See for Yourself - On the day that I went with my friend, Brenda, to the antique show, she went in and out of every booth but I walked in the aisle between the booths. I had a notebook with me and had fun jotting down interesting items I saw being offered for sale. It was like reliving my childhood seeing items straight out of our homestead growing up and I intended to compare notes with my sister.

Two priests, Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery and Fr. Gerry Bechard, and two laywomen, Deborah Rose-Milavec and me, talked about our experiences of working in various clergy-lay coalitions. (In case you were wondering, nuns are laity, and we're proud of it.) The room was packed for this presentation at the annual Call To Action conference on Nov. 8.

Last month, when the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate released a special report on American women religious, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill were featured for their growth – not in the Pittsburgh area, where they are from, but in South Korea, where they started ministering in 1960. In 1965, Sr. Sung Hae Kim became one of the congregation’s first two Korean postulants, and in August she became its first Korean General Superior.

"We are not biologically determined; nature has an inner dimension of freedom and transcendence."

Reconciliation is complex in northern Uganda, where children were both victims and perpetrators of a decades-long civil war. Religious leaders are employing traditional ceremonies to try to bring closure. And as the children who had been "conscripted" into Kony's criminal army emerged from the bush and tried to come home, the scarred communities they left struggled to absorb them. Sr. Pauline Acayo, a Little Sister of Mary Immaculate of Gulu, was the director of Catholic Relief Services in northern Uganda for 14 years before moving to another post with CRS. She calls these children “returnees.”
Related - Busy hands build bridge to recovery

Three Stats and a Map - Last week, the Pew Research Center released the results of massive survey of religious life in Latin America. The big news out of the survey is that the traditionally Catholic region – 40 percent of the world’s Catholic live there – is becoming increasingly Pentecostal.

Several weeks ago a startling scientific infographic by NASA came across my desk. Since the map dealt with methane, a large contributor to global warming, which I work with on a daily basis, I took note. The image of the United States displays methane releases during the study period from 2003-2009: A large red hot spot dramatically stands out in New Mexico in the Southwest Four Corners Region. According to NASA, “One small “hot spot” in the U.S. Southwest is responsible for producing the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane seen over the United States – more than triple the standard ground-based estimate.”

GSR Today - A couple of weeks ago a headline caught my attention: “How can a three year old represent himself in court?” Having been a legal aid attorney for over 20 years, I was curious. How could anyone expect that? We in the U.S. have legal protections in place when children’s welfare is at stake. The system has safeguards which are supposed to prevent their return to dangerous situations.

GSR Today - I think “slackitivism” gets a bad rap. I mean, I don’t actually believe that a hashtag can save the world, but hashtags, viral videos, Facebook posts and the like can raise awareness – and aware, educated people do, in fact, make a difference.

Twelve weeks ago, Catholic deacon and doctor Timothy Flanigan left Rhode Island carrying 10 hockey bags full of medical supplies. His destination? The West African country of Liberia, one of several countries struggling to halt and recover from the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the region.