In an interview a year before her death, Sr. Nijole Sadunaite recounted her time in a Soviet prison camp, seeming to dismiss years of persecution as nothing too out of the ordinary.
The apostolic visitation and doctrinal assessment were controversial, but 10 years after those tense times, sisters say their relationship with officials in Rome is radically different.
The filing includes an affidavit from Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach warning that once the association of contemplative orders the Vatican appointed to govern the sisters is in control, it can do anything it wishes, including taking the monastery.
Global Sisters Report and National Catholic Reporter have been honored by the Religion News Association for reporting in 2023, including for the GSR series "Hope Amid Turmoil: Sisters in Conflict Areas."
In disaster-prone provinces of central Vietnam, sisters help locals and farmers adjust to climate change through sustainable techniques and financial support, allowing them to adapt and stay on their land.
From nursing to Network, administration to asylum law, from the border to Capitol Hill, Sr. Mary Ellen Lacy has guided people through some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
"We, like most congregations, believe the life force that flows through creation, through our land, through the animals, through humanity, is sacred," says Sinsinawa Dominican Sr. Julie Schwab.
The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a "serious violation" of religious freedom.