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.

May 30, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Eight students from Barry University in Miami and one from Siena Heights University in Adrian began their summer with an intense week of learning outside of the classroom: as participants of the Environmental Leadership Experience. (ELE). 

“It’s a new experience,” said Barry University sophomore Sierra Johnson, a marketing and graphic design major. “Being born in Miami and being the youngest of three, I never really had a chance to go out or experience the world.” She and her colleagues explored this new world together during the week of May 7-13, 2023, accompanied by two faculty members from Barry University.

Participants came together to “learn about sustainable agricultural ecosystems,” explained Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor and former Director of the Office of Sustainability. “Through the lens of environmental stewardship, the program [offers] hands-on activities on the Adrian Campus and Permaculture Gardens.”

Begun in 2017, ELE made a comeback this summer after years of absence enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic. ELE is a collaborative effort of the universities and the Motherhouse Office of Sustainability.

Students create a rain garden next to the parking lot of Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

Activities included a tour of the Motherhouse grounds and the Permaculture Garden and work in the Reflective Garden at the Dominican Life Center. But the students spent a major portion of their time building a two-basin rain garden next to the parking lot of Weber Retreat and Conference Center. Along with serving as a pathway to the labyrinth and Cosmic Walk behind Weber Center, the garden was built “as a means of mitigating the degradation caused by rainwater and snow melt coming from the higher ground,” Sister Corinne explained.

The students rounded out their experience with a tour of the Detroit River, a visit to nearby Hidden Lake Gardens, dinner at a nearby restaurant, and a presentation to the Sisters of their experience at the Motherhouse. 

For Anita Zavodska, Professor of Biology at Barry University, the experience in Adrian was a renewal of an enjoyable time in 2019. This year’s experience is “just as wonderful” as in 2019, she said. “We have another wonderful group of students who are really willing to get their hands dirty and work and make a difference,” she said. “It’s like coming home.”   

For the students, ELE was not only a new experience of planting seeds in the Motherhouse grounds, but of planting them in their own hearts as well. 

“I’ve always wanted to work for the environment,” said Lily Hernandez, a Barry student majoring in biology. As a member of Barry’s Green Team, she hopes to incorporate what she learned through ELE into work at Barry. Yet, as she considers a career as a doctor, she hopes to go beyond her time in college. “Everybody could use [this experience] and be a little more sustainable, whatever you’re going into – being more sustainable, loving Earth,” she said.  

Benny Rubinsztejn, a history major at Barry University and a native of Brazil, hopes to begin a second career after 25 years as a stockbroker. 

ELE “is like a highway that works both ways, because students learn something new and bring it home,” Benny said. He sees ELE as important not only because of the environmental impact but also because of the impact on human society, at a time of great division and polarity. When people work together on a project such as the rain garden, he said, “you can build some bridges to [other] people so they respect each other. That’s the most important thing right now.” 

Both Lily and Sierra were inspired not only by their work through ELE but also by the different vegetation and wildlife they experienced in Michigan. “This week in Michigan continuously reminds us of how important it is to take a moment to appreciate all that we have and all that God has given us,” Sierra wrote in a blog organized by the ELE students.

Read the students’ entries in the blog, and watch a video of the experience below.