Haiti is a place of unreliable government services, high fuel prices, earthquake damage and other struggles. When I went in January, I came to better understand where the Little Sisters of St. Therese get their funds, do a workshop on grant writing for them, and, of course, check in with our many scholarship students.

GSR spoke with Sr. Noelina Nakato, who recently won the 2019 World Championship in Theology (Ecumenism). The award recognized Nakato's research work on ecumenism, which is considered "a breakthrough in the field."

The Life – Our sister panelists shared stories of how they benefit from legal structures afforded by their own constitutions as well as civil and canonical law. Our question to them: Is canon law oppressive of women religious, or is it more of a legal protection? Do you think religious congregations could use civil law more to enhance their ministry?

Catholic religious orders in Germany have set up an inquiry into sexual abuse in their monasteries and convents, following claims that abuse occurred in more than half of all monastic communities.

Through the Spirit, God gifts us with peace unlike the peace the world gives. This year the need for this kind of peace seems much more urgent to me than in the Pentecosts of years past. 

While greeting French pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square May 22, Pope Francis said he was saddened to hear of the brutal murder of Daughter of Jesus Sr. Inés Nieves Sancho, a 77-year-old Spanish missionary who was killed May 20 outside her convent in Nola, Central African Republic.

At my high school reunion we weren't football stars or cheerleaders or class officers or popular couples at a dance or invisible persons on the edge of activities. No. Now we were all just same-level persons who had a similar high school experience as our common bond. In a very real way, we were now equals.

A recent Instagram post earned supermodel Gigi Hadid nearly a half a million likes, but it wasn't a photo of herself or of the latest fashion trend. It was a quote from Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister on the importance of being more broadly pro-life, not just "pro-birth."

If current trends continue, the number of associates in the United States will be greater than the number of vowed women religious. Global Sisters Report spoke to organization leaders about how programs for associates are evolving, and how closing communities deal with keeping charisms alive.