“For me Reiki is another form of prayer,” says spiritual director Lauri Lumby Schmidt. But a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says this holistic Japanese healing technique is “not of God.” More →

February 12, 2010

DEBORAH POTTER, guest anchor: An association of Catholic women religious leaders is asking the Vatican why the group is being investigated. The leadership conference that represents almost all of the Catholic religious orders in the United States is the target … More →

August 21, 2009

The Vatican reported this week that the number of Catholics in religious orders around the world continued to decline. But there are a few places where the reverse is true. Betty Rollin found a Dominican teaching order in Nashville fairly bursting with dedicated young nuns. More →

February 8, 2008

    BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: There is a group of Benedictine nuns in Missouri who bake and sell millions of Communion wafers, small and large. But some would-be communicants complained that they are allergic to the gluten in the wheat … More →

March 30, 2007

In the latter half of the twentieth century, institutions run by Roman Catholic nuns could amount to virtual prisons for young women. Some spent their entire adult lives in these places. They were called the Magdalene Laundries, and they were in Ireland. THE MAGDALENE SISTERS chronicles the lives of three Dublin girls living in the Laundries. More →

August 22, 2003

Read more of R&E correspondent Judy Valente’s interview with Dr. Roseanne Cook about her medical practice in rural Alabama. More →

November 8, 2002

Health care in the United States is a big problem for the poor — not only because they often can’t afford it. Sometimes it just isn’t there. This is especially true in rural areas, which have a hard time attracting doctors. In rural Alabama, a Catholic nun has found a calling as a doctor, one of only three serving 14,000 people. More →

November 8, 2002