SAN JUAN, Texas - Catholic nuns in Texas and around the nation held public demonstrations Tuesday night against what they call the Vatican's "misuse of power."

Tuesday night vigils will continue each week in May. On May 29, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious - which represents most U.S. nuns - will begin deliberating its next steps after last month's decision by Rome to tighten its grip on the conference. The church says nuns have been drifting away from established doctrine.

While nuns mainly want to help the needy, says Sister Moira Kenny of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the church seems more interested in enforcing its rules and preserving its power structures.

"Bishops try to say it's more important to talk against abortion than it is to feed the hungry and educate children, but we have to respect the mandates of the Gospel: helping the poor and the people that Jesus reached out to."

While the current fallout mirrors today's political debates over health care and women's issues, Kenny - an organizer of the San Juan vigil - says there's also deep frustration among nuns that the church refuses to consider ordaining women at a time when there's a shortage of priests.

Some nuns predict the Leadership Conference of Women Religious eventually will declare independence from the Vatican. Dominican Sister Maureen Gallagher says women in the church long have been dealing with discrimination, adding that women's ministries typically receive very little financial support.

"Catholic women were walking away because they could no longer stay in a church that was oppressing them."

The Second Vatican Council in 1960 allowed nuns to focus more on social-justice issues, but the Vatican has been investigating whether faith and doctrine are being ignored. Many nuns openly supported the Obama health-reform plan, while the American bishops opposed it.

Edwina Gately, a poet and founder of Genesis House in Chicago, which helps women move out of lives of prostitution, says she doesn't plan to leave the church, but she will stand up against the Vatican's reprimand.

"For me, being Catholic is a very important dimension of all my activities, and I'm going to stand up for what real Catholocity means. It's universal, it's inclusive, and it goes back to the gospel of Jesus."

Organizers of the Tuesday protests have launched a website called "Nun Justice" which lists vigil sites around the nation and hosts an online petition against the so-called "crackdown" on nuns by the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

More information on the Sisters of Mercy is online at sistersofmercy.org..


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Some federal incentives to bring internet access to Indian Country neglected to require tribal participation, according to a new report.

The Federal Communications Commission's 2020 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund awarded more than $9 billion to cable and satellite operators, phone companies and others to deploy broadband in areas lacking it. The report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance showed the program included no requirement for tribal consent or engagement before companies placed bids.

Jessica Auer, tribal broadband policy analyst at the Institute for Local Self Reliance and the report's author, said it left some tribes, especially those with their own broadband projects, in what she called a "bureaucratic boondoggle," leading to "tension and confusion."

"They're required to spend resources and staff time trying to contest these awards, confronted by outside providers who feel that they have a mandate and a right to build on sovereign tribal lands," Auer explained.

Auer argued not including tribal nations at the table is, in many cases, considered a violation of tribal sovereignty. According to a 2022 study, households in tribal areas are about 24% less likely to have access to broadband internet than others.

In some cases, tribes are able to build the projects themselves. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe was awarded a $40-million grant to connect more than 1,500 tribal households with fiber internet access and an LTE wireless network.

Auer noted it is preferable to a company building infrastructure in unfamiliar terrain, which can be detrimental.

"I just can't think that it necessarily makes them the most long-term effective and sustainable answer, when they have so little knowledge and familiarity with local realities," Auer added.


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Iowa has enlisted the help of businesses across the state to take on human trafficking.

Tomorrow marks World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, and the state is calling on residents and employees alike to be aware of the signs that someone could be a victim.

The widepread use of social media has made it harder to corral sex traffickers in recent years.

Secretary of State Paul Pate launched the Iowa Business Against Trafficking Initiative in 2022, to ask 300,000 employees of 800 Iowa businesses to be the eyes and ears if they sense a person is being trafficked.

"Well, we're not asking anyone to be a hero here," said Pate. "What we're asking them to be is good neighbors. It's like a neighborhood watch program. You watch for suspicious or unusual behavior, activities that are going on, and let law enforcement know - because they can't be everywhere all the time."

Pate has enlisted the help of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this year - which has started an initiative to remind people that if they suspect they spot human trafficking, they should say something to local authorities.

Tom Ruck is the senior engagement manager for the Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign against human trafficking, and has been in Iowa to boost Pate's efforts at confronting it.

He said it's important not to try to physically step in and rescue a person who appears to be a trafficking victim, even if that's the natural inclination of someone who wants to help.

"But we could put you at harm for doing something," said Ruck. "The trafficker may try to hurt you - and definitely the person being trafficked could be put in harm's way, down the road. So we say, 'Call your local authorities.'"

He added that traffickers often prey on young people who report feeling isolated, depressed, or estranged from their parents - and the criminals work those angles to make contact with prospective victims.




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A new survey shows there's been an increase in the number of police officers on the streets since the COVID-19 exodus, but some Americans are still behaving badly when they think no one's looking.

A survey by the Police Executive Research Forum shows more sworn officers were hired in 2023 than any of the previous four years, and fewer officers overall resigned or retired.

Lance LoRusso, founder of the Blue Line Lawyer Institute, said bad behavior is still evident in communities where not enough officers were available to patrol parks or other public spaces.

"There is a segment of the population that if they don't believe there's consequences for their actions, they will not act in a lawful manner," LoRusso asserted. "They don't, because there's nobody making sure that they're taking care of their obligations and they're treating each other in a civil manner."

More than 200 law enforcement agencies responded to the survey. It showed that while small and medium departments had more sworn officers than they did in January 2020, large departments are still more than 5% below earlier staffing levels.

In March, New Mexico's Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department announced a crackdown on drivers traveling at excessive speeds, which LoRusso said became a problem during the pandemic coast to coast and has not subsided in some areas. He says citizens should not hesitate to report such incidents.

"People racing cars is dangerous. It's completely anti-social, unlawful, dangerous behavior that shows a complete disrespect for the other people in your community. And yet, it's tolerated," he said.

Car break-ins also increased during the pandemic, which LoRusso said might feel like an isolated incident, but is usually indicative of a larger problem.