The latest remarks from the Vatican official overseeing the attempts to reform women religious in the United States show how far apart the two sides are, prominent sisters say. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller told L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper, that the congregation’s five-year reform agenda for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is in place not because the Vatican hates women, but to help them regain their identity.

For the last four years I have thought about what it would be like to make vows. I watched as sisters I knew made their first professions and as others made their final professions. Each year brought a new chance to observe. I took in the music, the atmosphere, the decorations and the spirit of the place . . . and pictured myself in the midst of it all. Each profession liturgy was as unique as the woman making vows.Yet there was a thread of similarity that sewed all of the celebrations together. At first, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Three stats and a map - Last week, religion blogger Tobin Grant created a graph showing where America’s various religions fall on the political spectrum, based on data from the Pew Forum. While the original graph grouped all Catholics in a monolithic category, on Tuesday, Grant released a second graph breaking American Catholic down into eight groups:

See for Yourself - As our country celebrates the 120th anniversary of Labor Day on September 1, and while I’m sincerely grateful for the blessing of working, right now I’m also thinking of a friend whose job isn’t such a blessing. The other day this out-of-state friend, Marie, phoned.

Here he goes again! Cardinal Gerhard Müller, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has sounded off once more about the shortcomings of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Two years ago, when Cardinal Gerhard Müller criticized the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for promoting radical feminist themes, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith offered a stark reminder that feminism has no place in the Roman Catholic church. In his most recent interview in L'Osservatore Romano (the Vatican's "semi-official" newspaper), Müller further indicates that any suggestion of misogyny on the part of the hierarchy is a claim best answered with a punch line.

Our Lady of the Mission sisters provide education services during the summer to children of migrant workers who come to the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and are generally behind grade level. Their work helps gain the students entry into the public school system later.

GSR Today - "We hear a lot about world governments and organizations sending financial aid to Iraq, but the refugee gets the least – we do not know or understand why. People lost almost everything; they cannot even afford to buy milk or formula for their children."

Nature and technology are at odds today. “Nature is not an object that we must strive to overpower by our inventiveness,” scientist Alfred Kracher writes, “rather we ourselves are part of nature and need to acknowledge nature’s autonomy for the sake of our own survival.” Kracher argues that ecology and technology form competing myths and we are caught between these myths today.

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."