"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."

Moved by the way Catholic sisters at her high school loved and cared for all the students, Tariro Chimanyiwa decided to join the convent. More than four decades, later, Chimanyiwa, a Domincan sister, is still serving children at Emerald Hill School and Home for the Deaf on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Sr. Tariro, as she is affectionately called by the children, is a warm, soft-spoken woman who started out as a teacher 34 years ago and now heads the school.

Sr. Cresencia Lucero is co-chair of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, which has been working to assist political prisoners and their families for 40 years. A Franciscan Sister of the Immaculate Conception, Lucero talks about new patterns of human rights abuses and how they are addressing them.

Viewpoint on NCRonline.org - On March 27, Pope Francis and President Barack Obama met to discuss, among other topics, their shared concern about the moral and economic crisis of growing income inequality. Pope Francis has deplored "unfair economic structures that create huge inequalities," and President Obama has called inequality "the defining issue of our time." Our Catholic faith teaches that addressing inequality must include just wages and working conditions for those in the labor force.

GSR Today - A farmer in central Washington is running for state government and, to boost support, plans to give away two pistols and a military-style rifle to three lucky people who provide names, zip codes and email addresses to his campaign website.

"I measure every Grief I meet with narrow, probing, eyes – I wonder if It weighs like Mine – Or has an Easier size . . . ."

Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas, says that he hopes Pope Francis will meet with the U.S. women religious leaders and that the tension between the women and the hierarchy will be resolved quickly.

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests in a letter to Pope Francis criticized the head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for his recent comments chastising the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The third in a series of reports for GSR about the war in South Sudan and its toll, this article looks at how women are striving for continuous development amid ongoing disruption. It falls to women to keep families together in the midst of chaos, insecurity and death. And the intangibles – the way things get lost in a country at war, like a commitment to education, to literacy, to health – are all of concern of women.
Also by Chris Herlinger - Easter hope for South Sudan  and,
on NCRonline.org, In South Sudan, 'everything they are doing, they are doing with tears'