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July 11, 2025, Areguá, Paraguay – Adrian Dominican Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP, joined other Dominican Sisters marking fewer than 25 years of profession in a special Encuentro of the Confederation of Dominican Sisters from Latin America and the Caribbean (CODALC – Spanish acronym), held June 19-22, 2025, in Areguá, Paraguay.
Sister Xiomara is the Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC), a collaborative organization of many of the U.S.-based Dominican Congregations. She described CODALC as the Latin American and Caribbean version of the DSC. Both of these organizations belong to the Dominican Sisters International Confederation (DSIC), as do organizations of Dominican Sisters in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
CODALC celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and some Adrian Dominican Sisters were part of the organization in its early years. “We have a presence in CODALC,” she said. The Adrian Dominican Sisters from the Dominican Republic and Sisters from North America who have served in the Dominican Republic and several other countries in Latin America were involved in CODALC from its early days, she said.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Sister Xiomara was invited to the CODALC gathering and had the opportunity to see “how alive is the Dominican Charism in Latin America. Those women are so committed, and they have so much joy and are so busy.”
The more than 40 participants in the Encuentro spent their days in conversations of hope in Spanish and Portuguese, Sister Xiomara said. With the many differences among the participants, inclusivity was an important aspect of the Encuentro. “We made sure that no one was left out and that everyone had a voice at the table,” especially during small-group discussions, she explained. “We focused on Dominican joy and what it means to be a preacher and to have a voice. We tried to dive deep.”
Sister Xiomara gave two presentations: “Prophetic Women from the Dominican Spirituality Perspective” and “Dominican Women Dreaming and Preaching with Hope.” During one presentation, she spoke about her experience at a gathering of DSIC Sisters under the age of 65 in Caleruega, Spain, in 2024, when the Sisters from each continent developed a manifesto, their plan of action for their region. The Sisters presented their manifestos during a follow-up gathering in Rome in May 2025 with elected congregational leaders.
Participants in the CODALC Encuentro focused on their own action plan to implement the manifesto. “It was very well conceived, and they came up with their own ideas on how to live out the manifesto,” Sister Xiomara said.
Sister Xiomara also experienced the work of Dominicans in Paraguay in a sightseeing tour of the ministries of the Dominican men in Barrio “El Bañado” (the Bathed Neighborhood) in the capital Asunción. The tour included a neighborhood near the bank of the Paraguay River whose homes are destroyed by flooding from heavy rainfall – which happens consistently and unpredictably every 1-5 years. She learned of a project to build a wall to protect 1,500 of the 2,500 homes affected by the flooding. “It was so moving: the faithful accompaniment of our brothers for more than 40 years,” she said. “They live in the neighborhood with the others.”
The Dominican men – Friars and Brothers – in El Bañado are generous in many ways, not only in their dedicated ministry, Sister Xiomara said. They have a foundation and “are in the process of raising awareness through raising funds” promoting the dignity of the marginalized people who live in their neighborhood. They were also generous in their hospitality to the Sisters, providing a snack of flatbread and special tea for the sightseers, she said.
Sister Xiomara was pleased with the “blessing of reconnecting with these women with whom I had so much history.” During the 2024 celebration in Caleruega, she said, she “learned so much about our deep connections with CODALC and the DSC, and how many Sisters of our own congregations were an integral part of it.”
Caption for above feature photo: Participants in the June 2025 Encuentro sponsored by the Dominican Conference of Sisters pause for a group photo.
March 5, 2025, Sección San José, Bani, Dominican Republic – A sense of celebration permeated Sección San José, Bani, a small village in the Dominican Republic, as 300 people gathered to enjoy speakers, a marching band, a brigade of batons and flags, and refreshments on February 15, 2025. Sisters Basilia De la Cruz, OP, Nery "Luchy" Sori, OP, and Eneida Santiago, OP, were in attendance for this joyful inauguration of the Centro de Capacitación Téchnica Integral Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian, a technical and comprehensive training center that could make a difference in the lives of many of the residents throughout the province. The event brought the vision and nine years of work and planning of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Resilient Community Committee for the Dominican Republic closer to reality.
“I do not think it is an exaggeration when I say that this Centro represents all that is good in our world – and what our world so urgently needs today,” said Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, during her talk at the inauguration ceremony. She addressed the community in Spanish.
Sister Elise said the Centro is the “concrete result” of a dream and a vision “to provide comprehensive technical training that will impact not only the lives of your families but the larger world beyond.” She said it is also the “concrete result” of a “mission to work together for the common good of the community” and of a “commitment to seed hope for a brighter future.” Read Sister Elise’s comments in Spanish and in English.
The training center is the centerpiece of the resilient communities plan, Developing Resiliency in the Community of San José, the Dominican Republic. This and five other regional resilient communities initiatives were created in response to the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Enactment on Resilient Communities, approved during the Congregation’s 2016 General Chapter.
Partners with the Adrian Dominican Sisters in developing the technical training center include the Dominican Republic’s Institute for Professional Technical Training (INFOTEP), which will offer internationally recognized certification to graduates of the technical center, and Fe y Alegría, a federation of local organizations that provide education in poor areas in 19 nations, particularly in Latin America. Centro Espíritu Santo Fe y Alegría is a school in Sección San José founded 30 years ago by members of the local community and Adrian Dominican Sisters Maurine Barzantni, OP, and Renee Richie, OP. The school is part of that federation, which also works with technical and vocational schools.
The training center will offer technical and vocational training to the people in the region offering certification needed for well-paying jobs. It will offer tuition-free training in areas such as electrical work, plumbing, recycling, welding, hospitality, cooking, and jewelry-making. Graduates will earn certification from INFOTEP.
Along with hands-on workshops, the technical center includes a community garden and seven classrooms, four of them named in memory of Adrian Dominican Sisters who ministered in Sección San José: Sisters Maurine and Renee, along with Sisters Margaret Lane, OP, and Sharon McGuire, OP, who often ministered in healthcare, said Sister Luchy, who ministers at Centro Espíritu Santo. “We hope [the Center] will be ready to open in two months or so,” said Sister Eneida, who also ministers at Centro Espíritu Santo with Sister Luchy and Sister Basilia, the principal. She said the technical center is waiting to be connected to electricity to allow for the completion of the workshops. “When everything is ready, [INFOTEP] will give us the approval. Then we’ll open the school,” Sister Eneida said.
The technical center “is for every town around our little town” and for people at all levels of education, Sister Luchy said. Programs are available to working adults who need the training and certification to earn higher wages; adults who have completed high school and those who have not; and high school students who seek extra training on weekends and in evenings.
The new center is also causing excitement among Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates who came to the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration. Sister Carol Gross, OP, who ministered in the Dominican Republic for more than 30 years, said she was pleased to return and to see the growth of Centro Espíritu Santo. Four of the school’s original teachers attended the dedication of the technical center, she said.
Sister Carol described the technical center as a “dream come true” for Sister Maurine. “Maurine, right from the very, very beginning, was concerned about vocational education and helping people to get those skills that they could use to be productive members of society,” she said. “It was special for me to think that that dream was right there from the beginning.”
Lloyd Van Bylevelt, an Adrian Dominican Associate and member of the Resilient Community Committee that planned the technical center, recalled the committee’s hard work. “Basically, we had a lot of meetings, probably once or twice monthly for close to a year, figuring out the ideas and getting some resiliency into the plans,” he said.
Lloyd was impressed by the celebratory nature of the dedication – and by the technical center itself. “To see it become real was very fulfilling,” he said. He anticipates that it will be a “major contributor” to the lives of the local community members and will augment the benefits that Centro Espíritu Santo has brought to the community over the years.
Dee Joyner, an Adrian Dominican Associate and former Director of Resilient Communities, also attended the ceremony and was pleased by the construction and dedication of the technical center. “Just to see the project come together like that and the end result was a real highlight for me,” she said. “It was the vision the Sisters had when we first started working with them to develop the plan.”
Dee was also pleased with the local community. “The level of engagement of the community in the project was exactly what we were hoping for,” particularly the commitment of the local community to bring the project forward and make it sustainable – so that it can be continued in years to come. “It’s so apparent that they’re invested in the project,” she said.
As Director of Resilient Communities, Dee oversaw the committees whose initiatives were approved by the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council. These included five initiatives in addition to the project in the Dominican Republic.
• McKinley Park Resilient Community Initiative: Creating a More Resilient Immigrant Community, Chicago. • Growing Up Resilient: The East Adrian Youth Resilience Collaborative, Adrian. • An investment to construct a second building at the Dominican School of Angeles City in the Mining barangay, Province of Pampanga, Philippines. • Affordable Housing as a Platform for Education, Equity, and Community Resilience, Seattle. • The Empowering Resilient Women Initiative, Flint, Michigan.
View a highlight reel of the inauguration below, in Spanish:
Caption for feature photo at top: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, cuts the ribbon during the inauguration of the Centro de Capacitación Técnica Integral Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian with Father José R. López, SJ, Director of Fe y Alegría Dominicana. Among the community members are representatives of the Adrian Dominican Congregation: Associate Dee Joyner, behind Sister Elise; and from the left of Sister Elise, Sisters Basilia De la Cruz, OP, and Eneida Santiago, OP; Associate Lloyd Van Bylevelt; and Sister Nery (Luchy) Sori, OP.