Horizons: Every winter yields to spring. It happens in due time, slower in some places than in others, but always and everywhere eventually. This is the promise of the spring; this is the promise of the empty tomb. This is the puzzlement, but this is also the joy.

Rome - At day four of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) assembly, Donna Orsuto offered five steps to foster relationships and better understandings among religious groups. "Religious have a particular responsibility to foster a love that casts out fear," she said.

Women religious like Sr. Constance Veit of the Little Sisters of the Poor embrace the call to be a spiritual mother. "Our motherhood is exercised by loving those whom God puts in our path, those to whom he confides to us to care for."

Rome - "Living interculturally is a vocation" that means moving beyond a multicultural approach, Milmanda, provincial superior for the Missionary Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit of South Argentina, told the International Union of Superiors General plenary assembly.

From Where I Stand: The tradition moves on from generation to generation, flowing here, being pruned there, always adapting to the soil in which it's planted. And so do we as people.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of the essence of Good Shepherd spirituality, I am reminded that people around the world devote their entire lives to understanding the complexity of the Earth and our place within it. I forward the question: "How can we replicate this sort of deep belonging and acceptance for each other?"

Simple but hard to live out, our presence to others is fundamental. It is a gift of attention and support, an opening of the mind to be receptive to the other person.

Praised for a "diverse background in health care, education, and social work," Haddad, currently vice president of sponsorship and mission services for Catholic Health Association, will take over July 1, succeeding retiring CEO Sr. Carol Keehan.

Catholic sisters have a unique opportunity and responsibility to lead efforts to curb climate change and environmental degradation as individuals, communities and a network of congregations worldwide, Franciscan Sr. Sheila Kinsey told about 850 superiors general of women religious congregations gathered May 7 in Rome during the second day of the International Union of Superiors General's plenary assembly.

The Vatican commission studying the history of women serving as deacons in the Catholic Church has been unable to find consensus on their role in the early centuries of Christianity and is yet to give a "definitive response," Pope Francis said May 7.