The Mekong Delta's Soc Trang Province is one of largest Khmer-populated provinces in southern Vietnam. Khmer ethnic people account for over 30 percent of the province's population of 1.3 million, and because of their status, they are generally left out of government-run schools, health care and other opportunities to move out of poverty. Over two decades ago, Sisters of Lovers of the Holy Cross of Can Tho volunteered to educate illiterate Khmer adults at their convent in Soc Trang City to introduce the mostly Buddhist population to Catholicism and help them live better lives.

Talitha Kum leaders from 17 networks around the world capped off two weeks of training in Rome with an online panel discussion June 13 of best practices to fight human trafficking.

"At this juncture in history, when the tendency of the human mind is to sort and categorize, to label and judge, the Spirit prompts us to abandon our definitions."

A woman's religious order and a group of women of all faiths are taking a stance against the Trump administration's policy of separating families by taking children into custody and sending parents to detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"An important lesson in my life is one that I'm still learning. It involves welcoming and trusting God as a loving father, rather than as a severe judge or 'divine tester.' "

A retired bishop laughingly feigned disbelief — "How can you be a nun and a lawyer?" It would be silly not to just enjoy the bishop's humorous welcome, and leave it at that. But he was onto something.

Running an eight-bed intensive care unit at a long-term acute care facility has its ups and downs, Sr. Magdalena Rybak says. But the 42-year-old Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth says it's all part of a calling that is alive and well more than 20 years after she entered religious life. She talked to Global Sisters Report about nursing, her life's passion.

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see."

An important lesson in my life is one that I'm still learning. It involves welcoming and trusting God as a loving father, rather than as a severe judge or "divine tester." Once, when I was quite young and probably came home with some catechism lesson about heaven and hell, my dad said with great conviction, that as a father he could never consign any of his children to unending torment — that is, to hell. His conviction was an awakening for me.