Sr. Marcia Hall of the Oblate Sisters of Providence talks about why a film highlighting the experiences of young black religious is necessary and the surprising things she's learned as first-time film producer.

This story appears in the Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals feature series. View the full series.

From New York City to the U.S.-Mexico border, thousands of pro-immigrant demonstrators in hundreds of cities gathered July 12 to protest Trump administration's immigration policies.

Run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ugwuomu Nike, an isolated community in Nigeria's Enugu state, Notre Dame Nursery and Primary School provides basic education to children of farmers and artisans who lack access to it. "We see how these children defy the odds and trek long distances to school and how eager they are to learn," says headmistress Sr. Ifeoma Ubah.

After five years serving 10 U.S. dioceses with burgeoning Latino populations, 36 sisters have graduated from the U.S.-Latin American Sisters Exchange Program. They're returning home with Boston College degrees, English skills, and pastoral experience. And for those U.S. dioceses, the sisters leave behind ministries they have built and local leaders they have trained to keep those ministries sustainable.

by Joachim Pham

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Servants of the Blessed Sacrament sisters founded the Eucharistic Adoration Association in 2005 at their motherhouse based in Bien Hoa City. What began with nine people now has 8,000 members throughout Vietnam. Sr. Maria Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan said the association aims to help promote devotion to the Eucharist, the "great mystery of faith," to live by it and to bear witness to it.

by Joshua J. McElwee

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jmcelwee@ncronline.org

The lack of women members of the religious congregation had drawn special scrutiny in recent years, as Vatican statistics estimate that there are about four times as many women in Catholic religious orders compared to men. Francis' appointments for the religious congregation, which is formally named the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, were announced July 8.