GSR Today - When we're frustrated with our politically biased media sources, we might miss that reporters here in the U.S. are able to share the news as they see it without risking their lives in the way many others around the world do. According to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2014 seven journalists have been murdered worldwide. Eighty-six percent were political reporters.

Across the United States, Catholics have stepped in to help the unprecedented numbers of children without parents flooding the border, despite protests, threats, and government reluctance to give access to detained children. Immigration officials have detained nearly 60,000 children without their parents at the southern border since October, more than double the number picked up the year before. Naturally, Catholic sisters are among those offering humanitarian and spiritual assistance.

The church has a vital role in helping the world move forward toward unity through the Gospel values of peace and justice, but such movement will not happen unless there is a conscious awakening to the expanding universe and the evolution of biological life, an awakening to the cosmos as our home. Can the church revitalize the Gospel life as one that embraces change, complexity, chaos, future and new creation?

"Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish . . . ."

GSR Today - Sr. Teresa Maya has been elected to lead the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. And late last year the Sisters of Humility in Davenport, Iowa, joined the Twitter world and started a new blog called A Nun’s Pocket.

"What, do you wish to know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning."

GSR Today - What does it mean to live in this world but not of it? “Indeed we call blessed those who have persevered.” These words of encouragement in James' epistle are also useful for those of us today trying to navigate two conflicting cultures, trying to follow the theological mandate to oppose the oppressive systems that benefit us.

The U.S. District Court is a modern edifice less than a block away from the iconic Liberty Bell. Throughout the month of June, the Hon. Judge Joel Slomsky heard a case in a courtroom on the nearby district court’s 15th floor. In the absence of a jury it will fall to this judge to decide the fate of David Paul Hammer who is undergoing a retrial for the murder he committed (allegedly by accident) in a Pennsylvania prison 18 years ago.

Among Vietnam’s 54 distinct groups with their own language and cultural heritage, 53 of them are ethnic minorities making up less than 15 percent of the national population; however, they account for almost 50 percent of the poor. They are isolated and have limited assets, low levels of education and poor health conditions. Seeing a great need in the Central Highlands, three young nuns of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Phan Thiet established their community at Bien Ho village near Pleiku City last year.

GSR Today - On July 17 and 18 the Catholic Volunteer Network will explore connections between full-time service and religious life by hosting the “From Service to Sisterhood Symposium” in Chicago.