At 108, Dominican sister says God 'just wants me to hang around'
Sr. Francis Dominici Piscatella, a member of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, New York, celebrated her 108th birthday April 20. She entered religious life 90 years ago.
Maryknoll nun receives Matteo Ricci Award for building bridges with China
Maryknoll Sr. Janet Carroll, founding executive director of the U.S. Catholic China Bureau, was the recipient of the organization's 2017 Matteo Ricci Award, an honor bestowed upon people who best exemplify the bureau's mission to build a bridge of friendship and service between the Catholic Church in the United States and China.
The award, named for the 16th-century Jesuit missionary to China, was presented to Carroll at a banquet Aug. 12 during the China bureau's 27th biennial national conference at St. John's University.
Church ministry, social service duties nonstop for 75-year-old Dominican
At a stage in life when most people her age have eased into retirement, Sister Margaret Smyth shows no signs of slowing down. Nearly six decades after answering the call to religious life, Smyth, 75, is still going strong, ministering to a large population of Latin-American immigrants who live and work in the eastern region of Long Island. A member of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, Smyth is director of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, a position she has held since 1997, when the Diocese of Rockville Centre hired her to provide outreach to a rapidly growing number of foreigners arriving from Central and South America.
Chinese priests, nuns spend years in U.S. to prepare for leadership
As Pope Francis' plane was cruising through Chinese airspace in mid-August en route to his first visit to the Far East, 20 Chinese priests and nuns were assembling halfway around the globe at a retreat house in the United States, preparing to begin a week of quiet prayer and reflection. The gathering at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Long Island, N.Y., was affiliated with the Chinese Seminary Teachers and Formators Project, an initiative launched by Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1991 to help train priests and women religious for various leadership roles in the church in China.