Chris Herlinger

In response to the gun deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Texas, U.S. sisters' congregations added their voices to that of Pope Francis and other faith leaders in calling for stronger gun control efforts.

Monday Starter: "Building bridges with people, especially those most in need, is a call to be closer to those who need us and are waiting for us," outgoing president Sr. Jolanta Kafka said at the UISG assembly in Rome.

At the end of UISG plenary in Rome, sisters shared this pledge: "I commit myself to live vulnerable synodality through service as a leader, animating it within the community, together with the people of God."

Pope Francis told leaders of women religious congregations that synodality is a way to affirm the original intentions of the founders of religious congregations while meeting the needs of a rapidly changing world.

Speaking to leaders of women's congregations gathered in Rome, Jessie Rogers said if the faithful "hold on too tightly to how God acted in the past, they might overlook the new thing that God is doing in the present."

The International Union of Superiors General has begun distributing a $1 million grant by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to assist women's religious communities as they serve refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine.

Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz praised the International Union of Superiors General for years of commitment to acting in a synodal way. Braz de Aviz spoke May 3, the second day of the group's triennial plenary.

Hundreds of sisters from six continents are in Rome for the triennial plenary of the International Union of Superiors General, the organization's first major in-person event since the start of the pandemic.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is focusing on the ways extractive industries harm Indigenous people and their lands. Rarely do industries seek Indigenous consent, speakers said.

Georgetown University will host a public dialogue May 3 on the legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman. The Jesuit institution is renaming the chapel in Bowman's honor at the university's Copley Hall.

During recent congressional testimony about the pending U.S. Farm Bill, Bill O'Keefe of Catholic Relief Services said the war in Ukraine is compounding already-existing problems of global hunger.

As the world seeks normalcy in the COVID-19 pandemic's third year, leaders and experts urge vaccination and vigilance amid complacency, vaccine opposition, economic hardship, and inequalities in vaccine access.

"We are fine," Basilian Sr. Anna Andrusiv told Global Sisters Report April 6. "But we are also terrified, too. Deep inside all of us knew [something like this] would happen: murders, raping, this kind of horror."

With searing memories, new arrivals to Poland from Ukraine find solace and strength in part at church, where they experience the rhythms of prayer, Communion and the recitation of the Divine Liturgy in a common language.

The celebration of the Loretto Earth Network came as U.N. Commission on the Status of Women focused on empowering women and girls in the context of climate change and environmental and disaster risk reduction policies.

The Dominican sisters say "we can stay as long as we need to," said Svitlana Kruchynska, who left Melitopol, Ukraine, with her daughter amid escalating bombing. "But we so want to be home, and for this war to be over."

While refugee transit centers in border cities have provided respite, those who fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine have many challenges, including decisions of whether to stay in Poland, or travel to another country.

Though communications with those in a war zone are difficult, Global Sisters Report has received updates from some women religious ministering in Ukraine. The sisters endure amid a mass exodus of people.

Catholic sisters in U.S. and abroad react to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with fear, resolve and prayers for peace everywhere.

Monday Starter: A new logo for the UISG aims at combining tradition and modernity, past and present, unity and internationality, so that all member congregations can feel the sense of belonging.