In makeshift refugee camps where Iraqi Christians shelter in Erbil, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena are trying to make life work. They have become the visible church for a deeply spiritual people who have lost everything, according to Dominican Sr. Arlene Flaherty. Flaherty visited the camps last month as part of a three-woman delegation of U.S. Dominicans, evidence of a transnational relationship forged almost two decades ago in the aftermath during the Gulf War.

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite."

GSR Today - It was a pleasure to be with the women religious superiors at the USIG headquarters. Women religious get it. The women religious superiors who gather and work in Rome, heading their orders “get it” in droves, as much or more than any others in the church.
Includes video commentary from superiors who were at the Feb. 2 presentation.

Three Stats and a Map - It’s been nearly a month since two masked gunmen killed 12 people and injured 11 in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical paper. Because Charlie Hebdo is known for its cartoons poking fun at Islam (among other things), the attack immediately sparked an international discussion about civil rights, namely free speech and freedom of religion.

Mercy Sr. Mary Schmuck works in parish social ministry, which focuses on her archdiocese's charitable outreach, faithful citizenship, and global solidarity. "So many people do not seem to know our precious treasure of Catholic social teaching, and some disagree with parts when they learn of it. We seem to have bought into a thesis that morality is only a personal or interpersonal matter; business knows best for all the rest."

Leaving on a jet plane - Global Sisters Report met Sr. Marie-Claire Ihorere of Rwanda when she was in “limbo” in Nairobi, waiting for a visa to Brazil. The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels, whose name means “Don’t Cry” in her native language of Kinyarwanda, was waiting for the final bureaucratic steps before she could leave for her mission in a rural community deep in the Amazon jungle.

Thousands of consecrated women and men were asked to avoid “Martha’s disease” by spending time practicing Lectio Divina to listen to God’s will at a large gathering to celebrate World Day for Consecrated Life. Some 5,000 nuns, brothers and priests from 150 congregations and institutes based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern largest commercial hub, gathered at the Pastoral Center to mark the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Feb. 2.

Several Vatican congregations and leaders of the global representative groups of men and women religious are teaming up for a new global initiative to fight human trafficking, a scourge Pope Francis has called a modern "crime against humanity."

GSR Today - I love weddings, so naturally, I thought that planning my own wedding would be epically wonderful. The people who complain about wedding planning being stressful, I thought, just don’t love weddings the way I do – they don’t love hosting as much as I do, and they don’t genuinely care about details the way I do. I was so naïve back then.