"May it open our hearts to the conversion we need to transform our current paradigm."

GSR Today - For the last several months, I've been eyeballs deep in research on the United States’ criminal justice system. I've been reading books, scouring through legislation and talking to as many Catholic sisters as I can who have ministries dealing with inmates or men and women formerly incarcerated.

For those of us ministering at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation on Chicago's South Side, Pope Francis' declaration of a Year of Mercy for 2016 was a welcome panacea. Last year Chicago mourned the deaths of 468 people who were murdered. Our city had more homicides in 2015 than any other U.S. city, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Philip Gain is a prominent author, journalist, and human rights and environmental activist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He heads the Society for Environment and Human Development, known as SEHD, an advocacy group whose mission is focused on "human rights and environmental justice in Bangladesh through research, capacity building and advocacy."

I first saw the child in the Detroit Free Press as the news was breaking regarding the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. His face wouldn't leave me. I placed his picture where I pray so I could contemplate it. Then the February 1 issue of TIME magazine had that picture on its cover. His face with the caption —The Poisoning of an American City — has become an icon to me of what happens when we forget the human connections with nature and make economics the highest priority in decision making.

GSR Today - Toxic mud still affects Brazil four months after dam break; trafficking at the Super Bowl; and the TPP, corporations overrule governments?

When Sr. Magi Maria quit a comfortable teaching job to plunge into social work, neither she nor her congregation had any idea what lay ahead. A quarter century later, more than 50,000 residents of 105 drought-prone villages in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh thank the Congregation of Mother Carmel nun for taking that "leap into the dark." Her intervention has helped them break free of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, illiteracy and enslavement.

"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?"

From A Nun's Life podcasts - What are some ways that nuns use social media to help people? Can a tweet offer "something to hang on to?" In this Random Nun Clip, we talk with Benedictine Sr. Christine Ereiser, the "Twittering Nun," about providing meaningful content in 140 characters or less.

Feb. 15, Pope Francis visits Chiapas, Mexico, a state where one-fourth of the population is Protestant or evangelical. Catholic sisters there hope the pope's visit will inspire people and reverse the trend as Francis is expected to address issues of inequality, indigenous rights and migration. Click here to follow all of National Catholic Reporter's coverage of the pope's visit to Mexico.