Giving Voice creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams and challenges in religious life.
A makeshift detention center in a remote New Mexico town has been called "a deportation machine" by attorneys volunteering to provide services to refugee migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; due process is at risk as rights are glossed over and hearings are rushed. Sisters and other Catholics are concentrating on advocacy.
GSR Today - For a break from LCWR-related news, a few headlines from around the world, including one from Memphis, Tenn., where two Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia are the first sisters to teach at St. Benedict at Auburndale High School in 20 years.
Sacred Heart sisters say money plays god in Korean society today, deploring the opening of a major building for off-track race horse betting. It stands only a stone's throw from Sacred Heart Girls High School where South Korean President Park Geun-hye graduated in 1971.
“Walking by faith is to seek a world other than the one from which we are swiftly being ejected.”
GSR Today - Later today, the members of the Leadership Council of Women Religious are expected to vote on how they will proceed with the Vatican’s demands for oversight of their organization. The message in yesterday’s keynote address by Sr. Nancy Schreck, a Sister of St. Francis, seemed to be less veiled than other talks. “Have not religious orders moved too far into that middle ground where everything is nicely balanced and moderate – tamed by the institutional church?” she asked.
So what must Pope Francis tell the young? What message would he need to deliver to the young? I posed these questions the day before Francis met with the Asian young at Asian Youth Day today, to try to get a measure from an expert who works with young Koreans. Immaculate Conception Sr. Rosa Kang Sun Mee is just such an expert. The charism of her order focuses on the young.
On Thursday, LCWR members voted to pass a resolution in favor of member congregations transitioning to renewable energy sources. “We feel that the congregations of Catholic sisters in the United States – which are 55,000 people – have a good deal of experience with education and social change on may fronts,” said Claire McGowan, a Dominican Sister of Peace from Bardstown, Kentucky.
GSR Today - Today concludes the Leadership Conference of Women Religious annual assmbly. A new leader has been elected, and Sr. Elizabeth Johnson is receiving her leadership award. Global Sisters Report is in Nashville filing stories as news happens. You can see a list of all the latest news together by going to the LCWR 2014 series tag on NCRonline.org or to GSR's LCWR Assembly 2014 one.
The Vatican and women religious are caught up in a tension with historical, sociological and ecclesiastical roots, but a solution could be found, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson said. The Fordham University theologian praised the sisters for their commitment to "meaningful, honest dialogue" and urged them to stay the course. Johnson was honored Friday with the Outstanding Leadership Award by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest group of women religious leaders in the nation, representing about 80 percent of the 51,600 sisters in the United States. Read her full speech here.