Almost 30 years ago, congregations of Catholic sisters in the United States split into two groups: the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and a newly-formed group that would become the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.

Originally written by Georges Bernanos, the “Dialogues of the Carmelites” was turned into an opera by the French composer Francis Poulenc.

Many stories of ordinary people responding to suffering in extraordinary fashion have not yet been captured in forms that will last.

“In regard to the diaconate we must see what was there at the beginning of revelation, if there was something, let it grow and it arrives, but if there was not, if the Lord didn’t want a sacramental ministry for women, it can’t go forward.”

When the elderly men and women at the Jeanne Jugan Residence for senior care pray the rosary with Sister Constance Veit, they see her as more than one of the caregivers at the facility.

Ms. Scaraffia described the spaces women have carved out for themselves to speak freely as “a hidden schism in the church, where the religious are separating themselves from the church.”