What's Happening

July 2, 2025, Rome – Five Adrian Dominican Sisters attended the Hope/Esperanza 2025 gathering of Catholic Sisters from throughout the world. Sisters Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP, Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC), Ruby Lumanlan, OP, Liberty Mendoza, OP, Maria Eneida Santiago, OP, and Nery “Luchy” Sori, OP, were among nearly 200 sisters who gathered in Rome June 3-6, 2025.  

“Religious life is alive. Religious life is exciting. Religious life is intentional. Religious life is so diverse and so committed – committed to the present and to the future,” said Sister Xiomara upon her return from the gathering.

Hope/Esperanza 2025 brought together 191 Catholic Sisters under the age of 65 from six continents for the event at the Fraterna Domus Sacrafono Retreat Center. More than 100 Sisters also participated virtually. The event was coordinated by the Leadership Collaborative, a U.S.-based leadership development program for Catholic women religious. 

Sister Xiomara, who served for 10 months on the Program Committee, described the event as a gathering and an encuentro (encounter) rather than a conference. “We had conversations of the Spirit,” she said. “It was deep dialogue in hope.” The conversations contemplative, joyful, and honest, she added. “We were our most authentic selves.”

The gathering was also inclusive, focusing on drawing out the voices of all participants. They received spontaneous interpretation in their choice of five languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and English. “The Sisters on Zoom were as engaged as the Sisters who were present,” Sister Xiomara added.

Sister Liberty explained the flow of Hope/Esperanza 2025. The Sisters spoke of their first love, their calling to religious life, and told stories “of what sustained us in difficult moments, of baring our vulnerabilities when we shared our lamentations.” Participants moved from lamentation to celebration, she said. “The assembly illuminated the profound spiritual wisdom in acknowledging and celebrating even small victories …. The Spirit reminded us that these small victories are precious blessings, vital glimmers of God’s providence.”

Finally, Sister Liberty said, the assembly moved from celebration to leadership. “Hope 2025 was a sacred and safe place where the Holy Spirit unveiled a pathway to deeper well-being for those entrusted with leadership, which we actually all are …. Whenever we are called to lead, we know that it will be a continuous process of self-emptying and allowing, awaiting, and accepting God’s movement of filling us with the graces that sustain us through all seasons of leadership ministry.” 

Attending via Zoom were Adrian Dominican Sisters Jenny Fajardo, OP, Marilín Llanes, OP, Lorraine Réaume, OP, and Mary Soher, OP.

“I feel grateful and blessed for being able to attend Hope 2025 via Zoom,” Sister Jenny said. “It was a beautiful experience to be immersed in our global sisterhood … and bringing our own cultural differences and beautifully sharing this culture.” 

Sister Jenny said she felt blessed to hear the “heart-tugging” sharing of other sisters, as well as “the call we all receive to be at the foot of the cross and be sent to minister to God’s little ones amidst our own vulnerabilities and pains.” The call to collaborative leadership “will enable us to serve as one global sisterhood in this wounded world,” she said. “We become bearers of hope to all we encounter on the journey of life.”  

Sister Marilín said “the experience was truly a deepening of the global sisterhood reality. The diversity of cultures and languages was amazing. As a virtual participant, I felt very much a part of the process. The facilitators did a fantastic job in keeping us all informed – truly a synodal experience as we journeyed through the different movement themes each day … Together we explored the heart and soul of the hope that dwells in our communal desire and expectation of good things to come.”   

Both Sisters Liberty and Xiomara expressed gratitude for their experience in Rome. “Please allow me to express my sincerest gratitude to our leadership and to our Congregation for the blessed opportunity to grow in faith and be in such a profound solidarity with our sisters from across the globe,” Sister Liberty said.

Sister Xiomara spoke of the “blessing and honor” she experienced in being part of the Program Committee. 

Sister Xiomara came away from her time in Rome with hope. “My biggest hope is that people continue to be engaged in this kind of encuentro,” she said. “We need to find these places to reconnect to our vocation and to be ready to continue to listen to the voice of God.” She spoke of the importance of the global sisterhood represented by Hope 2025. “I want it to continue,” she said. “The Church needs it. The world needs it. Our congregations need it.”

Read more about Hope 2025 in this Global Sisters Report article, written by Dan Stockman.

June 30, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – It breaks our hearts to join in the wise but painful decision of the University Board of Trustees to close our beloved Siena Heights University at the end of the 2026 academic year.
 
Founded by our Congregation more than a century ago as a college for women, this Catholic Dominican institution has expanded over the years to give people of all faith traditions, socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities, nationalities, racial identities and genders a top notch, values-based education. We are so proud of all the students, faculty, staff, leaders and trustees who are now or have been a part of the Siena community since 1919 and have lived competent, purposeful, ethical lives – contributing their God-given gifts for the common good of our world and Earth home.
 
We extend deep gratitude to President Douglas Palmer, PhD, and the members of his Cabinet – as well as Board Chairman Harry “Dusty” Steele, and the University Trustees – for their faithful and dedicated efforts to find a pathway forward through the formidable financial and demographic challenges that Siena Heights University, like many other small private higher education institutions in our country, has been facing for a number of years. These leaders, faculty and staff envisioned and began to pursue some promising ideas for the future of Siena Heights University that aimed to provide students with educational opportunities that would meet both current and anticipated needs of rural communities like our own. We are grateful to the benefactors who shared the vision. Sadly, the challenges Siena faced finally proved insurmountable.

We are painfully aware of and lament the profound impact that this closure has on Siena Heights students, faculty, and staff. We also lament the significant cultural and economic loss for our region of the closing of our century-old educational institution and its impact on our cherished Lenawee County community.
 
A high priority for us Adrian Dominican Sisters, as the religious sponsors of the institution, is that the University closes honorably – attending, especially, to the needs and concerns of all members of the Siena Heights community. It means providing students, faculty and staff with this yearlong notice of the closing and assurances that every effort will be made to support them in their transitions to other educational and employment opportunities. It also means providing a vibrant final academic year, especially for the Siena Class of 2026. The leaders of Siena Heights University intend to do just this, and we stand by them in prayerful support.

All Adrian Dominican Sisters – especially those who have dedicated years of their lives in loving service to the institution and the many proud graduates – join with us in extending our hands to offer with great love and gratitude our Dominican blessing on every member of the Siena Heights University community. We join with our Dominican Sister Catherine of Siena, patron saint of the University, in encouraging everyone at Siena Heights, as you step into the unknown future, to “be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”