Edmund Kee-Fook Chia, Ph.D., is co-director for the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue and senior lecturer in the School of Theology at Australian Catholic University in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Carol K. Coburn is a professor emerita of religious studies and director of the CSJ Heritage Center at Avila University. She is also a consultant for the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence at Avila University. Coburn has published and presented extensively on the topic of American Catholic sisters, including a co-author book with Martha Smith, CSJ, Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920.
Dana Greene published the first biography of Denise Levertov in 2013. Her most recent book is Jane Kenyon: The Making of a Poet.
This story appears in the Synod on the Family feature series. View the full series.
by Joshua J. McElwee
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Vatican City — October 5, 2014
Synod on the family: "Bad shepherds lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others," said Pope Francis, opening the Synod of Bishops.
Joan Sauro, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, publishes widely in the Catholic press. "We were called Sister" (U.S. Catholic) was awarded first place for Best Essay 2014 by the CPA.
Patricia Siemen, OP, JD, is a Dominican Sister from Adrian, Michigan, and a civil attorney. Her passion is to protect the long-term ecological and spiritual health of humans and all members of the Earth community. She does this through her work as director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence (CEJ), at Barry University School of Law, Orlando, Florida.
Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick is the co-founder, with Fr. Robert Nugent, of New Ways Ministry, a social justice center that educates and advocates for justice and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger church and civil communities. You can visit New Ways Ministry at https://www.newwaysministry.org.
Renée K. Gadoua, a writer and editor based in Syracuse, New York, is National Catholic Reporter weekend editor and copy editor. She has written for secular and Catholic outlets, including Religion News Service, the Syracuse Catholic Sun, U.S. Catholic and NCR.
Previously a religion reporter for The Post-Standard of Syracuse, she has won numerous writing awards for editorials, features and religion reporting from Religion News Association, Catholic Media Association and the New York State Associated Press Association.
Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, is coordinator for Monasteries of the Heart, where she writes "Old Monk's Journal."
July 27, 2014
NCR Today: The Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday called for the resignation of its archbishop, John Nienstedt, after the archdiocese's recent troubles.