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
by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
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.
by Jan Cebula
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.”
by Christine Schenk
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.
by Deirdre Mullan
Contributor
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.
Deirdre Mullan is a Sister of Mercy from Ireland. At the height of unrest in Northern Ireland, Mullan spent 25 years as a teacher and administrator in schools. With a doctoral degree in the feminization of poverty, she has long been active in promoting the education of girls. She served as the executive director of Mercy Global Concern at the United Nations for more than 10 years, later directing the Partnership for Global Justice, a network of over 125 small congregations at the U.N.
by GSR Staff
“. . . 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. . . .”
by Joan Brown
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.
Three stats and a map - This week, as Sister of Social Service and NETWORK executive director Simone Campbell has been encouraging Minnesotans to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, the Pew Research Center released the results of poll on how religious Americans vote.
by Kathy Coffey
“Only the pinch of salt is enough,” laughs Sr. Samina Iqbal, explaining that Christians constitute only two percent of the population in Pakistan. The same small totals apply to these three Sisters of Loretto, the first in their home country. Yet the sisters, who visited the Loretto Spirituality Center outside of Denver recently, seem to accomplish the work of legions. Since 2011 they have run St. Albert’s School in a slum in Pakistan’s third largest city, Faisalabad, where most people live on $1 a day and the size of houses is about 12-foot square. And that's not all.
