Pope Francis encouraged religious sisters and consecrated women to continue to show courage amid difficulties, even if it means pushing back against the church they serve faithfully.
Women Religious
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Interview: Sister Jeannine Gramick on being censured by the Vatican, 50 years of ministry and her hopes for LGBT Catholics
“My hope for L.G.B.T. Catholics is that they all feel welcome and comfortable in any parish in the world,” Sister Gramick says. “That they might feel just as much a part of the church as anyone else.”
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis praises Sister Jeannine Gramick’s 50 years of L.G.B.T. ministry in handwritten letter
In a handwritten letter, Pope Francis congratulated Sister Gramick on “50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness” in a ministry that he described as being in “the style of God.”
Posted inFaith in Focus, Politics & Society
I am a Catholic Sister who was arrested at a voting rights protest. Our democracy is worth it.
I never imagined my vocation as a Dominican sister would entail being arrested by the Secret Service and spending a night in the Washington, D.C., Central jail.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
A hospital run by Nigerian sisters provides free fistula surgery to women desperate for treatment
Sister Sylvia Ndubuaku: “We are for women the society has rejected. We receive traumatized women with this illness and we perform free surgeries for them.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Two new novels show the hidden lives of nuns
‘Matrix’ and ‘Agatha of Little Neon’ differ in their historical settings, but they both center on women perceiving the ways of the world with absolute clarity, realizing the extent of their power and deciding to use it for the good of others.
Posted inFaith, News
‘I just want to follow Jesus, and it’s not possible here’: New book uncovers abuse within women’s religious communities
“I can’t live in this situation anymore and I’m afraid of destroying my physical, psychological and spiritual health,” Sister Aleksandra says in “Veil of Silence,” by Salvatore Cernuzio.
Posted inFaith, Features
Meet the Millennial Nuns
In a generation known to shun commitments, these women are embracing lifelong vows.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Remembering Sister Megan Rice: the ‘Joan of Arc’ of the anti-nuclear movement
“Please have no leniency on me,” Sister Rice once said at trial. ”To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
A Franciscan sister joins the fight for Indigenous rights in Brazil
In a region of vast distances, weak infrastructure and a relatively small number of priests, religious and laywomen like Sister Laura are the mainstay of Catholic spirituality.