Numerous Catholic organizations are involved in the worldwide refugee and migration crisis, including the Vatican, congregations of women religious and local parishes. We have a list of links to some of the key organizations, along with the United Nations' and other statistics.
Over the next several weeks, GSR will bring a sharper focus to the plight of refugees through a special series, Seeking Refuge, which will follow the journeys refugees make: living in camps, seeking asylum, experiencing resettlement and integration, and those who are deported to a country they may only vaguely remember or that may still be dangerous. Though not every refugee follows this exact pattern, these stages in the journey are emblematic for many — and at every stage, women religious are doing what they can to help.
• All the Seeking Refuge series stories can be found here.
"If you push back against something, you reinforce the very thing you're pushing against. You get stuck because you're both pushing."
Chicago - Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell: "If you push back against something, you reinforce the very thing you're pushing against. You get stuck because you're both pushing."
Simply Spirit: Vatican statements on women priests are invariably ahistorical and biblically naive. It is embarrassing. Worse, they bear false witness to the Jesus of history and are ultimately destructive to the body of Christ, especially the distaff side.
See for Yourself - How many fairy-tale princesses faced ugly situations that just needed a touch of love to be transformed? In "The Frog Prince" and "Beauty and the Beast," the princesses have to take risks before they get to their prizes.
Becoming one holy family at Holy Family Parish in Cincinnati is a process. But we — parishioners from both the United States and Guatemala — are getting there, using some formal initiatives and building an intercultural community in small ways every day.
"Integral development and now integral ecology are all about making wholes where artificial and fallacious divisions have grown up over centuries."
As early as 1999, Sr. Luisa Derouen became the first woman religious to minister among transgender people. In this interview, she discusses changing attitudes about trans issues, Pope Francis' encounters with transgender Catholics and why she chose to no longer remain anonymous in her ministry.
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.