caram, who ministers to Ukrainian war victims in Spain, shares her outrage at the heated exchange between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"He is loved by many, many, many people": From Buenos Aires to Mexico City, Latin Americans expressed closeness to the Argentine pope as he battles double pneumonia for the second week in a hospital room in Rome.

Salesian sister wins book prize. Network hosts webinar. Sisters speak out on USAID funding cuts.

Also, CLINIC condemns termination of temporary protected status for Venezuelans, and Mercy Sisters voice support for the Episcopalian bishop who pleaded with President Donald Trump to "have mercy."

The Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, known as CLAR, has responded to online reports that a group of Poor Clares had been expelled from Nicaragua.

"We have to fight to get rid of clericalism, to transform clericalism, not to deny [women] access to ministries," Consuelo Vélez, of the Colombian Association of Women Theologians, told Global Sisters Report.

The Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious (CLAR) held its fifth gathering on religious life, Nov. 22-24 in Argentina, with more than 1,000 participants.

Despite years of shortages in Cuba, and now more constant blackouts, Catholic sisters and priests are committed to remain with those suffering on the island.

Mercy Sr. Ana María Pineda received an Encuentros Award from the U.S. bishops' Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs. Bishop Oscar Cantú praised Pineda, a theologian, for her contributions to the Latino church in the U.S.

As they prepare for a second Trump presidency, immigration activists at the border, including a sister lawyer, worry for the future. 

Swiss Sr. Lorena Jenal, attacked and threatened for her decades-long defense of victims of "sorcery accusation related violence," received a lifetime achievement award from Missio Aachen in Cologne, Germany.

With their eyes on the U.S. presidential election, Catholic sisters throughout the world consider how the policies of each candidate could impact those they serve in ministry.

"What do you do in the face of all these viruses, worse than COVID-19, that suffocate and threaten the human condition and that of the Afro-descendant people and other people?" asked Sr. María Suyapa Cacho Álvarez.

A group of pilgrims with the Ecclesial Conference on the Amazon and Discerning Deacons took part in programs and church visits in Rome at the start of the synod discussing the spiritual call many women have to be deacons in the church.

Where neither deacons or priests can be found to tend to the local population in remote regions of the world, sisters keep Catholic customs alive by carrying out a form of the diaconate.

A group of men and women gathered at a chapel near the Vatican, confidently praying that the church would restore the female diaconate Oct. 3, the day after synod participants were told it would not happen now.

Rev. Angela Nevitt Meyer of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA joined other advocates for women's ordination in Rome, where they prayed near the site of synod on synodality.

Regardless of what the synod says about women's ministries, Catholic women in Latin America will continue serving the poor and want to maintain dialogue on the issue, says Dominican Sr. Mila Díaz Solano.