Dear President Bush: We, the Leadership of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of the United States Province, are deeply saddened that our country has made a preemptive strike against the people of Iraq. We grieve the senseless loss of life of Iraqi citizens and of our own young men and women in military service.

Dear Sisters and Friends, I imagine nearly all of you were gathered around televisions last evening, listening to President George Bush’s address to the nation. We were united across the Province in a shared horror of this all-but-inevitable war. For us at the Provincial House, the ultimatum and deadline were even more devastating: we had just had news that Anne Montgomery is again in Iraq with the Christian Peacekeepers Team and expects to stay at least two weeks, perhaps longer.

Sacred Heart education and educators are featured in two articles in National Catholic Reporter, March 21 issue. The articles, by Special Reports Writer Patricia Lefevere, are titled "School Inspires Girls to Aim High," and "Sacred Heart Schools Unite for Uganda's Future."

Dear Sisters and Friends, In the current issue of Update we included our description of a Mission Advancement Office and the mandate we had imagined would guide its launching and direct its initial work: the Mission Advancement Office fosters communication and collaboration among a wide range of people involved in the Province’s mission and promotes fund raising and other efforts that strengthen and extend the mission.

Condolences from around the world poured in by e-mail to Sister Kathleen Hughes, Provincial of the Society’s U.S. Province in the days following the Columbia shuttle disaster on February 1. Sister Hughes, noting that the seven astronauts “represented so much that is noble and good in our world,” said she was profoundly grateful for the beautiful expressions of sympathy and support.

Dear Sisters, As we approach Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, we are reminded that this is a time to return to the source of our calling as RSCJ, as Christians, as women, as human persons inhabiting this fragile earth. Lent provides us with time to go deep into our hearts to clear a way for the energy at the source to course unimpeded through our veins. As we open the path and till the soil, divine energy will enliven our weary bones, heal our hurting hearts and give hope to our budding dreams–the promise of new life once again.