Being pro-life means being against all unnecessary deaths, including those imposed as punishment by the United States judicial system. For Mercy Sr. Mary Healy and St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean, advocating for the elimination of the death penalty, even as its use appears on the wane, is a mission they take seriously and personally.
GSR Today - Oh sure, the mainstream media covered the obvious stories of 2014 concerning women religious – the Nuns on the Bus tour, the Vatican’s report on the apostolic visitation, that reality TV show called “The Sisterhood.” But those aren’t the stories that will stay with me as we turn the corner to 2015. Here are 10 women, or groups of women, who inspire New Year’s resolutions for all of us.
Catholic News Service
The English Tutoring Project, an initiative of the St. Louis Area Women Religious Collaborative Ministries, helps immigrant and refugee students in Catholic schools acquire English-language skills, in a suburb north of St. Louis, Missouri. Sr. Joyce Schramm, a Sister of Most Precious Blood of O'Fallon, tutors 18 students at Holy Trinity in kindergarten, first and third grades. In all, 106 students are served, representing 11 countries of origin.
by GSR Staff
Sr. Carol Breslin is a Medical Missionary of Mary, whose members pioneered medical services to girls and women affected by fistula. For many years, working with a number of partners, MMMs have brought relief to thousands of women affected by fistulae in East and West Africa. Members of the order work in 14 countries worldwide and have U.S. houses in Boston, New York and Chicago.
Marcelline Koch is a Dominican Sister of Springfield, Illinois, and directs the Office of Justice for the Dominican Sisters of Springfield and is the North American co-promoter for justice for the Dominican family in North America.
Durstyne (Dusty) Farnan is an Adrian Dominican sister from Michigan. After teaching elementary and junior high, she lived in Ghana, West Africa and Kenya with indigenous religious sisters in their initial formation programs. Later, she ministered in the inner city of Chicago and in psychiatric units as a clinical social worker; she has served her congregation as the director of justice and later vocation director. She currently serves as the U.N. representative for the Dominican Leadership Conference.
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Arlene Flaherty is a Dominican Sister of Blauvelt, New York, who currently serves on the community's Iraq Coordinating Committee and is Director of the Office of Justice and Peace and Integrity of creation for the Atlantic Midwest Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In 1999 she documented the damaging impact of the policy of sanctions and embargo on Iraqi children and presented those findings to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. She has traveled in Syria and Lebanon, documenting the reality of Iraqi refugees who have been displaced by war.
by GSR Staff
"When you leave your own home and you go someplace else and walk in someone else’s shoes, that helps you have a greater view of life and makes you stretch as a person."
by Jan Cebula
GSR Today - The media are busy summarizing the year: world events, best movies, best books, celebrity lives, who has died. Markers of time. Every year’s ending affords an opportunity for a life review, a gratitude review. Where has life taken us? What have been the blessings of the year?
by Ilia Delio
We are coming to the end of the year when holiday celebrations overshadow the ongoing realities of war, poverty and violence. As we look toward a New Year, I would like to declare 2015 the Year of Love. I do not mean love as sentiment or emotion but love as the highest good, the deep relationality of being itself.
