What's Happening

September 29, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, the General Council issued the following statement in response to the mass shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
 
The horrific shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints in Grand Blanc brings close to home for Michiganders the terrifying nightmare of gun violence in our nation – and the urgent need for members of Congress to enact laws that ban military-style assault weapons and provide for safe and responsible gun use.
 
As a church full of Mormon families were at prayer on Sunday, a man rammed his vehicle into their sanctuary and sprayed the assembly with an assault weapon, killing two worshippers, wounding eight, and then causing the deaths of at least two others after lighting the church on fire. Our hearts ache for the victims and their families. We pray for their healing and that of all the Mormon children, women, and men who suffered the trauma of this violent attack while in prayer with God.
 
This assault comes on the heels of a similar one last month that brought gun violence close to home for us as Dominican Sisters when a gunman rammed into Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and began shooting at a church full of children and adults, also in prayer with God at the opening Mass of their parish school. Our sister Dominicans of Sinsinawa (Wisconsin) were longtime teachers at Annunciation. Two children were killed and 21 people wounded.
 
During the past 15 years, people of faith have been victims of gun violence not only in various Christian churches but also in two Jewish synagogues, a Sikh temple, and outside of an Islamic mosque. The better known of these mass shootings are the 2012 shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding four others; the 2015 shooting during bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people, including the senior pastor, and wounding one more; the 2017 shooting at the First Baptist Church in Southerland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding 22 – the deadliest at an American place of worship; and the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during Shabbat morning services, killing 11 and wounding six – the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history.
 
As longtime educators, we have seen how the horror of gun violence in schools added security barriers to entrances and made lockdown drills a heartbreaking part of every American child’s school life. It is deeply disturbing to think that the rise of gun violence in our nation’s sacred places of worship might lead to barricaded sanctuaries.
 
We call on our elected leaders to enact sane gun laws that ensure our First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion is protected, along with Second Amendment rights. We invite all people of faith to join us in this call – and in prayer for all victims of gun violence, whether in schools, places of prayer, campaigning for public office, serving as elected leaders, engaging in public discourse and free speech, or in other forms of public life.

 
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Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor; Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor.

January 31, 2017, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters has issued the following statement in response to the recent executive orders by President Trump regarding immigrants and refugees. This statement is also available as a printable PDF. 

The Adrian Dominican Sisters share the sense of alarm and concern that many Catholic leaders have expressed concerning the Executive Orders recently issued by President Trump to ban refugees and immigrants from Muslim nations, increase detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants, further wall off and militarize our southern border, and cut federal funding to sanctuary cities and counties.

These orders are inimical to our Catholic belief in the inherent dignity of every person; our Judeo-Christian tradition of caring for the stranger; our American values of welcoming people who yearn to “breathe free;” and our nation’s protection of religious freedom.

As members of the worldwide Order of Preachers, which has a long tradition of upholding human rights and includes sisters, brothers, and friars of all nationalities ministering in love and friendship with people around the Earth, we find these actions to be both heartbreaking and chilling. We call on President Trump to uphold our nation’s fundamental values and constitutional protections by rescinding these dangerous, unconscionable orders.

Among the many other Catholic leaders and organizations that have issued statements of concern are the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, bishops from various parts of the country, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and Catholic immigration, relief and resettlement agencies. A sampling of excerpts from public statements follows:

Leadership Conference of Women Religious
We are deeply concerned about the administration’s executive orders on immigration and refugee resettlement which serve only to threaten border communities, force our immigrant community members further into the shadows, and endanger those fleeing violence. These misguided executive orders do nothing to make anyone more secure and may well have the opposite effect.

Dominican Sisters Conference
This executive order gives aid and comfort to those forces which are bent on willful destruction. It harkens back to the darker moments of our own history of slavery and internment camps. It lowers our estimation in the eyes of the many peoples who want to know America as a defender of human rights and religious liberty, not a nation that targets religious populations and then shuts its doors on them.

Statements of Bishops

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
We believe in assisting all those who are vulnerable and fleeing persecution, regardless of their religion. This includes Christians, as well as Yazidis and Shia Muslims from Syria, Rohingyas from Burma, and other religious minorities. However, we need to protect all our brothers and sisters of all faiths, including Muslims, who have lost family, home, and country. They are children of God and are entitled to be treated with human dignity.

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich (Chicago, Illinois)
The world is watching as we abandon our commitments to American values. These actions give aid and comfort to those who would destroy our way of life. They lower our estimation in the eyes of the many peoples who want to know America as a defender of human rights and religious liberty, not a nation that targets religious populations and then shuts its doors on them.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo (Galveston-Houston, Texas)
As Archbishop of a Texas diocese, I believe that the order to construct a wall along our border with Mexico will only make migrants more susceptible to traffickers and smugglers – putting their lives in needless danger. It also destabilizes the many vibrant interconnected communities that live in peace along our border.

Archbishop José H. Gomez (Los Angeles, California)
Friends, walls and more aggressive enforcement will not make America great again. We need new pathways to understanding. 

Bishop Robert W. McElroy (San Diego, California)
[T]his executive order is the introduction into law of campaign sloganeering rooted in xenophobia and religious prejudice. …This week the Statue of Liberty lowered its torch in a presidential action which repudiates our national heritage and ignores the reality that Our Lord and the Holy Family were themselves Middle Eastern refugees fleeing government oppression. We cannot and will not stand silent.

Bishop Michael F. Olson (Fort Worth, Texas) 
The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth respects the responsibility of the federal government to secure our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens for the common good. ...As Catholics we will not close the door to our neighbor in need out of our fear and selfishness.

Cardinal Séan O'Malley (Boston, Massachusetts)
Our country has the opportunity to respond to the reality of immigration with policies and practices which reflect our deepest religious and social principles. Together let us make the commitment to be a beacon of light and hope for those who look to us in their time of need.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, CSsR (Newark, New Jersey)
Wednesday’s Executive Actions do not show the United States to be an open and welcoming nation. They are the opposite of what it means to be an American. Closing borders and building walls are not rational acts. Mass detentions and wholesale deportation benefit no one; such inhuman policies destroy families and communities.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron (Detroit, Michigan)
In a letter to the chair of the Imams Council of Michigan: “I wrote to you a little over a year ago to share with you my statement to the priests of our Archdiocese regarding a proposal made during the presidential campaign to restrict Muslim immigration to the United States. At that time, I reaffirmed my commitment to stand with you in opposing any and all unjust discrimination on the basis of religion. Today, I reaffirm that pledge.” 

Cardinal Donald Wuerl  (Washington, DC)
As I recently noted, we are called to care for one another, whether it be our longstanding neighbor down the street, or a newcomer to our nation seeking relief from brutal religious and political persecution. 

Statements of Catholic Agencies

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA)
“Pope Francis has urged people not to close the door on migrants and refugees. In concert with the Holy Father, we believe we must move from attitudes of defensiveness and fear to acceptance, compassion and encounter. ... Our commitment to care for those who are most vulnerable resides at the core of our faith,” said Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, president and CEO of CCUSA.

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)
“At a time when war and persecution have driven more people to flee in search of safety than any other time in modern history, we need to protect refugees rather than reject them out of misplaced fear,” said Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of CLINIC.

Catholic Relief Services 
Our elected officials have an obligation to protect the security of the American people, and we should all take concerns about security seriously. But, denying entry to people desperate enough to leave their homes, cross oceans in tiny boats, and abandon all their worldly possessions just to find safety will not make our nation safer.

Jesuit Relief Services 
By proposing to discriminate among individuals with valid claims for our protection on the basis of place of origin or religion rather than on the criteria firmly established by U.S. and international law, this announcement calls into question the worldwide standards of non-discrimination that are the bedrock of humanitarian response, just at the moment when we are experiencing the greatest displacement crisis since the end of the Second World War