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March 22, 2022, Chicago – Sister Mary Soher, OP, received the Sister Pat Brady Award March 11 for her long-time work with Dominican youth, particularly her years of organizing the annual Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference. The conference, held at the end of June, draws about four students and their adult chaperones from each participating Dominican-sponsored high school in the United States and beyond, for a week of activities to form the young adults into preaching through their lives.
Sister Mary received the award during the Inaugural Gala of the Dominican Youth Movement USA (DYMUSA), a newly formed unity of various programs designed to pass on the Dominican Charism to Dominican high school and college students and Dominican young adults.
The award is named for Adrian Dominican Sister Patricia Brady, OP, who in 1999 founded what would become the Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference. She chaired the first board of directors of Dominican Volunteers USA and helped to found what later became known as the Dominican Association of Secondary Schools. She was director in 2008. Sister Patricia died in 2019.
The Gala included an introduction to DYMUSA and to its Board of Directors; talks from several young Dominicans involved in DYMUSA; and tributes to Sister Mary from Adrian Dominican Sisters, other Dominicans who worked with her, and Dominican youth who participated in the preaching conference. Amityville Dominican Sister Gina Fleming, OP, Executive Director of DYMUSA, served as emcee.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” Sister Mary said in response. “How beautiful are the feet of those who have walked this journey with me. I am incredibly thankful to my Dominican family,” including the Sisters, the Friars, the Associates, the laity, the nuns and all the young people.
Read the article about the Inaugural Gala on the DYMUSA website, and watch the video below.
Feature photo (top): Sister Mary Soher, OP, right, interacts with students participating in the 2019 Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference, which she directed for more than 10 years.
March 22, 2022, Baltimore, Maryland – As the United States and the world come to grips with the evil of racism, Black Catholics in the United States have been involved in a letter-writing campaign to correct a blatant form of racial discrimination in the Catholic Church. No Black Catholics from the United States have been canonized as saints. A CNN video describes the activism of Ralph E. Moore Jr., a lay man who grew up in an African-American Catholic parish in Baltimore in which all of the priests were white, and no Black images were included in the church. Moore organized the letter-writing campaign to canonize six African Americans. Some 1,500 letters were sent to Pope Francis in December 2021. The six U.S. Black Catholics recommended for canonization are: Servant of God Mother Mary Lange (1794-1882), founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Baltimore, Maryland; Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1863), a philanthropist who, in spite of raising funds for St. Patrick Cathedral in New York, was not allowed to attend the dedication because of his race; Venerable Sister Henriette DeLille (1812-1862), founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans; Servant of God Julia Greeley (c. 1833-1918), of Denver, a philanthropist with special concern for the poor; Venerable Father Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), of Chicago, the first recognized African American priest in the United States; and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990), of Jackson, Mississippi, an educator, evangelist, and social justice activist who spoke out against racism in the Catholic Church. In the Catholic process of canonization, a Servant of God is one whose cause for canonization has begun. Once a person is recognized by the pope as having lived a life of “heroic virtue,” he or she is named Venerable. The next step, Beatification, requires an arduous investigation into the candidate’s life and writings and one authenticated miracle resulting from prayer to the candidate. Full canonization requires two miracles. More information on the six candidates for sainthood – as well as on other prominent Black Catholics – can be found on the Black Catholic Project Equity and Inclusion page of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ website. The page is organized by the Toward Communion: Undoing Racism, Embracing Diversity Committee formed in response to the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2016 Enactment on Racism and Diversity.
Feature photo: Depicted on a bookmark are African American candidates for sainthood, from left, Father Augustus Tolton, Sister Henriette DeLille, Julia Greeley, Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, and Sister Thea Bowman.