Dominican Sr. Donna Markham has been named the new leader of Catholic Charities USA. Like many women religious she has been noted for working on the systemic roots of problems, not just isolated issues. And that aspect of comprehensive problem-solving is one of the things Markham loves most about CCUSA, noting that the organization has been called not just a safety net for economically poor people, but also a trampoline to lift them out of poverty.

GSR Today - Some "apps" (smartphone-based programs) are genuinely useful, and those are really my favorites. So, it was a bit out of character for me, that when the developers of the app Instapray sent me some promotional materials at work last week, I was immediately skeptical and pretty sure I would never ever download it. Never.

In January 2009, historian and Sister of Mercy of the Americas Dolores Liptak got a call from Mother Mary Clare Millea. Millea had just been asked to head the apostolic visitation to U.S. women religious, and in preparation for the task, she wanted to know more about the history of the sisters' U.S. experience — a topic on which Liptak has edited several books. Last month, Liptak talked to Global Sisters Report about her experience as part of the team.

Ten years after the murder of Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Dorothy Stang, her alma mater is honoring the beloved “angel of the Amazon” with a week of special events marking her ongoing legacy of service in the mission field. Stang, a 1964 graduate of Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Calif., spent nearly 40 years in Brazil as an advocate for indigenous people and the rainforest. She was killed Feb. 12, 2005, by two hired gunmen while walking along a dirt road in Anapu, in Brazil’s Para state.

To be a creature of God is to be brought into relationship in such a way that the divine mystery is expressed in each concrete existence. Soul is the mirror of creaturely relatedness that reflects the vitality of divine Love. Love is not a thought or an idea, it is the transcendent dimension of life itself, that which reaches out to another, touches the other and is touched by the other.

"Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."

GSR Today - Caution good news from South Sudan from De LaSalle Christian Br. Bill Firman,  executive director of Solidarity with South Sudan, and new attacts on Christians, including Religious of the Assumption in Zinder, Niger.

Fr. Paul Schindler recalls an Oscar Romero who once sat beside him trembling. It was Romero’s first encounter with a group of priests who were furious at the just-announced news that he would be their new archbishop in early 1977. When the Vatican ratified Romero’s status as a martyr Feb. 3, Schindler said, “The people in the parish have been waiting and waiting for this. They hold him as a saint, and they’ve always held him as a saint, and now that the pronouncement has been made, they’re going to be overwhelmed.”

You may or may not be familiar with the story of St. Josephine Bakhita, a modern saint who died in 1947. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and her story has become increasingly significant to the contemporary Catholic church, particularly in its efforts against human trafficking. At the request of women religious, the Vatican has declared her feast day, Sunday Feb. 8, 2015, as the first international day for prayer and reflection on human trafficking.