What's Happening

August 12, 2016, Atlanta, Georgia – Leaders of Catholic Sisters from throughout the United States engaged in a contemplative action for an end to race-based violence in our country. The event began at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. Organized during the Leadership Conference for Women Religious assembly that gathered in Atlanta Aug. 9-13, about 160 women participated in the action.

The group began with a half mile silent procession to the Center for Civil and Human Rights and then spent five minutes in silent prayer and contemplation focusing on repentance for complicity in racism and prayer for peace. The group concluded their contemplative action singing “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”

Earlier this week, the Adrian Dominican Sisters joined with their Black Catholic brothers and sisters – clergy, Sisters, and deacons – in affirming that “Black Lives Matter” and in their message: “Scripture and Catholic social teaching cry out for justice and equality in our relationship with one another.”

July 8, 2016, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters have issued the following statement in the wake of recent shootings of African American citizens by police and the sniper attack on Dallas police officers.

We are deeply pained and outraged at the increase in the number of police killings of innocent African American citizens – an alarming indicator of the way Black people are being dehumanized, marginalized and devalued. We cry out with our Black brothers and sisters that #BlackLivesMatter – the epidemic killings must stop!

We also deplore the horrifying sniper killings of police officers that took place yesterday in Dallas. As Rev. Martin Luther King said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” 

The race-based violence in our country is, as President Obama said, “an American issue” that confronts every one of us, individually and systemically. We pray for all victims of violence and their grieving families. And we call on all of us to engage in personal and national soul-searching on the evils of our socialization in racist systems and the steps we must take to detoxify our hearts and the heart of our nation. We may again draw on Rev. King and his Christ-inspired words for guidance: “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

The Adrian Dominican Sisters will join at noon (CDT) today in the call for prayer issued by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawling as a way to begin “to heal wounds not create them.”