Ursuline Srs. Kathleen Neely and Mary Martha Staarman volunteer as Spanish translators for patients at the Family Community Clinic, a free medical clinic on the St. Joseph Parish campus in Louisville, Kentucky.
Despite years of shortages in Cuba, and now more constant blackouts, Catholic sisters and priests are committed to remain with those suffering on the island.
Nuns founded and led Catholic hospitals to treat sick and poor people. But over time, a focus on margins led the hospitals to transform into behemoths that operate for-profit subsidiaries and pay their executives millions.
At the Youth Community Training Centre run by Baptistine sisters in Livingstone, Zambia, young people acquire valuable skills in food production, electrical engineering, plumbing, carpentry and other vocational fields.
"We cannot care for all the poor, so it's wonderful for the laity to make contributions," says Sr. Mary Hoang Yen, whose congregation is among those with an association that enables laypeople to join their mission.
