GSR Today - One of the most exciting visits I made while in Zambia last month was to a farm about an hour and a half from Lusaka, where Sr. Chizo Chiedu has helped 26 families recognize their combined assets and move from the Ngombe shanty slum in the city. She shared with me her amazing story of how this had happened.

"It is urgent and it is something that no segment of the global community can effectively address alone. It is time for global leaders to understand that this must be at the top of every agenda with regard to every other issue."

Nuns on the Bus takes on new crew of sisters for Minnesota portion of the tour - The first stop in the North Star State was in Rochester at Assisi Heights (Sisters of St. Francis) for another Town Hall for the 100%, followed by a Get Out the Vote Rally at noon in downtown Mankato, and then a Town Hall for the 100% hosted by the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict at their Monastery in St. Joseph.
 

" . . . Oh, sacrament of summer days, oh, last communion in the haze, permit a child to join, thy sacred emblems to partake . . . ."

Grace Miller, a Sister of Mercy in Rochester, New York, never intended to run a homeless shelter and be a tireless advocate for those with nowhere to go. But on Oct. 1, she’ll celebrate 29 years of doing exactly that. Two weeks later, she’ll be in court to explain why she is charged with third-degree criminal trespass. Call it the price of working for justice for the homeless.

Pope Francis, who has said the Catholic church has "not yet come up with a profound theology of womanhood," named five women, a record number, to the International Theological Commission.

One of the women is U.S. Mercy Sr. Prudence Allen, former chair of the philosophy department at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, now a member of the chaplaincy team at Lancaster University, England.

GSR Today - Being the national reporter for the Global Sisters Report is a new job for me after 11 years in my previous position, so a lot of people ask me how the new gig is going. “It’s great,” I tell them without hesitation, because it really is. Trust me, after covering thugs and politicians for 11 years, covering women religious is a welcome change.

How can I have a life with Emily Dickinson, who disavowed religion when I not only embrace it but also live religious vows? She did sleep in a single bed, though, a nun’s bed, and most likely was celibate, although she took no vow.

GSR Today - On the heels of the Nuns on the Bus kick-off last Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa, I traveled straight to Atlanta, Ga., for my first Religion Newswriters Association conference. The so-called God beat isn’t shrinking for lack of interest in religion and faith, it’s dwindling because, as news rooms across the country cut costs, the religion section is typically one of the first to go. Yet, I'm inspired to continue.