News | Live Stream | Video Library
Contact Us | Employment | Donate
November 21, 2024, Gaylord, Michigan – About 80 people attended Walking the Red Road: Recognizing Ourselves as Individuals and Part of the Whole, a conference held last month for Native and non-Native Catholics in the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan. Sister Susan Gardner, OP, Director of the Native American Apostolate for the diocese, was involved in the conference.
Walking the Red Road gave participants the opportunity to gather, engage in Native rituals, pray, listen to words of apology from the U.S. Catholic bishops, learn to live as Natives and Catholics, and dialogue with the Church.
“This is the fourth conference since I’ve been here … and the first since COVID,” Sister Sue said. The conference drew both Native and non-Native Catholics. “We always have a big group of non-Natives who come because they’re very interested in learning about Native Americans,” she said.
Father Michael Carson, Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, spoke on the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ document, Keeping Christ’s Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry, approved by the bishops at their June 2024 assembly. In the document, the bishops outline the history of the Catholic Church’s policies that harmed the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, including the Doctrine of Discovery, papal bulls that encouraged European nations to invade and conquer lands in which Christians were not living; forced relocation of the native peoples to reservations; and boarding schools in which “Indigenous children were forced to abandon their traditional languages, dress, and customs.”
The bishops further apologized for the role that the Catholic Church played in the trauma experienced by Native Americans and set forth a pastoral plan to walk with them into the future.
The conference also included a talk on Being Native and Catholic by Father Henry Sands, of the Little Traverse Bay Band and Bkejwanong First Nation, Ontario; two sessions of the Talking Circle; and a closing Mass, celebrated by Bishop of Gaylord Jeffrey Walsh.
Featured throughout the conference was a book containing the names of all children who attended Holy Childhood, a boarding school in Harbor Springs, Michigan, which was opened in the 1880s and closed in 1983. At the start of the conference, a Native woman who survived the school lit a candle, which burned all day for the former students, Sister Sue said.
The book listing the names of the boarding school students is one way that the Diocese of Gaylord is reaching out to Native Catholics. “It was a monumental task,” involving the use of a special machine that could take pictures of the school rosters, Sister Sue explained. A bound copy of the book was given to each tribal chairperson, she added.
Another way the diocese reaches out is through the conference. “The people [who] were there did appreciate the efforts and were glad we did it,” Sister Sue said. The diocese will make “any effort we can to let the Native American people know we’re sincere, but it takes a long time to develop that trust. You just keep trying to do what you can and reach out.”
Sister Susan also ministers at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Suttons Bay, Michigan, which serves both Native and non-Native Catholics. She said she tries to bring as much Native tradition to the parish as she can. “For special occasions, we have our Eagle Staff brought in by a veteran,” she said. An Eagle Staff represents a Native tribe or family. Rituals also include smudging – the ceremonial use of burned sacred herbs to cleanse items or people. On Ash Wednesday, the ashes are smudged with sage, she said.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish also offers workshops on making cedar oil, which is used to bless children when they’re born and honors the tradition of Ghost Suppers. During these suppers, which are hosted on the Feast of Holy Souls (November 2), Native Americans walk from place to place honoring those who have died. Rather than providing a ghost supper, however, the parish offers a ghost breakfast.
Along with honoring and celebrating the Native American cultures and celebrations, the diocese and the parish strive to bring healing and reconciliation to Native Catholics. “The big thing they’re asking from the Church is for their stories to be heard and for some type of remuneration” for the trauma caused at boarding schools and places, Sister Sue said.
Feature photo at top: Members of the Spirit Lake Drum Group of the Little Traverse Bay Band provide the Honor Song for the opening of the Walking the Red Road Conference, sponsored by the Diocese of Gaylord.
November 12, 2024, New York, New York – Dominican Sisters throughout the world shared in an October 30, 2024, webinar how they and their congregations are working toward completing three of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Webinar host Sister Philomena Benedict Le Gall, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of Stone, England, said the goals, adopted by the UN in 2015, “provide a blueprint for peace,” so that by 2030, poverty will be eradicated and people will “enjoy peace and prosperity.”
Adrian Dominican Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP, UN Representative for the Dominicans, introduced the three goals that were discussed in the webinar: No. 3, Health and Well-being for All; No. 13, which addresses climate change; and No. 16, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.
Two other Adrian Dominican Sisters spoke of their work toward achieving one of the three designated Sustainable Development Goals. Sister Marissa Figueroa, OP, ministers in the Philippines as the Director of the University of the Assumption’s extension program with local schools, encouraging them to act against climate change.
“The University of the Assumption is committed to integrating care for creation in all sectors of the university,” Sister Marissa said. Students recycle plastics and use them as planters, participate in environmental clean-ups, and research natural pest control methods. Through eco-farms in urban areas, students, faculty members, administrators, and families learn and practice sustainable agriculture. Through the food for work program, “participants earn food by working in community gardens and gaining skills in environmental farming,” Sister Marissa said.
Sister Ellen Burkhardt, OP, of Detroit, works for the achievement of peace, justice, and strong institutions through her involvement with the Meta Peace Team, founded in 1994 in part by the late Sister Mary Pat Dewey, OP. “The mission is to work actively to create a just world, grounded in nonviolence and respect for the interconnectedness of all people,” Sister Ellen said. “We seek to bring peace in areas of conflict.”
Meta Peace Team teaches creative nonviolence, Sister Ellen said. Trained teams are deployed abroad and in regions of conflict within the United States. Wearing yellow vests emblazoned with “Peace Team,” volunteers are present in areas of potential conflict where they are invited, often “quelling any thought of violence” by their very presence and by engaging potentially violent people in conversation, she explained.
Sister Josephine Rose Fernandez Blanco, OP, spoke of how her congregation, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in the Philippines, works toward the fulfillment of SDG 3 through its hospitals, medical clinics, medical mission teams, and homes for elderly and sick Sisters. At a school near the congregation’s hospital, students are trained to “save lives … educate and care for the mothers, deliver babies safely, and follow up 18 months after birth.” In a world where, globally, 800 women die every day from pregnancy or childbirth, her hospital offers “healthy pregnancy with little or no deaths,” she said.
“Ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and reduce inequality,” said Sister Maria Yelitza Ayala Gilot, OP, of the Puerto Rico-based Dominican Sisters of Fatima. Now stationed in Maryland, she works toward achieving the third goal through her work in a program that offers mental health, legal, and social services to families living in an area often afflicted by hurricanes and domestic abuse. Women are trained in skills such as baking, computer usage, electrical work, and jewelry-making. “A support network and sharing of skills helps them,” Sister Maria Yelitza said. “We are creating friendships so that the women look at themselves as beloved children of God,” able to care for themselves and their children, she said.
Lara Kelly, a lay woman who works in the justice office of the Dominican Sisters of Cabra in Ireland, spoke in a recorded video of the community’s efforts to address SDG 13. In its 2021 General Chapter, the Sisters of Cabra made commitments to “develop and establish a green policy for the congregation” and to “study new sustainable economic models to help people get out of poverty and prevent further environmental damage.” Cabra Dominican Sisters work in New Orleans, Argentina, and Portugal to teach about cosmology, environmental issues, and climate change through organic farms and climate centers.
While the webinar focused on only three goals, the Sisters noted that the 17 goals are interrelated. “When you work on one goal, you automatically work on the other goals,” Sister Mari Yelitza said.
Sister Philomena reminded participants of the urgent need to continue working on the SDGs, which were established in 2015 and have a target date of 2030. “We’re two-thirds of the way through and have only achieved 17%,” she said. “We see amazing work and we pray that this good work continues.”