"The shift from charity to development to a rights-based approach has been an unfolding restoration of the lost dignity and humanity of people."

The role of women religious in the Catholic church continues to vex not only sisters themselves but the scholars who study them. Friday, Notre Dame Sr. Mary Ann Foley told the audience at an international symposium on Catholic sisters that Pope Francis said: “The distinctive sign of women religious is prophecy” – or the ability to scrutinize current events and discern God’s call to answer them.

I had been living in Belize for only three months and had known Teresa for only two when I got the phone call: Her oldest son was in the hospital, and could I please come right away to be with them? I hopped on my bike and with some trepidation pedaled toward the hospital I had managed to avoid visiting until now: the understaffed and overcrowded public hospital which had the reputation (probably exaggerated) of turning out as many people dead as alive.

See for Yourself - Recently I was on the road driving from an out-of-town meeting late in the afternoon and headed across town to an evening rehearsal, so I decided to stop for a bite to eat. I wouldn't be anywhere close to home. It was an easy time of day with hardly any other customers, so I was waited on immediately by Kasandra.

Christian leaders in the Holy Land hope two new Palestinian saints will become intercessors for peace and a bridge among faiths: Blessed Marie-Alphonsine, born Soultaneh Maria Ghattas was born in Jerusalem in 1843 and is the founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Jerusalem, the first and still the only Palestinian women's religious congregation; Mariam Baouardy, a Melkite Catholic, was born in 1846 in the Galilee village of Ibillin and founded a Carmelite convent in India and one in Nazareth.

Kenyan officials are expecting more than 100,000 people at the May 23 beatification of Sr. Irene Stefani, an Italian member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters who cared for wounded and sick soldiers in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I. A Kenyan government official announced May 6 that the beatification would be a state function and would be accorded proper security.

On a recent visit to Rome, we received exceptional treatment because the papal winds have changed. During the previous two pontificates, there was not even any recognition for the lesbian and gay pilgrims I brought to papal audiences, let alone VIP seating. The special handling we received this time illustrates the Francis effect.

Women religious have a long, long history of following the radical call of the Gospel, a history that was only renewed – not begun – by the reforms of Vatican II. And following that call has almost always caused tension with church leadership, political leaders or those resistant to change, according to speakers at a symposium on Catholic sisters in the world. “The radical call to the poor can enforce some anachronistic beliefs,” said Anne O’Brien, associate professor at the University of New South Wales, as she was describing the backlash when sisters embraced liberation theology. O'Brien is among the scholars presenting at this week's “The Nun in the World: Catholic Sisters and Vatican II” international symposium in London.

GSR Today - When you hear things like the pope saying, “Who am I to judge?” and his calls for walking on the margins, one might even be tempted to believe that the very things women religious were being criticized for by the Vatican may soon become the blueprint for the church as a whole, and that when historians look back on this period, women religious will be seen as having led the way, instead of going astray.