A symposium this week at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio focuses on the legacy of Las Hermanas, a grass roots organization for Latina Catholics. The program, “Las Hermanas, the Struggle is One,” will highlight the group’s 44-year history, its impact on Latina Catholics, its role in fighting discrimination in the church and its establishment of mujerista theology. “The symposium is bringing together scholars and leaders in the field of Latina ecclesiology,” said Adrienne Nock Ambrose, 50, an assistant professor of religious studies at University of the Incarnate Word and one of the organizers of the March 19-21 conference at the university.

Starting in the early 1970s, an organization founded by two women religious worked to increase educational and leadership opportunities for Latinas, advocated for more Latino bishops and fought for the right to work with Hispanics. Las Hermanas also played a pivotal role in the foundation of the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio. “They not only mobilized women religious; they partnered with women in general, with Mexican-American Latina women who were on the front lines of social change in the late ‘60s-early ‘70s,” said Arturo Chávez, the college's president. “They were also important voices for change in the educational systems that they were a part of.”

GSR Today - Every day we are greeted with another story about women and girls being sold or trafficked somewhere in the world. And each time, I feel a kind of helplessness. What can I do? It seems such an overwhelming disease in our human family. Although we know from the Ebola epidemic that physical diseases are painfully difficult to eradicate, those that drive persons to destroy others spiritually seems even more so.

Three Stats and a Map - Earlier this month, the Public Religion Research Institute reported that while the United States is in fact becoming more religiously diverse, the majority of Americans belong to three religious traditions.

“If I know so little about my family four generations ago, the assumption follows that in four generations, they will know little about me. It changes the way you think about your life.”

Mercy Sr. Mary Ann Walsh was surprised at her home at the Sisters of Mercy motherhouse in Albany March 12 when visitors presented her with the Catholic Press Association's St. Francis de Sales Award. "Her life of service to the Catholic press, the USCCB and the church is outstanding and a model for all," said Rob DeFrancesco, president of the CPA and associate publisher of the Catholic Sun in the Diocese of Phoenix, in explaining the decision to bestow the award.

When Nuns Rule - “What would you do, Jo?” was one of the refrains Sr. Ephigenia Gachiri kept using as she described to me how she came to find herself on the frontlines fighting against the practice of female genital mutilation in Kenya. In this instance she wanted to know what I would do if I were confronted, face-to-face, with the mutilation of a young woman half my age.

"Climate change can only be stopped by our changing."

GSR Today - By now, most people are aware that working women earn less than working men and not, as the common refrain goes, because women opt for lower-paying career fields. Study after study has shown that women doing the exact same job as men and with the exact same level of experience, still make less than their male counterparts. I’ve been indignant about this for years, even though, as it turns out, I didn’t have all the facts.

I had been teaching at a prestigious higher level school for girls in Delhi. I loved teaching and being with the young. But the restlessness began and continued to grow. Fast forward and I have been directly engaged with the people on the margins for 25 years now. My passion for the urban poor has taken me to new paths. They have taught me a new theology. They have given me a new spirituality.