The headlines are confusing. The questions they raise are even more so. For instance, we "empowered" women, right? After more than 2,000 years, the Western world finally woke up, in our time, to the astounding recognition that women, too, were human. Almost. By 1922, most English-speaking countries, including the United States, finally allowed women to vote for political leaders. The struggle was a fierce one, and churchmen and politicians alike considered that breakdown in society to be simply the beginning of the decline.

Four Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena are providing about 1,500 displaced Catholics with shelter, food, hygiene and water. The people fled from Mosul, Qaraqosh and Bartella, Christian towns in northern Iraq overrun by the Islamist extremists in early August. The tent camp was ravaged by cold rainy weather in late October, so families now shelter inside and around a youth sports center in a Christian enclave of Irbil.

" . . . This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children . . . . "

It’s not a new issue or an isolated one – but that doesn’t make dealing with aging populations, a lack of new sisters, spiraling costs and falling incomes any easier for religious congregations to deal with. For some, like the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., the process of realigning their priorities to their resources prompted them to undertake a “refounding” – where they dedicated themselves to rebuilding the 175-year-old congregation from scratch. But other orders have looked at their resources and realized no realignment or refounding is possible. And for them, LCWR's Transitional Services is there to help.

Power of Sisterhood exposes the richness of the multi-layered story of how women religious in America experienced the four phases of the apostolic visitation, 2009-2012. The various dimensions and facets offered by the sisters who contributed chapters deserve rereading and pondering. This is a story that could provide valuable insights applicable to other situations in the church.

When I began the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD) I consciously chose to focus on contemplation as a communal experience. Having been influenced by Constance Fitzgerald’s article, “Impasse and the Dark Night,” I instinctively knew that our time in the evolutionary journey required of us ways to share our experience of contemplation and the wisdom and insights that emerge. I felt our historical time invites us to socialize our learnings so as to discover together the next steps on the journey.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - What you don't want to hear when telling people you might become a nun – "Maybe you're being brainwashed!" Discernment and opinions of others is a fitting topic for National Vocation Awareness Week.

Power of Sisterhood: Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation was initiated by a group of women religious who were the elected leaders of their communities during the Apostolic Visitation. They recognized the importance of capturing and telling the story from the perspective of the women who experienced it. In 2010, with the assistance of Margaret Cain McCarthy, Ph.D., they designed and conducted a qualitative and quantitative survey of presidents or major superiors whose communities had undergone the visitation. A review of the whole book can be read here.

There are many places where the curse of existence seems to outweigh the blessing of life. The mining sector of the Democratic Republic of Congo is such a place. I have been in Kolwezi, a mining area in south Katanga Province, DRC, in the past and returned there in August. Knowing what to expect did not soften the reality of the harsh and perilous existence there. In fact, the contrast between what our abundant world promises and the reality of children with no promise seemed more callous than earlier times.

Missionary nuns help shorthanded diocese minister to poor Filipino families - Sr. Bernadette de Silva Wijeyeratne came to the Philippines 23 years ago through the mission program of the Sri Lanka province of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux. Sr. De Silva, as neighbors and friends now call her, knew bitter civil war and deep poverty in Sri Lanka. Still, living among poor families in Sorsogon province is full of demands.