In late March, anti-Christian and anti-American graffiti was scrawled on the walls of the Deir Rafat convent, also known as Our Lady Queen of Palestine. The tires of cars at the monastery also were slashed.

In the end, the declining numbers trumped the best efforts of enthusiastic alumnae and parents, committed staff and a religious congregation to save a New York school founded by an immigrant saint, but the 115-year legacy of Mother Cabrini High School will live on.

The all-girls college preparatory school in the Washington Heights section of northern Manhattan will close at the end of the 2013-14 academic year.

A couple of weeks ago it was a crooning sister in Italy. This week a sister singing a different tune grabbed the lion’s share of mainstream headlines. But first, here’s a new look at a mid-century masterpiece.

Bringing the face of Jesus to the poor is an experience a group of Lebanese 10th graders will long remember about this Lent.

As Mission of Life Sr. Lina Maria Dib prepared the students for their first outreach, she led them in prayer and told them: "A lot of the situations you see will be unusual for you. But we are going to share our smile. And when you come back you are going to feel happy inside."

Providence Sr. Susanne Gallagher
Profession: Staff member at Special Religious Development (SPRED)
Lives in: Chicago

With fears that the situation in South Sudan is disappearing from the front pages of newspapers, the United Nations released a press statement yesterday appearing on U.N. News Centre about the desperate need for relief in the most remote areas of the country still affected by violence. 

Aljazeera published a story this week, “Frontline Nuns,” profiling religious aid workers from Solidarity with South Sudan who are serving in areas of war while facing realities of their own safety. Br. Bill Firman, Solidarity’s executive director, also wrote to NCR this week with a letter titled, “Troubled Times.”

If we’ve said it once we’ve said it a thousand times: It’s not nice to tow a sister’s truck while she’s delivering meals to the homeless. That story and others in the mainstream media caught our eye this week.

Sister of Charity of New York Immaculata Burke has been a near legend in the Diocese of Spokane, especially for those who follow the work of the diocese's mission in Guatemala. She died March 8 at the age of 94 in Guatemala. The following is reprinted with permission from the March 20 issue of the Inland Register, the Spokane Diocese's newspaper:

Sister Immaculata moves on from Guatemala Mission to her Eternal Reward

by Jerry Monks, for the Inland Register

(From the March 20, 2014 edition of the Inland Register)

This week in the mainstream media: a sister doles out massages at the ballpark, one shares the secret of a long and happy life, and Russell Crowe goes all paparazzi on a couple of women religious in Rome.