America has a history of oppression of "the other" that renews itself over and over, unfortunately with the approval of our country's citizenry. As once we oppressed slaves, now we oppress refugees. A most painful suffering for slaves in the past and refugees in the present is separation of families.

"Sexual abuse of nuns by clergy has long been a problem in Poland — and it's a very painful matter," Ursuline Sr. Jolanta Olech, secretary-general of the Warsaw-based Conference of Higher Superiors of Female Religious Orders, told Poland's Catholic Information Agency, KAI.

Sisters and other religious are bringing the issue of homelessness to the halls of the United Nations. They are among the 27 members of the NGO Working Group to End Homelessness. The group is pushing the U.N. to formally take up the growing problem as an emerging issue of focus and concern.

GSR Today - The gathering in Bangkok gave opportunity for female Asian theologians, including 31 sisters, to share with one another theological insights from their studies and to keep alive the vision of the Women of Wisdom and Action initiative.

Notes from the Field - Without the experiences I have had so far in this year of service, I would not have this new breadth of knowledge about myself or the world around me.

From Where I Stand Preview: Differences are a big thing. They are the resources that nourish a new future for us all. Which is exactly where Benedict's second principle of life comes in.

For over 10 years, Felician Sisters have been present to the undocumented and homeless in Pomona, California. But recently we realized that those we met on the streets were the "success" story — migrants who had survived, versus the hundreds who die in our deserts every year.

Recent credible sexual abuse allegations in India and East Timor have underscored the fears of many in the church that clerical sex abuse is rife in South, Southeast and North Asia, which have a collective population of at least 120 million Catholics.

Emily Kahm is finishing up a fellowship at Augustana College, where she teaches a course in American Catholicism that is centered around the work of women religious. She sends her students out to interview a sister, an assignment that's generated surprising encounters.

We've heard about the border's "security and humanitarian crisis," but we did not see any drugs, guns or criminals. We saw parents bringing their children to the U.S. so that they could live without the fear of violence or poverty.