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Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

September 22, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, the Leadership Council issued the following statement on the occasion of the International Day of Peace.

We invite all people of goodwill to join us this International Day of Peace in calling on President Trump and our elected leaders in Congress to exert the formidable influence of the United States in helping to bring peace and stability to our troubled world.

Our hearts ache for our suffering kin in the Holy Land. More than 60,000 Palestinians, including 18,000 children, have been killed since the start of the brutal Israeli war in Gaza. The war is a response to the horrific Hamas-led attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 251, including 30 children. Today, Hamas still holds 48 men and women in cruel hostage – and last week Israeli forces launched a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City, an area with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including children weakened by hunger, acute malnutrition, and disease resulting from unconscionable restrictions on humanitarian aid. Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Matthew 19:14)

In the face of such unutterable human suffering, especially among innocent children, we believe as women of faith that it is a moral imperative to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war. We urge President Trump and Members of Congress to exert all the influence the United States has to forge peace through our diplomacy and economic power – bringing about an end to the savage conflict and the return of all hostages.

We also call on President Trump and Members of Congress to impose harsh sanctions on Russia to pressure it into ending its criminal war of aggression against Ukraine, which it continues to escalate with massive drone and missile assaults against civilian targets. Since Russia began its unlawful invasion in February 2022, more than 13,880 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including at least 726 Ukrainian children. In the lasttwo weeks, Russian aircraft have also provocatively violated Polish and Estonian airspace, with a Russian drone incursion into Poland that Polish and NATO forces scrambled to shoot down.

Please join us in calling on our elected leaders to do all they can to help bring peace to these and other warring places in our world. Let us do all we can to live in peace. And let us work hard to build up one another. (Romans 14:19)

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The theme this year for the UN’s International Day of Peace is “Act Now for a Peaceful World.” It marks 80 years since the United Nations was established in 1945, in the wake of World War II, to maintain global peace and security and promote international cooperation. This year the World Economic Forum cites state-based armed conflict as the top risk in its 2025 Global Risks Report. Observing this year’s theme, UN Secretary General António Guterres stated that “peace doesn’t happen by accident. It is forged.” He said: "Peace is the most powerful force for a better future – and it is within our grasp if we choose it.”

The Leadership Council is comprised of 11 Sisters, including Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Peg Albert, OP, Chapter Prioress; Peggy Coyne, OP, Chapter Prioress; Sara Fairbanks, OP, Mission Prioress; Durstyne Farnan, OP, Mission Prioress; Pat Leonard, OP, Chapter Prioress; Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor; Lorraine Réaume, OP, General Councilor; Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor; and Mary Soher, OP, Mission Prioress.

July 28, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – The Leadership Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters issued a statement today calling on the president and members of Congress to use funding policy influence to enable safe and effective humanitarian aid in Gaza. Below is the statement.

Statement of the Adrian Dominican Sisters 

As women of faith who pray to the same God as all our Abrahamic kin in the Middle East, we cry out in horror at the sight of starvation sweeping across Gaza. 

One in five Palestinians now face starvation, including thousands of children – infants and toddlers. The little ones Jesus called unto himself are now among those suffering the most, ravaged by the effects of malnutrition from weeks of aid blockages earlier this year and now from the unconscionably limited and perilously dangerous food distribution. 

Palestinians are dying from starvation – and from their dire attempts to obtain food. Conditions in Gaza are “catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating,” according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs.

We call on President Trump and Members of Congress to exert the massive influence of U.S. funding policy in order to give humanitarian aid distribution to established aid organizations and to call on Israel to allow them unblocked road access and safe passage into Gaza. Food, water, medical supplies and other urgently needed goods must be allowed into Gaza immediately and distributed safely at the great scale needed if the heartless, immoral, and painful starvation is to be brought to an end.

“Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said. And, please God, let them be fed!

Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Leadership Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress, and Peg Albert, OP, Peggy Coyne, OP, Sara Fairbanks, OP, Dusty Farnan, OP, Patricia Leonard, OP, Frances Nadolny, OP, Lorraine Réaume, OP, Corinne Sanders, OP, and Mary Soher, OP.