January 30, 2015
Colleen Gibson, Global Sisters Report

Look for the tree.” I would tell friends and family when they first came to visit me in Philadelphia. “It’s the only one for blocks.”

In 2010, I moved to Philadelphia to serve as a full-time volunteer, leaving a full-time job behind to serve as a parish outreach minister in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. The tree in front of our volunteer house was a point of reference. It was a marker, rising above the row homes and trash-strewn streets of the neighborhood. As it came into focus, it guided others to us, while also serving as a sign of what had been and a signal of what could be.

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January 27, 2015
Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -When Trappist Father Thomas Merton addressed persistent racism in his writing during the 1960s, his message seemingly reached into the future. Appealing to society to recognize that all people are children of God, Father Merton questioned practices that prevented African-Americans from achieving full equality and called for the end of discrimination in all forms. It was just one of the priest’s stances on important social issues, encompassing race relations, militarism and war, consumerism and the burdens posed by technology.

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Jan. 27, 2015
Megan Sweas, National Catholic Reporter

ROME AND SICILY August in Italy is usually a time for rest and relaxation. But on one Saturday in the summer of 2013, beachgoers in Catania, Sicily, found a boat full of migrants that had crashed off the city’s shore. As news spread throughout social media, a group of Catania’s youth knew what they needed to do.

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Jan. 23, 2015
Tracy Kemme, Global Sisters Report

“Those who were in the dark are thankful for the sunlight . .”
I chuckled quietly as we sang this line from “Behold the Lamb of God” during Sunday’s liturgy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in sunny Phoenix, Ariz. Twenty-one sisters under 40 years of age had escaped more wintry parts of the country and traveled here for the annual Giving Voice 20s/30s retreat. We were, indeed, thankful for the sunlight! During Mass, the chapel of this beautiful Benedictine retreat center overflowed with our group and the regular Sunday crowd. Radiant sunbeams flooded the room, reflecting the warmth and joy of the community gathered. As we joined our hearts in prayer, I wished I could bottle up the moment — and the weather.

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January 9, 2015
Melanie Lidman, Global Sisters Report

This bank doesn’t have a soaring marble lobby or uniformed tellers speaking in hushed tones. This bank is a faded blanket spread beneath a mango tree where a circle of women, hardworking passion fruit farmers, sit with their feet tucked under their colorful skirts, tossing crumpled Ugandan shillings into the center. The accounting system is a well-worn ledger filled with painstakingly neat handwriting and few deposits over $2. Mabel Marunga, the treasurer, flattens each note and carefully enters it into the ledger, a separate page for each woman in the circle.

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Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — At his first Mass in the Philippines, Pope Francis demonstrated that he was not simply reading English, but understood it. The prepared text of his homily began with Jesus’ words to St. Peter, “Do you love me? When the pope read those words, someone close to the front of the cathedral responded yes. The pope, laughing, responded, “Thank you,” then explained, “I was reading the words of Jesus.”

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Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — During the second year of his pontificate, Pope Francis was still feeling the love, and not just from Catholics or those from his homeland of Argentina.

A Pew Research Center study released Dec. 11 showed that the pope has broad support across much of the world. Sixty percent of the 43 nations polled had a positive view of the pontiff.

And Americans, in particular, have shown their fondness for Pope Francis, often extolling his simple style. According to the Pew study, 78 percent of Americans view the pope favorably.

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2014-12-19 Vatican Radio
Pope Francis: pleased about U.S. and Cuba agreement (Vatican Radio)
Pope Francis spoke on Thursday at his joy over the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, two nations who have been estranged for many years, saying this was a result of diplomacy….He said the work of an Ambassador is to take small steps aimed at building peace, bringing the hearts of people closer together and sowing brotherhood between peoples and nations.

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You did not choose me: I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures forever.” John 15:16

Sister Bernadette Claps (Bernie), CBS reached a tremendous milestone in her life on November Ninth of 2013, when she professed her perpetual vow’s-her commitment to serve God as a religious sister for the rest of her life!

Her final vows were celebrated by the community, in a ceremony that began with a liturgy within which Sister Pat Eck, CBS, the congregation leader received Sister Bernie’s profession. After the ceremony Sr Pat shared, “This is particularly meaningful to me, since during Bernie’s time preparing for this day she lived in the community where I lived.”
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