Rhina Guidos

Rhina Guidos is the Latin America regional correspondent for Global Sisters Report. She previously was a reporter and editor for Catholic News Service in Washington, D.C., and has worked at several U.S. newspapers. Guidos is the author of Rutilio Grande: A Table for All, about a Jesuit priest martyred in her native El Salvador. Follow her on Twitter at @rhina_guidos.

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Rhina Guidos es la corresponsal regional para América Latina de Global Sisters Report. Anteriormente fue reportera y editora de Catholic News Service en Washington, D.C., y ha trabajado en varios periódicos estadounidenses. Guidos es autora de Rutilio Grande: A Table for All [Rutilio Grande: Una mesa para todos], sobre un sacerdote jesuita martirizado en su El Salvador natal. Sígala en Twitter en @rhina_guidos.

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Members of the Missionaries of Charity wait at an immigration office in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, July 6, 2022, after Nicaragua's government shut down their organization along with other charities and civil organizations. The government on Aug. 19 stripped the legal status of 22 women's religious communities, (OSV News/Sunil Kumar, handout via Reuters)

Women's congregations hit hard in latest crackdown in Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan government stripped the legal status of 26 Catholic congregations, the majority of them communities of women religious, whose ministries provided food and services for the elderly and poor.

Auxiliary Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera of Cuzco, Peru, stops by the altar of St. Rose of Lima at St. Patrick's Cathedral, July 8 in New York City. Estrada, general secretary of the Latin American Bishops' Council, said you can't kneel with reverence before the Eucharist while also rejecting the poor, including migrants, working toward measures that lead to their death or lack of dignity. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)

CELAM bishop calls migrants 'suffering Christs'

Auxiliary Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera of Cuzco, Peru, spoke with National Catholic Reporter July 8-9 as he prepared to meet with United Nations officials in New York about the dire situation facing much of Latin America.

From left: Dorothy Gray, Joan Tillery and Gail Louis listen during a June 19 ceremony outside Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., unveiling a plaque acknowledging "sins of racism" that took place there in the late 1800s and early 1900s that led Black parishioners to leave and establish a new parish nearby. Descendants of parishioners who left were present for a Mass and a ceremony and later spent time with modern-day Holy Trinity parishioners. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)

On Juneteenth, a noted DC Catholic church asks forgiveness for its racist past

"This truth is ugly and painful," said Linda Gray, whose ancestors were among those who became part of Epiphany Parish, which Black Catholics founded after they left Holy Trinity in the 1920s because of the racism there. 

Three human rights lawyers from El Salvador, along with a member of Center for Exchange and Solidarity in El Salvador, left, addressed wrongful detentions in their country during a community event June 5 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington. They talked about how the government’s “state of exception” of the last two years, has resulted in wrongful incarcerations and sometimes death for those detained. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Salvadoran lawyers say they've been 'abandoned' in defense of human rights

In a June 4-7 visit to the nation's capital that also included a stop in New York, the lawyers shared stories of innocent individuals, communities as well as U.S. citizens who were visiting El Salvador and were detained under the government's "state of exception." 

Santos Alfaro Ayala hugs his mother during Mass April 13, 2024 in Guarjila, El Salvador. Alfaro, a Catholic husband and father of two, offered his testimony of being unjustly detained for almost three months.

In El Salvador, a Mass of thanksgiving for wrongfully jailed father

Santos Alfaro Ayala was wrongfully imprisoned for almost three months under El Salvador's "state of exception," which has suspended due process rights for the government's fight against armed gangs. Alfaro and his community are rejoicing at his release.

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, left, talks with Peter K. Kilpatrick, president of The Catholic University of America, during a daylong conference on immigration the university hosted with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops April 11 in Washington.

Both Republicans and Democrats spread anti-immigrant views, says Bishop Seitz

The bishop leading the U.S. Catholic Church's response on migration issues said that both major political parties are participating in anti-immigrant sentiment in the country. 

Miguel Flores, one of the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners sent on a plane to Washington last year, poses for a photo near the Washington Monument on Feb. 22. He said he is determined to keep fighting for democracy and "can't look the other way" when it comes to the abuses in Nicaragua. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Nicaraguan, exiled from his home country, finds community at DC parish

Miguel Flores was among 222 Nicaraguans forcibly removed from the country in 2023 and brought to the U.S. A year later, with support from parishioners at Washington's Holy Trinity Catholic Church, he is talking more about the experience.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, second from right, his wife Gabriela Rodriguez, right, running mate and Vice President Félix Ulloa, second from left, and his wife Lilian Alvarenga wave to supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace after general elections polls closed Feb. 4 in San Salvador, El Salvador. (AP photo/Moises Castillo)

El Salvador's Bukele wins second term, as Catholic religious express fear for democracy

El Salvador's president, who has waged a war against criminal gangs that has imprisoned more than 70,000 people, has won a second term. Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez spoke of St. Oscar Romero interceding for the country.

Sr. Lisa Buscher, of the Society of the Sacred Heart, shares candy with children at a migrant shelter in Mexicali, Mexico on May 9.

In heated political season, sisters urge empathy on immigration

Following record-breaking crossings of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, sisters and church leaders call for Christian empathy for those fleeing their homes all over the world. 

A man pulls a cart of recycled material past a mural that says "From the heart comes peace" in Bogotá, Colombia, Nov. 22. Though 2016 peace accords put an end to the decadeslong conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government, Colombia's poorest, many in rural communities, still suffer violence, said Dominican Sr. Diana Herrera Castañeda. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

In Colombia's conflict, women religious provide 'opportunities for life'

With their ministries and presence in towns that continue to suffer from Colombia's 50-year-long conflict, nuns contribute to the peace process through accompaniment.

Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, delivers his homily as he celebrates a special Mass in honor of the Black Christ of Esquipulas, Guatemala, Jan. 5, 2020, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Support for Guatemala's Cardinal Ramazzini flows in wake of arrest rumors

Latin American Catholic leaders and groups are lining up to support a Guatemalan cardinal rumored to be a target for arrest after voicing fears that a coup may prevent Guatemala's president-elect from being sworn in. 

Participants of the IV Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Religious Life gathered in small groups Nov. 24 on the campus of La Salle University in Bogotá, Colombia, to talk about their experiences in consecrated life. While they gathered and dialogued much in the style practiced at October’s synod on synodality at the Vatican, some said it is a style religious communities have long used. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

In Bogotá, Latin America religious urge renewal of church structures

In welcoming attendees of CLAR's IV Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Religious Life, CLAR president Sr. Liliana Franco Echeverri said that "our structures are in need of renewal," because "there are structures that suffocate and ways of proceeding that deny what is human."

Capuchin Poor Clare Srs. Maria Elena Romero, left, and Maria de la Luz Solorio, pray the Liturgy of the Hours Sept. 27 at the Veronica Giuliani Monastery in Wilmington, Delaware. Contemplative life will participate in spirit and pray for those present at the synod so that all voices are heard, said Romero. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Behind the cloister, contemplative sisters say they're present at synod through prayer

Contemplative sisters participate in the Synod of Bishops from afar through prayer.

Former Irish President Mary McAleese speaks at the Spirit Unbounded event at Rome's Casa Bonus Pastor on Oct. 13. (NCR photo/Joshua J. McElwee)

At events inside and outside Vatican's synod hall, focus on women's equality

Even as Catholic women take a historic step as voting members of the Synod of Bishops, former Irish President Mary McAleese slammed the Vatican Oct. 13 in a parallel gathering in Rome calling for more equality for women.

Mercy Sister Angela Perez, of Guam, poses for a photo Oct. 6 outside Paul VI Hall before the start of the third day of the Synod of Bishops in Vatican City. Seeing the pope at a roundtable, like other participants, gives her the sensation that she's witnessing the "dismantling of the hierarchical," she told Global Sisters Report. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Sisters at Vatican synod see 'dismantling of the hierarchical'

Two Catholic sisters taking part in Pope Francis' summit on the church's future told GSR the synod is different than expected. "I'm experiencing and witnessing the dismantling of the hierarchical," said Mercy Sr. Angela Perez.

Loreto Sr. Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General, waits outside Paul VI Hall at the Vatican before the start of the synod on Oct. 4.

Synod's focus on listening may signal power shift in Catholic Church, says sister

Sr. Patricia Murray said that Pope Francis' process for the synod on synodality is helping "shift the feeling that the truth resides at the top of the hierarchy."

A woman gathers her belongings in front of a mural of Joseph and Mary at the CAFEMIN migrant shelter in Mexico City, Aug. 24. Sr. María Soledad Morales Ríos, one of the Josephine sisters whose congregation operates the shelter, said their charism is to care for the poor, including migrants, the way Joseph and Mary cared for Jesus. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

As shelters squeeze in migrants, sisters in Mexico City offer 'another Nazareth'

The increase in migration has shelters along the route at capacity, but places such as CAFEMIN in Mexico City, run by the Josephine sisters, are among the few stops where migrants are still welcomed, despite overcrowding.

Participants in the Oct. 3 "Let Her Voice Carry" prayer vigil hosted by women's ordination advocates at Rome's Basilica of St. Praxedes. (NCR photo/Rhina Guidos)

On eve of synod, women's ordination advocates hold vigil at Rome's Basilica of St. Praxedes

Advocates for women's ordination in the Catholic Church hosted a prayer vigil at one of Rome's historic basilicas on Oct. 3, on the eve of Pope Francis' opening of a major Vatican summit expected to consider whether women might serve as Catholic deacons or priests.

Dominican Sr. Patricia Wormann (in white jacket), delegate for religious for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey facilitates a synod listening session with the Felician Sisters of Lodi, New Jersey. (Courtesy of Donna Ciangio)

Synod participant describes Pope Francis' process as a 'breathing in' for global church

Sr. Maria Cimperman described Pope Francis' reimagined process for the Oct. 4-29  Synod of Bishops as a "walking together," even if prelates still hold the majority of votes.  

During a seminar on human trafficking Aug. 18, Carmelite Missionary Sr. Verónica Cortez Méndez talks to a group from the Confederation of Latin American Religious about Costa Rica's response to migrants who travel through the country. As migration increases, so do the chances of potential human-trafficking victims, said experts who spoke to the group. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Seminar puts a face on reality of human trafficking in Latin America

At an event organized by the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, sisters shared experiences of helping victims and other work against human trafficking, a "profound violence to the body of humanity."

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