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.

"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.