Organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), and Solidarity with South Sudan, other speakers at the event were Sr. Patricia Murray, executive secretary of UISG, and Fr. Henry Lemoncelli, a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican secretary for relations with states, gave the closing remarks, describing some of his own encounters with women religious working "on the front lines" of the Church from his time as a nuncio.
The event also included two panels: one on women religious working with survivors of human trafficking, which was made up of two religious sisters and a human trafficking survivor; and the second on women religious working in conflict zones, which was made up of three religious sisters.
Sr. Cecilia Espenilla told CNA following the event that though sisters cannot give birth to new life in the traditional sense, "we give life" by giving survivors of trafficking "the hope that there is something in the world, something for them, there is a future for them. And not only for them, but for others too."
During the panel, Sr. Cecilia gave her perspective on working with survivors of trafficking in the Philippines.
A member of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, she is the Philippines coordinator of Talitha Kum, an international network of consecrated life against human trafficking.