The survey is being turned into a manual, and an international study is in the works. "Once we can translate it into different cultures and languages, then it's a tool that can help move religious life into a viable future," says Divine Providence Sr. Maria Clara Kreis.

Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, one of three mostly black communities of women religious in the United States. announced they will sell their Harlem motherhouse as part of a restructuring effort. "We need to expand to places outside of New York as our number increases," said Sr. Gertrude Lilly Ihenacho, head of the congregation.

Long before the tropical birds began their sunrise call-and-response from the treetops, a sleepy band of travelers boarded their transport, headed deep into the heart of Panama's largest wetlands system.

"Coffee and pineapple, quince and avocado, guanabana and strange fruits from prickly palm trees, all of it there for the harvesting. Every step brought a new surprise."

This is our threshold moment and we need to get on board with evolution. Our refusal to see, our inability to hear the new sounds of a new world arriving, and our refusal to rearrange our comfortable lives are taking their toll.

Thirty-nine people shared 13 first-place awards, nine second-place, four third-place and five honorable mentions for National Catholic Reporter and Global Sisters Report at the 2017 Catholic Media Awards.

"This is ultimately a spiritual fight": Panama's political context weighs heavily on retreat-goers, including a biologist worried about habitat loss and an environmental director sanctioned for trying to enforce the law.

The response of young, newly educated women religious to the fast-paced changes taking place within Chinese society will play a determining role in the future of religious life in the nation.

GSR Today - Government in this country is not some "other." It is not a dark entity that is our enemy or something to be tolerated. It is us. Both government and the church, when they are at their best, are truly examples of how the whole can be so much more than the sum of its parts.

The Life - Since its start three years ago, Global Sisters Report has provided a forum to "give voice" to women religious from around the world. We're taking that part of our mission a step further in a new monthly feature called The Life, an international panel of 20 sisters who write short reflections on various topics. The second anniversary of Pope Francis' environmental encyclical Laudato Si' inspires the first question for women religious from around the world in GSR's new feature.