Franciscan sister journeyed to the Arctic. She found a land teeming with life.
By Brian Roewe, National Catholic Reporter | July 23, 2026
With oil drilling threats looming in a federally protected reserve the size of South Carolina, faith leaders hope to reframe the Arctic as an ecosystem essential to life.
Joan Brown, a Catholic Franciscan sister, stated, “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is forever imprinted in my soul. The vast skies and tundra studded with millions of small intimate wildflowers surrounded by rough gray stone mountains is a sacred place. I know why the Gwich’in people call this the sacred place where life begins. My Franciscan and Catholic traditions are filled with stories of sacred places in the wilderness where ordinary people spent time to listen to the Presence of God infused in the natural world. Those times changed them. I am changed after this experience and believe my stories are changing many others as I share and work in solidarity to protect and care for this “keystone place” on the planet. Now my prayers hold the dear Gwich’in people, the porcupine caribou and Arctic Coastal Plain. This fall I will be there again through the sandhill crane and snow geese whose bodies carry the water, sun and tundra of that place to New Mexico in their migration after birthing young during the solstice time in the Arctic. We are all so interconnected, and our faith traditions and our very souls call us into greater solidarity to care for the Arctic Region into which we are woven. As St. Augustine wrote, there are two sacred books, the Book of Nature and Scripture. We cannot know scripture unless we know the Book of Nature. The Arctic Chapter must draw our attention to preserve this area before it is forever destroyed by oil and gas extraction.”
Read more: https://www.ncronline.org/node/335821
‘One-of-a-Kind’ Sister Made Big Impact
By Denis Grasska, The Southern Cross | SDCATHOLIC.ORG/VOCATIONS | July 2026
“No thanks.” That was Sister Kathy Warren’s response when first invited to apply for the position of director of San Diego’s diocesan Office for Women Religious. She wasn’t interested in relocating from her native Rochester, Minnesota, and was happily leading Franciscan pilgrimages to Assisi and Rome and giving talks on Franciscan spirituality. But when the question was posed a third time and, especially once she realized that the part-time position wouldn’t require her to stop promoting the Franciscan message of nonviolence and peace, she recognized God’s hand at work. “I know this of God. I know the invitation is coming for a reason, so strong, three times,” Sister Warren, who is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Rochester, recalled thinking. Her ultimate “yes” led to nine years as head of the Office for Women Religious, where she served as the official liaison between the bishop and the consecrated women who live and minister in the diocese. Currently, there are about 145 of them, representing 28 congregations. Sister Warren, who turned 77 in June, stepped down as the office’s director on May 28. The previous month, she had been elected to a four-year term as the leader of the Franciscan Sisters of Rochester. “As I return to Minnesota to serve as the congregational minister/president of the Franciscan Sisters, I do so with deep gratitude for the ministry that I’ve been privileged to provide in the Diocese of San Diego,” she said. “Serving as the director of the Office for Women Religious has been a profound honor — a role that allowed me to accompany, support and collaborate with remarkable communities of women religious whose dedication to who they are and what they are about continues to inspire me.”
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Saints inspire ‘Francis and Clare’ musical
By Chris Rogers | Winona Post | August 5, 2026
…Over the next 20-some years, a committee of writers and composers — including Nancy Edstrom Bachler, Steve Bachler, Sr. Eileen Haugh, Sr. Ramona Miller, Sr. Ingrid Peterson, and Winona’s Bruce Ramsdell — slowly assembled songs and scenes. The Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester, especially the award-winning St. Francis scholar Sr. Ingrid, were instrumental in getting the biographical details right, Edstrom Bachler said.
Read the entire article here: https://www.winonapost.com/news/saints-inspire-francis-and-clare-musical/article_1430c6d2-1bea-4f0f-839c-e06424a4b181.html