The Bethlehem Live Festival, organized by the Holy Land Trust on June 20, is a cheerful street festival originally intended to bring attention to the neglected street and raise awareness about its needs; it also focuses on faith, justice and culture. Workshops and panels such as nonviolence and nonlinear leadership were part of the festival schedule. An art gallery exhibited works by local artists, and an open-mic cafe allowed young local artists and performers to be seen and heard. Eight international bands were to perform on nights of the festival.

Last fall, Maryknoll Sr. Helene O'Sullivan launched a program in Phnomh Penh that provides basic education and intensive job training for formerly trafficked women and girls so they can get good-paying jobs in the hotel industry, not low-wage "pink-collar" jobs working in barbershops, factories or vegetable markets.

Sisters providing no-interest loans, a rare medieval convent (c. 1180 AD) uncovered in Wales, and a popular Spanish model who has decided to join the Order of St. Michael after an "earthquake" experience on a visit to Fatima, Portugal, are some of the stories circulating other news outlets this week.

Expanding the Internet - In June, Internet behemoth Google announced plans to invest $1 billion in satellites that would increase Internet access in the developing world. For many, this is a much needed development as terms like “information poverty” and “digital divide” have become part of the discussion about resource inequality in recent years – so much so that in 2011, the United Nations declared Internet Access a human right.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas. It was evening, and the growing darkness accentuated the eerie sight: fences upon fences, barbed wire and enormous flood lights.

God’s call often comes in strange ways, but a call for help from officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the faith communities in El Paso, Texas, on Wed., June 4, was more than startling. News of surging numbers of unaccompanied minors detained at the southern border, requiring the creation of warehouses on military bases to accommodate them, was followed by the disturbing stories out of Arizona. Now they were coming to El Paso.

GSR Today - World Refugee Day, June 20, provides a prime time to become oriented, more attentive to the world in which we live and to commit ourselves to a “globalization of compassion.” More than 51 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes (in addition to those fleeing from poverty and environmental disasters).

Momentary ministry: sisters and other advocates try to help minors who are coming to the United States all alone from South America, but the increasing numbers of children arriving at shelters and processing centers are making the work of legal representation and follow-up services difficult.
Related - We mobilized to meet their needs and on NCRonline.org
How to treat unaccompanied immigrant children at center of policy debate

As passionately as she believes that education is the most reliable means of escaping the dire effects of poverty, Karen Dietrich says that the challenge of urban education goes well beyond achieving good test scores.