GSR Today - Over the weekend, about 60 Catholic sisters under the age of 50 met in Kansas City, Kansas, for the annual Giving Voice national gathering. The two keynote speakers, Sr. Teresa Maya and Sr. Sophia Park, both focused on the increasing international and intercultural makeup of women religious, charging the sisters present with carrying the banner for change in their communities.

At a stage in life when most people her age have eased into retirement, Sister Margaret Smyth shows no signs of slowing down. Nearly six decades after answering the call to religious life, Smyth, 75, is still going strong, ministering to a large population of Latin-American immigrants who live and work in the eastern region of Long Island. A member of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, Smyth is director of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, a position she has held since 1997, when the Diocese of Rockville Centre hired her to provide outreach to a rapidly growing number of foreigners arriving from Central and South America.

The Vietnamese bishops’ 1980 joint letter called on religious to get involved in social activities, not only to secure a means of their livelihood but also to give witness to God. The document raised religious’ spirits so they could find peace of mind working with government officials on the basis of human dignity and social justice. We sisters took those opportunities to explain the ideals of consecrated life to those who asked, trying to lead them to the God of love through our daily life and activities.

A number of prominent theologians and bishops from across the African continent have sharply called for more expansive discussions at this fall's global meeting of Catholic bishops on family issues, saying last year's event focused too heavily on subjects mainly of concern to Europeans and North Americans. Last year's discussions — which attracted global media coverage scrutinizing bishops' stances on controversial questions like divorce and remarriage and same-sex relationships — left out a multitude of pressing issues facing millions living throughout Africa, the prelates and academics argued at a groundbreaking conference here July 16-18.

"And for all this, nature is never spent. There lives the dearest freshness deep down things."

The Pashupatinath temple has a social welfare center that houses 220 people. Hindus believe that those who die at the temple will experience instant salvation. Three Missionaries of Charity sisters arrive at the complex from their nearby Mitra Park convent every morning. Joined by volunteers, they bathe the residents and wash their clothing and bedding. The Missionaries of Charity, who have been participating in the ministry since 1978, shy away from publicity, preferring to let their actions speak instead. But others are not hesitant to praise the sisters' work.

GSR Today - A new Ebola vaccine is proving very promising in human trials in Guinea; Nigeria is closing in on becoming polio-free; and the world's first vaccination against malaria has cleared European trials and is ready for use. Lifting diseases out of the picture is good news.

Women religious in the United States have often led the way in calling for a more open conversation regarding controverted teaching, but they have done so not out of a disregard of the great tradition, but based on their wealth of pastoral experience. The move of women religious to the margins of society came long before Pope Francis made this pastoral option a central feature of his papal program.

This year’s gathering of leaders of congregations of women religious in the United States marks the first public discussion of two controversial Vatican investigations. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is planning its annual assembly for Aug. 11-14 in Houston, Texas. Last year’s gathering was held under the cloud of both an apostolic visitation and a doctrinal assessment. Both investigations, however, ended in the past year with no findings of serious wrongdoing and with much praise for women religious and the work they do.

Notes from the Field - The heart has a mysterious way of sending the most intimate of messages that the tongue cannot. Due to my status as a non-native, non-fluent Thai speaker, in the 10-and-a-half months I have lived in Thailand, in many situations I have needed to rely on entering into everyday conversations with my heart rather than with my words.