The Kingdom is certainly “already but not yet.” People like Sr. Sarah Mulligan, SC, and her passionate colleagues are working for change throughout Guatemala, but it is an uphill battle. The corrupt government, Sarah says, does little to lift up its people living in economic poverty. I asked her what the administration’s response has been to the deluge of migrants fleeing north. She told me that initially the country’s leaders considered punishing families who send their children with a few years of jail time for “irresponsible parenting.” Resistance from human rights groups led them to nix the punishment, one that would thrust already suffering families into even greater desperation.

GSR Today - After Joe Biden left, media coverage of the Nuns on the Bus” tour fell largely on the shoulders of local media outlets, as well as Global Sisters Report. But women religious have been making other news this week as well.

Sr. Loice Kashangura walked the dusty streets of Chipata Compound like a neighbor. Friendly. Approachable. Perfectly at home. And as Kashangura gestured and smiled, neighbors called out greetings to the Franciscan sister who helped get them a secondary school. Chipata Compound is a sprawling, densely populated area just outside Lusaka, Zambia

See for Yourself - Not long ago I was part of a panel for a mission program at Jesuit Xavier University. The program offers a variety of mission awareness enlightenment experienced by a group of XU faculty and staff selected annually. Certain events during the year are open to the larger university community.

Nuns on the Bus Blog - A look back on Day 5, when Sr. Simone Campbell accepted her Pacem in Terris Award. From her inspiring speech: “It's not about pushing back against this force that I want to eliminate.” That just reinforces it and “you get stuck pushing on both sides. There’s no peace in that.” It’s about standing side by side, looking toward the future and fighting for an alternative vision where everyone is invited in. “Fighting for means we all need to aspire to the something else. It’s fighting for a vision of who we see ourselves called to be. It’s radical acceptance and fighting for the vision that makes for peace.”

I have a dear sister soul-friend I've known for over 40 years. Her name is Margaret McKenna, and she inhabits an urban monastery in the heart of drug-infested North Philadelphia. I first met Margaret during my young nun sojourn with the Medical Mission Sisters. I was enchanted by her wide knowledge of Scripture, her work for justice, her zany sense of humor and a certain wild abandon that characterized her God quest.

As an Irish Sister of Mercy, I’ve been involved with girls’ education for over 35 years – in Mercy schools and colleges in the United States, England and Ireland. While teaching in the social sciences, I was always very conscious of the importance of raising awareness about the situation of girls worldwide. I used to tell my students what I had witnessed in the Murkura region of Kenya and encouraged them to make use of the excellent education systems that we take as a norm. 

“. . . Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in many countries. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and resolving conflicts. . . .”

Will the memory of loving God’s sacred creation, our Earth, bring us home as we read leaked information from the upcoming report November Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report? The news is grim or dire. Staying below the internationally agreed upon 3.6 degrees Farenheit (above preindustrial levels) seems unlikely. Last week in the journal Science , two noted scientists from Cambridge and the University of California made an impassioned plea to stop the “ongoing abuse of the planet’s natural resources” and called upon religious leaders to help save the environment.