What's Happening

November 18, 2024, Los Angeles – Sister Corinne Florek, OP, is a risk-taker. Her risks do not involve physical danger, but in trusting investment money to new community organizations that are trying to make a difference in people’s lives. 

As a speaker on a history panel at the 40th Annual Conference of Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), held in Los Angeles in late October, she encouraged others to take risks, too. OFN is a national network of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which offer loans and other financial services to organizations in underserved communities.

Speaking on the panel to an audience of CDFI professionals, Sister Corinne reminded them, “What you have learned about risk does not apply to your situation. The risk you’re taking is with people."

Sister Corinne has years of experience in making low-interest loans to community organizations. She worked for a year for the Institute for Community Economics (ICE) and then worked for the Campaign for Human Development (CHD), a Catholic social justice organization of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, which uses donations from parishioners to give grants to community organizations. 
 
Sister Corinne’s experience in community investments includes serving on the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB), which has been making community investments since 1978; serving as one of the founders of the Religious Communities Investment Fund (RCIF), in which communities of Catholic Sisters pool their money to invest in community organizations; and began the Mercy Partnership Fund, later succeeded by Mercy Investment Services, for the Sisters of Mercy.

“When we first started, we were using money that would have been our retirement money,” Sister Corinne said. “I used to tell people that if you don’t pay us back, I won’t have retirement funds.” Now, the PAB and other investment funds use separate sources of funds. 

Whether serving on the PAB, the RCIF, or the Mercy Partnership Fund, Sister Corinne has approved numerous loans to CDIFs and has been known as the “Godmother of CDIFs.” 

Now, she is concerned that CDFI professionals might not take the risk needed to serve community organizations. “My main concern is that as we get more and more people with training, they’ll take less risk,” she said. “You need to get out there and visit these groups and their communities. That’s an important part of your job.”

With that in mind, Sister Corinne frequently took Sisters serving on the PAB on bus trips to Detroit or Chicago to visit the organizations in which the PAB invested. She wanted them to meet the people they were working with. “It’s all about relationships,” she said. “Money is a vehicle, but it’s more about relationships.”

Sister Corinne said she started RCIF because many communities of Catholic Sisters wanted to invest in community organizations but did not have the staff. The communities “could put $25,000 in and we’d lend it out and send them the stories,” she said. “I was always clear to send them their stories so the Sisters could see what was happening” with their money, making them feel more connected to the people served through their loans.

Feature photo at top: Sister Corinne Florek, OP, who has been associated with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) for several years, receives the Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award from OFN during an OFN conference in November 2010. Adrian Dominican Sisters File Photo, Courtesy of Opportunity Finance Network.

November 15, 2024, Houston, Texas – Sister Maureen O’Connell, OP, Director of the Secretariat of Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, was honored on October 24, 2024, at the Journey with Emmaus Gala, for her years of service to the people of God. 

In addition to ministering with the archdiocese, Sister Maureen served as a Chicago Police Officer before she entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation. After moving to Texas as a Sister, she founded and directed Angela House, a resident program for formerly incarcerated women that supports and equips the residents to re-enter the greater community as involved citizens. 

The gala was hosted by the Emmaus Spirituality Center in Houston. Founded more than 40 years ago by the Cenacle Sisters, Emmaus was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. A group of laypeople with the Spiritual Direction Institute found space at a local Lutheran Church and continued the ministry of Emmaus, Sister Maureen said. She has been active with the Emmaus Center, offering them training on Catholic social teaching, Sister Maureen said.

“The evening was lovely,” with a crowd of a little more than 200 people who participated in the dinner, the awards ceremony, and a live auction to raise funds for the Emmaus Spirituality Center, Sister Maureen said. She said that the staff had originally asked her to give a talk during the gala. “It was shocking to hear that I was being honored.”

Still, Sister Maureen gave a brief talk that evening, challenging her audience to speak out against injustice and to defend the rights and dignity of human beings – especially those who are marginalized – through nonviolence. 

To illustrate the power of nonviolence, Sister Maureen told the story of a snake – shared by author Anthony de Mello – who was tamed by a holy teacher after it had bitten many local villagers. Realizing he was now tame, the villagers beat up the snake, who complained about this to his teacher. The teacher noted that he had taught the snake nonviolence – not to hit, but not to stop hissing.

“Nonviolence does not harm, but it does know when to hiss,” Sister Maureen said. “It hisses loud and long at every system and structure that [treads on] the weak and powerless underfoot.” She noted that nonviolence “can never be equated with passivity; it is the essence of courage, creativity, and action.” 

Our task, she said, is to learn how to hiss, “to call out the institutions, the systems and the organizations that ignore and diminish the dignity of the human person. We profess that we are loved by God, created in the image and likeness of God, so it should follow that we treat everyone as we would treat God.” 

In an interview after the gala, Sister Maureen reflected on the highlights of her years in ministry, particularly her work at Angela House. The women seek help in reintegrating into society have already paid the consequences for the actions and mistakes that led to their incarceration. “When they want to return and become healthy citizens, they face barriers that make it hard for them to maintain themselves,” she said.

Sister Maureen has been inspired by the women at Angela House. “I got to witness these women making choices and doing the kinds of things they need to do to be healthy, whole members of the community,” she said. 

She has also been inspired by the people who have volunteered at Angela House. “As people became engaged in the ministry, they realized that [the residents] are people like you and me.” High school students and women from the local parish became involved, spending time monthly with the women at Angela House, she said. “One of the women came to me and said, ‘We learn so much from [the Angela House residents] and how they have overcome the challenges that they experienced.’” 

Read more about Sister Maureen’s life and ministries. 

 

Caption for above feature photo: Sister Maureen O’Connell, OP, left, and Mary Pierson, Executive Director of the Emmaus Spirituality Center in Houston, during a gala event honoring Sister Maureen.
Photo Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston