BOGOTÁ, July 16, 2026 — A leader of group therapy for mothers searching for their missing children in Mexico; a psychologist accompanying grieving families in the mining communities of the Bolivian Andes; a doctoral student in communication accompanying women through grief and crisis in Colombia; a professional in Information Technology, dedicated to empowering young girls from underserved communities through education and mentorship to build brighter futures in Chile; these are just a few of the 11 Catholic religious sisters from 10 countries who gathered in Bogotá this week for WISDOM CALLS Latin America, a communications workshop designed to help bring their stories, and the realities of their religious communities, to secular media across the region and beyond.
Coordinated by SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, the initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and is carried out in partnership with the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious Men and Women (CLAR). The Latin American program is the third edition of the initiative, following successful workshops in Asia and Africa.
The program is founded on a simple premise: the daily work of Catholic religious sisters, often carried out in remote or marginalized communities rarely reached by journalists, remains largely absent from mainstream media. When these stories do receive attention, they are frequently oversimplified or misrepresented. Rather than training the sisters to become journalists, WISDOM CALLS connects them with experienced communications professionals from both secular and Catholic media to develop compelling, authentic narratives together. The resulting story projects are expected to be presented at the SIGNIS World Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, in August 2026.
The participants’ ministries reflect many of the most pressing social realities across Latin America.
Sister María Isabel Guzmán, a Carmelite of the Sacred Heart who spent 15 years serving rural and Indigenous Quechua communities, now facilitates monthly therapy groups in the Mexican state of Jalisco for the Mamás Buscadoras, mothers searching for disappeared sons, daughters and other family members. The group has met 45 times to date in a country where more than 100,000 people remain missing.
In Bolivia, Sister Raquel Mamani, a psychologist with the Religious of Jesus and Mary, serves in Kami, a predominantly Quechua and Aymara mining region in the Andes. There, her community supports five Fe y Alegría schools while accompanying families affected by mining accidents, migration and child abandonment.
Other participants come from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Canada and Argentina. Their ministries span a remarkable diversity of contexts, from itinerant missions in the Colombian-Peruvian Amazon to a weekly podcast on consecrated life and the management of a congregation’s TikTok presence on the outskirts of Guayaquil.
CLAR’s participation is led by its Executive Secretary, Sister María Inés Castellaro, together with Sister M. Neusa dos Santos, a Little Sister of the Immaculate Conception who holds a doctorate in Communication and Semiotics and brings more than 23 years of experience in television, print, institutional and digital media. The sessions are also being attended by Daisy Velásquez, President of SIGNIS Colombia.
The Bogotá workshop continues through Sunday and features sessions on documentary development, streaming platforms, storytelling techniques, and meetings with journalism faculties from two Colombian universities. More importantly, participants will leave with something the organizers consider even more valuable than technical skills: lasting relationships with communications professionals who may one day help bring these stories, and the voices behind them, to audiences around the world.