President Donald Trump's first year in office has left Catholic sisters worried and dismayed about the administration's go-it-alone, "America First" foreign policy. The frustration is particularly acute among the sisters who represent their congregations at the United Nations.

"I believe that if we do not as a people say 'Enough!' now, we will regret it for years."

From Where I Stand Preview: President Donald Trump's insult of black countries ​touches our integrity as a nation. I believe that if we do not as a people say "Enough!" now, we will regret it for years.

Sr. Donna Liette is on staff at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood. Founded in 2002, the ministry works with youth and mothers who live amid gangs, violence, drugs and racial division.

I have been privileged to serve in five Nigerian prisons, and to find creative ways to help the prisoners there. My goal is to make them self-reliant and independent, so they will not return to a life of crime.  

Finding work in remote areas of Vietnam is still a problem for young people, especially since they come from large families and lack access to advanced formal education. For the past 12 years, sisters in the Ba Ria Vung Tau Province have been training young ethnic women about the dangers of accepting job offers that disguise human trafficking and other exploitation, instead giving them vocational skills they can use to find legitimate work as trained housemaids, for example. One graduate, Pham Thi Tham, said, "I am proud of my job that helps change my life."

"With God's love, we will continue to live out the charism and mission of our founders and foundresses. We will continue to reach out to those in need, living out the Gospel message and bringing the light and love of Christ to the dark, pain-filled areas of our world today. It is a world that still needs us."

Notes from the Field – I participated in four encounters held by the Union of Religious of the Holy Land. We analyzed a Vatican letter on the relationship between the church's hierarchial and charismatic gifts. Women and men religious from throughout the region shared their experience with the hierarchy, and discussed diversity and inclusion.

Walking the "Notre Dame Trail" from Vincennes Indiana to South Bend Indiana in celebration of the University of Notre Dame's 175 years was not what it was for Congregation of the Holy Cross Fr. Julian Sorin de la Gaulterie and his six Brothers of the Holy Cross companions in 1843. But we did it.