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July 11, 2025, Notre Dame, Indiana – History and congregational archives are important tools to keep the knowledge of the dedicated ministries of U.S. women religious alive well into the future – and even to bring a sense of healing from division.

Those were some of the lessons that archivists of congregations of U.S. Catholic Sisters heard about during a national conference, held June 22-25, 2025, in Notre Dame, Indiana.  

Among those featured in a recent Global Sisters Report article was Adrian Dominican Associate Arlene Bachanov, of the Congregation’s History Office. She and Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Mary Navarre, OP, Director of Archives, noted the healing effects of investigating the past. Their research helped members of the two congregations to understand the division experienced by the Grand Rapids and Adrian Dominicans, who were once separate provinces of the same Dominican congregation in New York. 

“There were all sorts of assumptions about what happened,” Arlene told the conference participants. But their research – collected into a 30-page publication, Golden Links – revealed that, in 1894, Bishop Henry Joseph Richter wanted the Sisters in Grand Rapids to be a diocesan congregation. Sisters could choose to become part of the new Grand Rapids congregation or remain in the New York congregation as part of the Adrian Province. The Adrian Province became an independent congregation in 1923.  

Both Arlene and Sister Mary had extensive help in their research from their respective archives: Arlene through Lisa Schell, Archivist, and Sister Joy Finfera, OP, Secretary of the Congregation and Director of the Office of Information, and Sister Mary through the Associate Director of Archives, Jennifer Morrison.

Read more about the importance of archives for congregations of Catholic Sisters in an article written by Dan Stockman for The National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Reports. 

June 24, 2025, Notre Dame, Indiana – Sister Geneal Kramer, OP, was featured in a recent article published by Saint Mary College. A member of the Class of 1950, she graduated from Saint Mary with a bachelor’s degree in social science and a minor in education.

The article focuses on the experiences of Sister Geneal and her classmate, Anne Reynolds Pyron, during their time at Saint Mary College and later in life. Sister Geneal was greatly influenced by Sister Madeleva Wolff, CSC, College President, through whom she met Dorothy Day, the Catholic convert who spent her life serving people who are poor and marginalized.

In the article, Sister Geneal recalls her experience of weekly dinners with Sister Madeleva. Discussions during dinner “were just marvelous openings out to a broader world,” she recalls in the article. 

Sister Geneal taught at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, entered the Sisters of Mary of Reparatrix, and ultimately transferred to the Adrian Dominican Sisters. She has ministered in South Africa and New Mexico and now, residing in Adrian, as a retreat leader and spiritual director.

Read the entire article here.