On April 15, Sister Joanne Poehlman was featured by Milwaukee’s NPR station, WUWM, in a piece about what materials can be recycled in her area. She had written in to the station’s Beats Me column with a question about recycling a particular plastic. Although she was pleased to receive an answer from the education coordinator for Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful,...Read more

While the School Sisters of Notre Dame formally committed to becoming a Laudato Si’ congregation in 2021, the sisters have been dedicated to caring for creation for much longer. As we celebrate Laudato Si’ Week, let’s look back at two SSND environmental initiatives that predated Pope Francis’ groundbreaking encyclical. Mobilization Against Desertification (MAD) In 1984, at the age of 67...Read more

Laudato Si’ Week 2026 takes place from May 17 to 24, marking the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical on care for our common home. Centered around the theme “From Hope to Action,” the global event encourages Catholics to transition from reflection to concrete steps for protecting the environment. Although the 2015 encyclical gave special focus to care for creation, the School...Read more

The Provincial Council and the Corporate Responsibility Committee of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province, have signed on to an interfaith investor letter supporting a shareholder proposal at Palantir Technologies—the company whose technology is the backbone of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surveillance that tracks and targets migrants for detention and deportation and revokes people’s immigration...Read more

Sister Ann Scholz, a founding member of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking Board; Sister Barb Pfarr, representative of the board of Sister House, an SSND-sponsored ministry; and Associate Dawn Martz, co-director of the SSND Central Pacific Province Associates, participated in the Alliance’s annual conference, April 14-17 in Boston. The gathering brought together a diverse group of 175 advocates, practitioners,...Read more

Where there is no peace and harmony, there the blessing of the Lord vanishes. – SSND Foundress Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. The School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Atlantic-Midwest and Central Pacific Provinces have joined a broad coalition of Christian and ecumenical faith organizations in calling on Congress to oppose any supplemental appropriations that would fund a war with Iran....Read more

On the morning of August 14, School Sisters of Notre Dame and members of the SSND staff from the Atlantic-Midwest and Central Pacific Provinces took part in a one-mile walk in prayer through downtown Atlanta. This group of SSND pilgrims joined several hundred Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) assembly participants, filling the streets with readings, songs, and silent contemplative...Read more

SSND sisters, associates, ministry partners, and friends gathered on June 24 with individuals from religious congregations across the United States at the Sisters Speak Out Prayer and Public Witness Gathering at the U.S. Capitol. The focus of the event was to uplift Gospel values, challenge destructive policies, dispel disinformation, and embody compassion and hope. Participants prayed for justice for immigrants facing...Read more

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’ on May 24, 2025, SSND sisters, associates, and partners in ministry share some of the ways that they have incorporated the lessons of Pope Francis’ encyclical into their lives.   SSND associates Donna Haley and Miriam Hankins used the occasion of their parish picnic to display a variety of items that...Read more

by Kathleen Storms, SSND In early May 2015, I received a call from an editor of National Catholic Reporter (NCR) asking me to be a reviewer of Laudato Si’ before its official publication on May 24. I burned the midnight oil that day reading the entire text of Laudato Si’. Why was I asked to critique it? Because I was a...Read more