What's Happening

June 26, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – After fleeing the terrorist group ISIS in 2014, leaving their convents in the Nineveh Plain, spending years in internal displacement, and returning to their homes to begin recovery, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of Iraq still face an uncertain future.

That was the message that Sister Huda Shito, OP, Prioress of that Congregation, brought to Adrian Dominican Sisters during a special presentation last month. She visited Adrian shortly after the graduation of one of her Sisters, Raghad Saqat, OP, who recently completed her doctorate in physics at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Sister Raghad will teach physics at the University of Mosul in Iraq.

Sister Huda spoke of the Sisters’ exile and of the difficulty of returning home after the liberation of the cities in the Nineveh Plain. “We found all the damage that affected our villages, most of our convents, houses, and churches,” she said. After rebuilding their damaged properties, the Sisters continued their mission to the people of the area. 

Sister Huda Shito, OP, left, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of Iraq, gives an update on the situation for the Sisters in Iraq, while Sister Raghad Saqat, OP, PhD, listens

“The first challenge we faced was the situation of the country, which is still unsettled,” Sister Huda said. “There is no clear vision. We go to sleep and we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow.” Still, she said, the Sisters strive to give hope to the people and to persuade the Christians to remain in Iraq. 

Although her report on the current situation in Iraq was often painful, the arrival of Sisters Huda and Raghad in Adrian was also in many ways a joyful reunion. The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of Iraq – even in the midst of the U.S. invasion of Iraq – developed a close relationship with Sisters in many U.S. Dominican congregations, including the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Several of the younger Sisters from Iraq were sponsored by U.S. Dominican congregations for higher education in the United States.

Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, spoke to this close connection during her introduction of Sister Huda. “Like all the Dominican Sisters we have been privileged and honored to call our own during their amazing studies here in the United States, we have cherished the five years we have had with Raghad,” she said. She thanked Sister Huda and the members of her congregation for the trust they placed in the Adrian Dominican Sisters for allowing them to sponsor and host their Sisters during their studies. 

The close bond was even more evident at the conclusion of the presentation, when Adrian Dominican Sisters Suzanne Schreiber, OP, and Carleen Maly, OP, performed a light-hearted song they had written in tribute to Sister Raghad. 

Watch the entire presentation in the video below. 
 

May 30, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – During a recent presentation on Understanding Gender, guest speaker Socorro Sevilla offered a key recommendation for encountering gender expansive persons: common courtesy and respect.

Socorro Sevilla

A 25-year social services and social work professional and now a counselor with a private practice in Adrian, Socorro recently gave the opening presentation in a new series offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Office of Racial Diversity and Cultural Inclusion. The series brings speakers from various racial, religious, cultural, and gender communities to the Adrian Dominican Motherhouse to present their world view. 

“My hope is through understanding and education, [the series] can bring compassion, and we can be better allies to so many communities that need help with their voice,” said Kevin Hofmann, Director of the Office of Racial Diversity and Cultural Inclusion.

Speaking to an audience of Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and community members, Socorro noted that many people experience “confusion, fear, anxiety, and questions” when working through the changing views of sex and gender: from traditional, binary, biological male and female to include transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, and other gender expansive identities.  

In recent years, Socorro said, the idea of binary gender shifted to seeing gender as a spectrum: a line along which people fall, with male on one end to female on the other. Yet more recently, they explained, gender is seen as a galaxy. “Every person’s gender is a star somewhere in this galaxy – unique, distinct, but maybe clustered in areas.” 

Socorro spoke from experience as a counselor primarily to youth, with 82% of their clients in the LGBTQI+ community. Many in the LGBTQI+ community experience “distinct and chronic stressors related to their sexual orientation and/or identity,” as well as to racial identity. Many of these stressors come from the assumptions that others make about their identity. The stress, they said, is “not so much what’s happening [inside you] … It’s dealing with everybody else’s stuff coming at you.” Young people and those who have been rejected by their families can easily internalize the messages they get from others, Socorro added.

Socorro suggested a simple way to help people in the LGBTQI+ community: common courtesy and respect, accepting them for who they are and using their preferred names and pronouns. This simple form of respect can decrease suicide in the LGBTQI+ community by half, Socorro said. “If that’s all we need to do to cut suicide rates in half, I don’t think it’s that much to ask.”

Watch the entire video of Socorro’s presentation below.