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August 25, 2022, St. Louis, Missouri – As Sister Elise García, OP, completed her three-year leadership commitment to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), Executive Director Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ, praised her for the extraordinary spirit she brought to the organization during the challenging times of COVID-19 and other global crises. She described Sister Elise as a “manifestation of global sisterhood” with “an incredible capacity to create integrative partnerships, and clearly the Gospel message in the public square is what your life is about.”

The words of praise came during the LCWR’s general assembly, held August 9-12, 2022, in St. Louis, Missouri. This was the first time since the pandemic that the annual assembly was held in person.

Sister Elise, a General Councilor for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, was elected President-elect of the LCWR during the 2019 general assembly in Scottsdale, Arizona. She served as President-Elect, 2019-2020; President, 2020-2021; and Past President, 2021-2022. Before her election, she served on the LCWR National Board.

The LCWR is comprised of the elected leadership of Catholic Sisters, representing about 80% of women religious in the United States.

Sister Elise was elected to the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ General Council during its General Chapter in 2016. During the 2022 General Chapter held in late June, she was elected to serve as Prioress, succeeding Sister Patricia Siemen, OP. Sister Elise and the newly elected General Council – Sisters Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor, and Sisters Janice Brown, OP, Bibiana “Bless” Colasito, OP, and Corinne Sanders, OP – will take office on October 8, 2022.

Read the full article about the 2022 LCWR general assembly, written by Soli Salgado and published by the National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report.

November 8, 2019, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters endorses the following statement by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

“The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) was deeply disappointed by President Trump’s 2017 pledge to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement and we are profoundly troubled by the decision to formally request US withdrawal from this critically important international agreement. Catholic teaching is clear – climate change is a grave moral issue that threatens our commitment to: protect human life and dignity, exercise a preferential option for the most vulnerable, promote the common good, and care for God’s creation. The failure of the United States to fulfill its 2015 commitment dishonors our nation and threatens our common home. We will continue to raise our voices against climate policies that harm Earth and its people and to advocate for climate justice.”

On June 1,2017, when President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Agreement, the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council issued a statement declaring that decision to be “politically, economically, and morally indefensible” because it “threatens to condemn Earth, our common home, and future generations to potentially catastrophic climate change.”

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is an association of leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, LCWR assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.

Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council are Sisters Patricia Siemen, OP, Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, Administrator and General Councilor; Mary Margaret Pachucki, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; and Patricia Harvat, OP, and Elise D. García, OP, General Councilors.