GSR Today - We’ve all had days where we wanted to just go back to bed and start the day again. Check out what happened in England a few days ago. Now there’s a man in serious need of a do-over.
The first center in the United States dedicated to the study of consecrated life opened Thursday with a symposium on hope and the changing nature of religious life. Missionaries of the Precious Blood Fr. Robert Schreiter, Vatican II professor of theology at Catholic Theological Union, said the school’s Center for the Study of Consecrated Life is launching at the perfect time, because religious institutions are in a period of massive realignment, with severe contraction in some parts of the world and rapid expansion in others.
by Sharon Abercrombie
Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Dorothy Stang’s persistent activism on behalf of Brazil’s poor and the earth is well known to environmental and social justice activists throughout the world. Thursday marks the 10-year anniversary of her death at the hands of hired guns.
In Vietnam, the cultural tradition is for younger relatives to take care of elderly family members, but sometimes people are left old and alone, due to feuds or other circumstances like war or natural disasters. In a country where 26 percent of the population will be over 60 years old by 2050, one congregation is helping 65 older women live with dignity and care. The Mater Pieta sisters operate three residential centers in and near Ho Chi Minh City and currently provide food, companionship and medical and spiritual care to people who would otherwise be homeless.
by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
GSR Today - Bob Hope, Faith Hill, President George Bush and Tom Cruise have never had this problem. Anyone with an easy-to-spell-and-pronounce surname has no idea what the rest of us go through. So it’s likely that on February 13 they won’t be giving a second thought to national “Get a Different Name” day. On this clever day, anyone has the right to change his or her name to whatever they’d like it to be – for 24 hours.
by Mary Ewens
Contributor
In my research after Vatican II, I looked at the roles seen in the constitutions of religious communities. I found many interesting things, including how sisters completely changed the public attitude towards Catholicism by their Civil War nursing. But I think the most important insight – and the most depressing – had to do with the formal role definitions for nuns that are found in papal decrees that functioned as canon law. It turns out that the basis for the rules that required me to have a companion for my class, and kept me from attending Cardinal Koenig's lecture, dated back to 1298 and medieval Europe!
Mary Ewens is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. As an educator she has taught in grade school, high school and college and has been an administrator at the university level. She received the "Distinguished Historian Award" of the Conference on the History of Women Religious for her contributions to sisters' history, including chapters in 10 books.
by GSR Staff
"For I rescued the poor who cried out for help, the orphans, and the unassisted; The blessing of those in extremity came upon me, and the heart of the widow I made joyful. I wore my honesty like a garment; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame."
GSR Today - My recent two-week journey through Kenya showed me that sometimes the best way to change negative perceptions is hard work, faith, and, most of all, patience.
Three Stats and a Map - If you have been paying any attention to U.S. news, you’re probably well aware that there’s a measles outbreak on the West Coast. The outbreak started in California, where – as of Monday – there were at least 123 reported cases of the measles in California, and according to the Los Angeles Times, the disease has now spread to seven other U.S. states and Mexico.
