Equity and Inclusion

In response to the proposal from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) that congregations focus on the dismantling of racism, the Adrian Dominican Sisters began by identifying resources that can assist us in raising our consciousness of white privilege and white supremacy, both personally and systematically.

From January 2021 through June of 2023, our Toward Communion: Undoing Racism and Embracing Diversity Committee and our Justice Promoters collaborated on a project to provide information on prominent Black and Indigenous Catholics who have made significant contributions to the church and society, along with reflection questions and a prayer.

In May of 2022, Kevin D. Hofmann was named the founding Director of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion for the Congregation. With the goal of normalizing conversations about race and culture and discussing what it means to feel included and excluded, Kevin began contributing to this blog in June of 2022. He shares his unique experience of growing up Black in a white family in Detroit and educates on topics of equity and inclusion.

Equity and Inclusion Project

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Venerable Henriette DeLille

portrait image of Henriette Delille against a black and white photograph of Black sisters in habit

Venerable Henriette DeLille, servant of slaves, pray for us!

At a time when chattel slavery objectified and brutalized Black women’s bodies, and Christianity and the Catholic Church were deeply entwined with the system of slavery, Henriette DeLille laid the foundation for a religious congregation of Black women asserting the “sacred meaning and value” of their bodies and lives. 

The Adrian Dominican Sisters join our Sisters of the Holy Family in celebrating the 158th anniversary today of their remarkable foundress, the Venerable Henriette DeLille, and in supporting her elevation to sainthood. 

Learn more about this amazing woman and her cause for sainthood:

Friends of the Venerable Henriette DeLille - https://henriettedelille.com/canonization-process

See also Dr. M. Shawn Copeland’s “The Subversive Power of Love” (Paulist Press, 2009)

 

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Avatar  Father David Gentry 4 years agoReply

Thank you, Sisters, for this wonderful page on your website devoted to our African American candidates for sainthood.

Given this moment in American history, when so much hurt and pain around racial and ethnic injustice is once again coming to light, wouldn't it be AMAZING if the Holy See would see fit to canonize ALL of these wonderful women and men on the same day, giving us a whole group of amazing African American saints to emulate and learn from?



On November 17, 2020 in Black Catholic Project by News Editor
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People of African Descent on the Path to Sainthood

Printable bookmark of African Americans on their Way to Sainthood (PDF)

U.S. Black Catholic History Links

Black Catholic History page by Seattle University

Timeline from the National Black Catholic Congress

Sister Jamie T. Phelps, OP, discusses Black Catholics in America with Dr. Paul Lakeland for Fairfield University's "Voices of Others" video series

News report on one of the oldest Black Catholic parishes in the U.S., St. Elizabeth Catholic Church (formerly St. Monica) in Chicago, Illinois