When Sr. Mary Rowell was growing up, religious communities were everywhere. They ran schools, colleges, parish activities, hospitals and day care centres.

QUEBEC CITY – As a pilgrim, Ann Sieben had just walked 5,000 km from her hometown of Denver to Quebec City, making it just in time for the Easter triduum.

MONTREAL – Vocations to the priesthood may be lagging in North America and Europe, but the ranks of Scalabrinian priests are swelling in other parts of the world, according to Fr. Joseph Fugolo.

WINDSOR, ONT. – Sr. Helen Prejean said ministering to inmates on death row, and prisoners in general, is something that takes effort and persistence, but it is mutually beneficial to her in her call as a religious sister.

MONTREAL – When Quebec’s doctors were blindsided by their professional association and its support for assisted suicide, Dr. Catherine Ferrier knew she had to spring into action.
“We didn’t see it coming. We knew it was out there but it was on the margins. Three-quarters of the population was against medically assisted suicide. The legislation kept dying” every time a politician would introduce a motion in favour of assisted suicide, said Ferrier, who has been one of the leaders in the fight against medical aid in dying for the past seven years.

TORONTO - Giving up the luxuries of North America last year to do mission work in Guyana proved to be a life-giving experience for Ashley Aperocho.

TORONTO - During his visit last month to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Pope Francis described women religious as “women of strength” who work on the “frontlines in the proclamation of the Gospel.”

Eagle River, Alaska, is a wilderness paradise with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and clear rivers. In the 1970s it was a remote town where the closest grocery store was an hour’s drive on a partially paved road. It was the ideal location to inspire a young woman to pursue a career in wildlife biology.

EDMONTON - When Mary Truong first met the Sisters of Providence, her heart leapt.

EDMONTON - When Sr. Madeleine Prince was growing up in the hamlet of Delmas, Sask., the word “providence” came up often.