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.

Sr. Maria Añanita Borbon, 47, heads the Council for Ministry for the Philippine Province of the Religious of the Good Shepherd and coordinates Ruhama Center for girls and women in Marikina City, east of Manila, carrying on the work of the late Sr. Mary Soledad Perpiñan.

To bring science and religion together into a new unity requires a new level of consciousness, a new type of person, one who is free of the Adam myth and its corresponding misogyny. This is where transhumanism can play a profound role.

Maryknoll Sr. Madeline Dorsey had been ministering to the poor in El Salvador for five years when Ursuline Sr. Dorothy Kazel, lay missioner Jean Donovan, and Maryknoll Srs. Maura Clarke and Ita Ford were kidnapped, raped and murdered there on Dec. 2, 1980. GSR talked to her about those times, her service to people in need –  and courage.

GSR Today - Good Shepherd sisters help refugees, Mary Jo McConahay marks the 25th anniversary of the slaying of six Jesuits in El Salvador and an expected U.S. immigration reform announcement are in the news.

GSR Today - Boston Cardinal Seán O'Malley called the Vatican investigation of American women religious “a disaster.” Speaking to CBS 60 Minutes interviewer Norah O'Donnell for Sunday night’s episode, O’Donnell said the investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “looked like a crackdown from men at the Vatican,” and O’Malley responded, “A disaster.”