Our Lady Star of the Sea, a religious park in Da Nang City, central Vietnam, draws hundreds of visitors and pilgrims daily to its bonsais, trees, flowers, grass and winding concrete paths. On the grounds owned by the sisters of St. Paul de Chartres before the government took the lands, people pray and leave incense and bouquets under the Christian statues. Sr. Anna Nguyen Thi Hoa, who was assigned to this convent in 2004, said after 1975, when the country was reunified under communist rule, the government confiscated 5,000 square meters out of the nuns’ properties and reallocated them to local officials. Then the officials sold the land to others, who built restaurants, hotels, bars and other leisure facilities.

GSR Today - It hasn’t gotten much attention since Russian and their aligned forces stopped moving, but things in Ukraine have not improved.

Having experienced six years of a Vatican investigation that shrouded the work of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sr. Carol Zinn, the organization's past president, called for more open, honest and heartfelt dialogue across the divides within the church.

See for Yourself - The story was bittersweet. My administrative assistant’s 89-year-old father was experiencing health ups-and-downs for several months. A scary spell landed him in hospice for a short time until he was told he wasn’t terminal enough to qualify for services.

Notes from the Field - Five members of my community – Sor Paty, Sor Gladis, Fátima, Rocío and myself – traveled to San Salvador, El Salvador, for the beatification of Monseñor Oscar Romero. We filled our minibus with various other sisters and volunteers from other nearby Salesian communities. I was the only non-Salvadorian.  

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see."

I grew up in small town Texas and traveled 25 miles to a larger city to attend a Catholic high school. In order to get from my town to the city, we had to drive through one of the most well known KKK hotspots in Texas. I could typically feel my anxiety level rise a little when driving through – especially once I started driving myself. I can still remember the day as if it happened yesterday: driving on the interstate on my way to school my senior year and seeing people standing in the median. There they were. Four people dressed in the white hoods and livery of the KKK waving large Confederate flags. “Car, don’t fail me now,” was my prayer.

"God calls us to notice: Here I am. Make way. I am with you!"

Project Quest started in 1992 to provide high-intensity counseling and training for solid jobs that local employers needed to fill in San Antonio, Texas. Pearl Ceasar, a Sister of Divine Providence, and Holy Spirit Sr. Gabriella Lohan, helped create and implement Project Quest to help people live with dignity. “People become transformed by being in Quest,” Ceasar said. “Jesus was about the transformation of people and that’s what we do. We are about the transformation of people.”

Notes from the Field - Immaculate Conception Academy, an all-girls high school run by the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, has served its community in the Mission District of San Francisco since its founding in 1883. The Cristo Rey model provides a balanced and unique alternative to the gentrification process underway.