While U.S. theater goers await Mel Gibson’s “The Passion,” a film about the life of Jesus, another film about Jesus, “The Gospel of John,” is making news in several U.S. cities. Carolyn Osiek, rscj, professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of nine biblical scholars from the United States and Canada who served on an advisory panel to the film’s producers.

Sister Kathleen Hughes, Provincial of the United States Province, will spend the month of October in Indonesia, Korea and Japan. In Jakarta, her first stop, she will visit two communities of RSCJ and their ministries. Sister Nance O’Neil of the U.S. Province, a seminary professor, is among RSCJ working there.

Mary Charlotte Chandler, rscj, has been appointed Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Life. The center, established in 1988 by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, serves as a resource for religious congregations in the United States.

Margaret M. Caire, rscj, received the Lifetime Achievement Award in a recent celebration honoring women of achievement in St. Charles County, Missouri. Sister Caire has served as headmistress of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles since 1984. She was among 10 women from St. Charles who received Dove Awards for leadership in a variety of categories.

A century and a half ago, people in the frontier town of St. Joseph were surprised by the arrival of four strangely garbed women. The newcomers were members of the Religio de Sacre Couer de Jesu (Religious of the Sacred Heart) who came from St. Louis to open a school for girls here. Since then, thousands of young women were educated here by the nuns, whose long black-skirted habits, including a white coif, edged neatly with a starched, fluted border, topped with a black veil, made them an unusual sight in the wild and wooly town.

An attic stuffed with old letters, cherished photographs, even canceled checks can tell a lot about a family, a city or a nation. When the "family" is a group of nuns and students with convents and independent schools from Miami to Seattle, from San Diego to Boston, the "attic" is called an archives. When the order's pioneer leader is one of the few U.S. canonized saints, the archives is a lode for American and church historians.

Esperanza Jasso, rscj, was among five people who received awards July 24 for their commitment to community service in Riverside County, California. Sister Jasso was honored for her involvement with an after-school program, for tutoring and helping parents.

Hilda Carey, rscj, won the 2003 Outstanding Faculty Award for her tutoring services to student athletes at Boston College, where she teaches writing and literature to freshmen and remains a “closet Mets fan” in a Red Sox town.

Madeleine S. Ortman, an administrator with extensive experience in independent school management and a graduate of Sacred Heart schools, will become Executive Director of the Network of Sacred Heart Schools on September 1. She succeeds Marsha Whelan, who has held the post for the past four years.

Anyone interested in meeting Haitian people and learning more about economic development in Haiti is invited to join Sister Anita von Wellsheim. RSCJ, in an eight-day Delegation to Haiti June 16-24. The trip will include a stop in Verrettes where three Religious of the Sacred Heart, including Sister Judy Vollbrecht of the U.S. Province, have established a ministry to youth.

Sister Judy Garson, RSCJ, received the 2003 Distinguished Alumnae Award from Convent of the Sacred Heart, “91st Street,” in New York City. Sister Garson, a former member of the Central Team for the Society of the Sacred Heart in Rome, was honored for “solidarity with the poor … (for) understanding the plight of migrants and immigrants,” manifest in her long commitment to the Family Health Center in East Harlem, a ministry founded by Little Sisters of the Assumption.

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."