Loretto’s Work Supporting Women & Girls: Agents of Change

These weeks of Lent are an important time to focus on God’s mercy. Strange, you may say, to begin a week of reflection thinking about God’s mercy as we focus on Loretto’s work with women and girls. However, when Loretto thinks of God’s mercy to us, it is almost maternal in its tenderness. God’s mercy embraces us all as promise and hope. For all our good intentions, we know we are not enough, we need God’s mercy to heal our brokenness and fears and God’s blessing as we continue to embrace the values of Loretto in all aspects of mission.

All across the globe, individuals, groups and organizations reach out to help women and girls in many profound ways. Loretto works to advance gender equity and youth by supporting historically marginalized adolescent girls and young women. To offer just a few examples, we work through Loretto high schools, the El Paso women’s shelter, grants to Haiti for women farmers, scholarships for women to attend college and work with other organizations such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

We envision a world where no girls are invisible or left behind, where they can exercise their human potential. We aim to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and gender exclusion into which too many girls are born. We seek to do this by providing adolescent girls and young women with resources and opportunities for educational and leadership development for their empowerment to become effective leaders and social change agents in their communities.

Responding to God’s call to provide promise and hope to those we serve fits with Article #7 of I Am The Way, Loretto Constitutions, which calls us to “extend the boundaries of learning and justice, of human dignity and peace, of active faith and pastoral concern through works of education and efforts on behalf of people who are poor.”