Rhina Guidos

"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.

A year into Leo XIV's papacy, Catholic sisters around the world are celebrating how the first U.S.-born pope is continuing to focus on issues near and dear to them.

At a congressional hearing, Sergio Arauz, president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador, said that while it's true that there's a greater sense of safety in the country, "there's a dark side."

The Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, which gathered in the Dominican Republic in March, expressed concerns that the implementation of synodality is not moving forward in the church.

"We're followers of Jesus who was executed by an authoritarian power … and there is an inherent connection with our policies," said Susan Gunn, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, an organizer of the event.

Though not an official status, in South America "women's diaconate already exists as a daily service and as a baptismal vocation," said Fr. José Luís Loyola, president of CLAR.

Sisters in Mexico say they are praying for peace in their country after more than 60 people died during and after the Feb. 22 capture of a drug lord whose death sparked violence.

Ronald Hicks said, " 'I need you to do this,' " said Samuel Jiménez. "And that's why I'm here."

Staff and the young people who found a home and a family at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos have kept their ties with Archbishop-elect Ronald Hicks, who once lived and worked with them in tiny Texistepeque, El Salvador.

Held as El Salvador experiences repression that President Bukele defends as needed to stop gang violence, the prayer breakfast was said to be organized by the Próspera Foundation, linked to right-wing Christian groups.

The document, titled "Be Born Again," is a guide to help the leading organization representing religious life in Latin America and the Caribbean discern and take action.

From the moment he arrived in El Salvador to work with Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a program for underprivileged children, "Padre Ron," now archbishop-elect of New York, seemed to fit in, recalls a former colleague.

The viral illness comes on the heels of Cuba's slow recovery from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall Oct. 29 in Santiago de Cuba in the eastern part of the island as a Category 3 storm.

"We are witnessing a comprehensive governmental assault designed to produce fear and terror among millions of men and women," Washington Cardinal Robert McElroy said in a Sept. 28 homily.

"Everyone is susceptible to being detained," said Scalbrinian Sr. Leticia Gutiérrez Valderrama, who accompanies migrant families in the El Paso court system.

In a pastoral letter that seems to take a shot at both the U.S. government and their own, the Salvadoran Catholic bishops said El Salvador's prisons shouldn't be used to advance another country's anti-immigrant agenda.

In a moment reminiscent of Pope John Paul II's 1978 installation Mass, the new pope said, in Italian, "Be not afraid! Welcome the call of the church and of Christ the Lord." 

For cardinals who came from such different parts of the world, it was a feat but also an act of unity to elect someone in less than 24 hours, Cardinal Wilton Gregory told the press. "I think we did well."

"You have to trust the process … you don't want them to rush it," said Elizabeth Whelan of Newfoundland, Canada. 

No man received 89 votes, or two-thirds of the 133 cardinal electors.