This story appears in the Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality feature series. View the full series.

by Luisa Derouen

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Reactions to the publication of "Male and Female He Created Them" include gratitude and affirmation for the positive subtitle of the Congregation for Catholic Education's document, "Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education" — as well as disappointment and concern that the foundational positions of the document about gender theory are woefully uninformed by contemporary science and by the lived experience of transgender people.

Lay-led organizations offer working models at every level from international to parish. The most illuminating model I've seen is the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and its congregations – all lay women like me. Very quietly, with no spotlights, they've been evolving innovative ways to be a community of communities since the 1960s.  

This story appears in the The Life feature series. View the full series.

The Life: Being neighbor is about relationship, trust, being known and accepted, being there to share joys and sorrows. Sisters are out in the world, living among the people they serve, sharing their charism and sense of community and prayer with anyone they encounter. This month, wrapping up the 2018-2019 panelists' participation, GSR asked them: Are there meaningful interactions with others for you, personally, or for your community in your neighborhood? If yours is a changing neighborhood, how are you responding to the changes?

by Joshua J. McElwee

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jmcelwee@ncronline.org

Beyond originally requesting the creation of the women deacons commission, the International Union of Superiors General has pressed for greater involvement of women religious in synods of bishops and in the workings of the Vatican office that oversees the world's religious orders. Claretian Missionary Sr. Jolanda Kafka, UISG's new president, said she believed that such advocacy for women's leadership had now become obligatory for her organization, which represents some 450,000 sisters and nuns worldwide.