A nun who was taken into immigration custody last month in Texas said July 23 that she went into a cold sweat as two armed men approached her while she walked to Sunday Mass in her habit, thinking about the day's Bible readings and carrying little more than her rosary and cellphone.
Pope Leo XIV has named Sr. Alessandra Smerilli prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican announced June 30, making her the latest woman elevated to lead a major Vatican office under the new pontificate.
The Department of Justice has moved to become a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit against New York state filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate a 42-bed palliative care program for the dying poor.
Before a blue cross made from the wood of a shipwrecked boat, Pope Leo XIV stood at the port of one of Europe's deadliest migrant destinations and condemned widespread indifference toward the plight of migrants.
Ten years after the environmental disaster that devastated Vietnam's central coast and affected thousands of fishing families, women religious focus on livelihoods, accompaniment and long-term healing.
"For a religious sister, living in Cuba today means navigating and taking on a series of structural and economic challenges that require an enormous capacity for adaptation and resilience," Sr. Noemy Ayala said.
