Explore Content (use filter to search and find topics)

Watch a conversation with faith leaders who have taken up the mantle from their spiritual (and sometimes biological) mothers and fathers.

Catholic sisters are working together across congregations and across the US/Mexico border to better serve people in need of housing, food, health care and immigration services. This video highlights the work of the Sisters Migrant Network for Economic Empowerment and the Sisters Border Network.

“Stories for Social Change: Spirituality in Action” is a multimedia exhibit that presents the narratives of these changemakers. It was originally presented at the USC Annenberg for Communication and Journalism, educating and inspiring 2,500 people in Fall 2023.

The USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture worked with dozens of journalists to profile more than 100 individuals whose spiritual beliefs and practices fuel their humanitarian work.

This video was produced by Kim Lawton as part of “Spiritual Exemplars: A Global Project on Engaged Spirituality” at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, with support from the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton Religion Trust.

Barankitse is a Burundian who now lives in Rwanda. For more than 25 years, she has led Maison Shalom, or House of Peace, the holistic humanitarian organization she established to generate hope in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

As a lawyer and a member of the Baha’i faith, Layli Miller-Muro believes the pursuit of justice is a divine calling. When she was in law school in 1996, Miller-Muro successfully helped represent a young woman from Togo who was seeking asylum in the United States to avoid female genital mutilation and a forced polygamous marriage. The case ultimately changed US law to include gender-based persecution in the grounds for asylum.

Sister Norma Pimentel is one of the nation’s leading voices calling for new and more just immigration policies. She’s best known for her compassionate work and vigorous advocacy on behalf of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

Father Mussie Zerai (born in Asmara, 1975) is an Eritrean Roman Catholic priest and refugees’ rights advocate. Referred to as “the migrant priest,” “guardian angel of the refugees,” and “refugees’ first responder,” Fr. Zerai advocates for solutions for migrants fleeing war, famine, and persecution across Africa and the Middle East.