What's Happening

September 26, 2018, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters join the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in calling for opposition to the Trump Administration’s new proposed rule impacting immigrants. The new regulation would penalize immigrant families, forcing parents to choose between accessing medicine, housing, and food for their children and risking their eligibility for possible legal permanent residency.

The LCWR statement follows:

The US Department of Homeland Security’s proposed changes to the public charge regulation are yet another attempt by President Trump to restrict immigration and punish immigrant families. The new regulation would force parents to make impossible choices between the well-being of their families and the prospect of future citizenship.

The rule changes would dramatically increase the barriers to lawful status for low-income immigrants and their families. It could dissuade parents from obtaining benefits for which their children qualify, out of fear that they may not be able to regularize their immigration status in the future. Lack of access to public benefits programs will increase poverty, hunger, homelessness, and disease, and decrease children’s school attendance and general well-being.

This attempt to target the most vulnerable within the immigrant community violates the tenets of our faith and threatens the values of our nation. We are called by our faith to welcome the stranger and care for the most vulnerable and we are challenged by our national values to promote the welfare of our children and tend the common good. If we want our communities to thrive, all families in those communities mast have access to the care and services they need and to which they are entitled. The Trump administration’s proposed changes to the public charge regulation threaten us all.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious urges all people of faith to call for protection of immigrants, especially those who are most vulnerable, and to register their objections to this unreasonable and mean-spirited proposal during the 60-day comment period.

September 22, 2018, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Sisters Patricia Walter, OP, and Carol Johannes, OP, offer a series of talks exploring the process of aging and two ways to approach it: by denying, resisting, and dreading the process or by embracing it in faith as an invitation to greater fullness of life. NOTE: This series has been cancelled and rescheduled for March 2019, due to unplanned surgery for presenter.

Aging and Spirituality takes place from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesdays, October 4, October 18, and November 1 at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. 

Sister Patricia has taught and learned from students while teaching at institutions such as Siena Heights University in Adrian; Aquinas Institute of Theology, a Dominican graduate school in St. Louis, Missouri; the Angelicum in Rome; and St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland. Sister Carol has been involved in the ministry of spiritual direction and has conducted workshops, directed retreats, and led groups exploring issues of spirituality. Both are former Prioresses of the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

Registration is required, and a goodwill offering will be taken. To register, visit www.webercenter.org and click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by contacting Weber Center at 517-266-4000 or webercenter@adriandominicans.org.

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse, 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive, Adrian. Enter the Eastern-most driveway of the complex and follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.