Thomas Scaria

As a dispute over how to celebrate the liturgy embroils India's Syro-Malabar Church — one of the Catholic Church's Eastern Catholic churches  — sisters continue parish ministries and holding catechism classes.

Sisters in India run the Sree Jeevan Jyothi Vocational Junior College, where several students are victims of failed child marriages. At the junior college, they train as nurses, receive counseling and develop confidence.

Violence in India's Manipur state has prompted many Catholic sisters to flee to surrounding areas. Some nuns, helping others in relief camps, left after receiving threats. Others remain in Manipur to serve those affected.

Hundreds of women have found a fresh start in a shelter managed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes in Bengaluru, Karnataka state, India. The nuns counsel residents, provide them therapy and offer room and board.

Sr. Lismy Parayil is the first Catholic nun to feature in the India Book of Records, the country's highest recognition in visual media. She spoke to GSR about translating her talent into a new way of proclaiming Christ.

"We cannot be silent when the country is burning with divisive forces everywhere," Sr. Maria Nirmalini, head of the Conference of Religious India, said in a letter to more than 130,000 nuns, priests and brothers.

Sr. Rani Fernando and three other members of the Sisters of the Divine Savio work among tsunami victims in the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. They stay in Don Boscopura, a colony for people displaced by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami.

Sr. Maria Rani Anthony Pillai has been a conflict counselor and health worker in different countries for several years. She spoke with GSR about coping with internal conflicts and serving as a conflict counselor.

Sisters across congregations work to transform the lives of devadasis, or temple dancers who are part of a religiously sanctioned ancient system in southern India. Sisters hope to empower them and their children through health and education.

Manasa Rehabilitation and Training Centre in India caters to children with intellectual disabilities. For the past 25 years, laypeople and women religious have collaborated on the center to help more than 800 children.

On completing one year as the leader of India's more than 130,000 women and men religious, Apostolic Carmel Sr. Maria Nirmalini shares with GSR her accomplishments and failures as well as her aspirations and plans.

This April marks the fourth anniversary of the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, suicide bomb attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels. Some 200 sisters are involved in helping victims recover from their trauma.

With most members of the congregation coming from farming families, the Helpers of Mount Rosary in Alangar, India, have developed 40 acres of agricultural land that now serves as a model farm and training field.

Camillian nuns who run an HIV/AIDS rehabilitation center in Mangalaru have helped more than 400 HIV-infected women and children settle into healthy lives with jobs or marriage.

Alumni of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary's two colleges of social work, Nirmala Niketan and Roshni Nilaya, now head thousands of community-development projects at the grassroots across India.

Sr. Maria Gracia was among hundreds of women religious who prepared students for India's latest annual interschool cultural festival. She spoke to GSR about promoting art and culture among students in addition to education. 

A chance meeting with a transgender woman led members of the Sister of Our Lady of Fatima to ongoing ministry and training programs with the transgender community.

Holy Cross Srs. Fidelis Nedumpara and Clara Alappat founded Jeevodaya Ashram 27 years ago in the suburbs of Bengaluru, India, to help women who are released from prisons, and girls who are rescued from sex rackets.

Hundreds of Catholic nuns have joined activists in India to protest the under-construction Vizhinjam Port, which opponents say is causing environmental destruction and leading to displacement of the fishing community.

Catholic nuns from various congregations are engaged in saving India's young people from addictions to substances and alcohol.