28 JULY, 2022. When Perpetua Apo SSL, Maureen Long’ep SSL and Naomi Nkrumah SSL were forced to leave Dawhan on November 16, 2020, due to an escalation of violence in the civil war in the region, they left the convent keys to Mekelle, the 14-year-old son of their neighbour, Abeba Hagos Weldu, who had gone to visit her mother in another village. Mekelle gave the keys to Abeba who has, since then, taken charge of the convent and protected it. The sisters were able to return the following April when things had calmed down, but by June, the conflict had started again. Perpetua returned to Addis Ababa in August 2021, and has been there since. When Naomi’s father passed away in Ghana in December, she and Maureen were evacuated on a United Nations plane in January 2022, and brought to Ghana. None of the sisters have been able to return to Dawhan, but in this news article, Naomi tells us about the heroism of Abeba, Mekelle, Honok and Abba Weldemariam Tesfay.

28 JULY, 2022. In the third in our series of articles, called “A Day in the Life of…”, which focusses on a day in the life of one of our sisters in Africa, looking mostly on her ministry, we feature Jacinta Ojogbebi Otene SSL, is a teacher and counsellor in Marywood Girls College, Lagos, Nigeria, a Catholic boarding school offering holistic education to girls of different denominations.

28 JULY, 2022. After two years of interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the celebration of the Feast of the “Divino Pai Eterno” is back in the town of Trindade, Goiás. The celebration in honour of the Eternal Divine Father began 182 years ago, when a couple of farmers found a medallion buried in the clay, with the image of the Holy Trinity. Since then, the pilgrimage has grown. Grupo AAVE and the AIDS Pastoral Ministry group attended this pilgrimage to share information about the early diagnosis of HIV.

28 JULY, 2022. The relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux and her parents, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, visited the Meaux diocese in France from mid-May to the end of June 2022. The Juilly Community was privileged to have them at the Villa St Louis for a whole night on June 16, meditating on their lives and imploring their intercession. The community is grateful to God, through the Martin family, for the joy, unity and blessings experienced among deaneries and in the whole diocese of Meaux.

 30 JUNE, 2022. A Mass of celebration and thanksgiving took place in the Newmarket Parish Church last month, to mark 110 years of St Louis presence in England. It was attended by nine Sisters of St Louis, including Ann Concannon SSL from the Central Leadership Team. It was a bitter-sweet occasion as it included the sadness of a public farewell, the joy of shared memories and friendships, and a sense of fulfilment.

30 JUNE, 2022. For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Secretariat for AIDS Pastoral Ministry has returned to face-to-face pastoral activities, and on the third Sunday in May, Candlelight Memorials were held in the Archdiocese of Goiânia, Goiás to remember those who have died as a consequence of AIDS and also of Covid-19.