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May 18, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – As members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), we Adrian Dominican Sisters strongly support this statement deploring the racial hatred and gun violence that led to the devastating loss of life in Buffalo, New York, with the mass shooting of May 14, 2022. The LCWR statement follows.
Our hearts are breaking as we once again come face to face with the racial hatred and gun violence that infect our land. The members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious extend their condolences to the Buffalo community and all who lost loved ones, friends, and neighbors and we say once more violence and white supremacy cannot stand. And we know that is not enough!
Racism is a virus, every bit as deadly as COVID-19, that has infected our nation since its inception and until we address it, people of color will continue to die, and our nation will continue to bleed. Racism, whether the institutional racism which privileges some at the expense of others or the daily acts of hate and discrimination, diminishes us all. It denies that most profound truth, that all of us are created in God’s image and each of us is entitled to lives of dignity and respect.
As women religious in a predominantly white organization, we recognize how we have been privileged. We lament our silence in the face of white supremacist ideology, and we acknowledge our complicity in institutional racism. We ask forgiveness of our sisters and brothers of color, and we pray for our nation’s healing. And we know that is not enough!
It is time for bold, decisive action. We pledge to raise our voices and to act to end the violence and white supremacy which has cost us dearly. In the wake of the horror of Buffalo, we rededicate ourselves to LCWR’s commitment to dismantle systemic racism and white privilege and effect transformative change in our hearts, our organization, and our society and we pledge anew to build God’s beloved community. We will not permit that violence and white supremacy to stand!
LCWR is an association of leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has nearly 1,300 members, who represent more than 38,800 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, LCWR assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.
May 17, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – The following is a statement issued by the General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in response to the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022.
Our hearts ache for our brothers and sisters in Buffalo, New York, in their immense and inconsolable loss of beautiful beloved family members, friends, and neighbors to the murderous rampage of a violently disturbed, hate-filled teenager. This heinous act of domestic terrorism is a threat to all of us. It calls on us to do all we can to expunge the underlying sin of racism and white supremacy that perdures in our nation and finds expression in such horrifically lethal extremism. It is a soul sickness that runs contrary to our loving God whose image and likeness is revealed in each and every one of us living together on this our common Earth home. Our faith tradition calls us to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). In that spirit, we invite you to join us in praying for the repose of the 10 souls whose lives were so cruelly shattered in seconds, for the comfort of all who are bearing that grievous loss, and for the national resolve to challenge the vitriolic discourse of hatred that emboldens deadly violence and blinds us from the truth of God’s deep and abiding love for each and every one of us, all made in God’s glorious image.
Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ General Council are Sisters Patricia Siemen, OP, Prioress; Mary Margaret Pachucki, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; Frances Nadolny, OP, Administrator and General Councilor; and Patricia Harvat, OP, and Elise D. García, OP, General Councilors.