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July 11, 2025, Areguá, Paraguay – Adrian Dominican Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP, joined other Dominican Sisters marking fewer than 25 years of profession in a special Encuentro of the Confederation of Dominican Sisters from Latin America and the Caribbean (CODALC – Spanish acronym), held June 19-22, 2025, in Areguá, Paraguay.
Sister Xiomara is the Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC), a collaborative organization of many of the U.S.-based Dominican Congregations. She described CODALC as the Latin American and Caribbean version of the DSC. Both of these organizations belong to the Dominican Sisters International Confederation (DSIC), as do organizations of Dominican Sisters in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
CODALC celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and some Adrian Dominican Sisters were part of the organization in its early years. “We have a presence in CODALC,” she said. The Adrian Dominican Sisters from the Dominican Republic and Sisters from North America who have served in the Dominican Republic and several other countries in Latin America were involved in CODALC from its early days, she said.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Sister Xiomara was invited to the CODALC gathering and had the opportunity to see “how alive is the Dominican Charism in Latin America. Those women are so committed, and they have so much joy and are so busy.”
The more than 40 participants in the Encuentro spent their days in conversations of hope in Spanish and Portuguese, Sister Xiomara said. With the many differences among the participants, inclusivity was an important aspect of the Encuentro. “We made sure that no one was left out and that everyone had a voice at the table,” especially during small-group discussions, she explained. “We focused on Dominican joy and what it means to be a preacher and to have a voice. We tried to dive deep.”
Sister Xiomara gave two presentations: “Prophetic Women from the Dominican Spirituality Perspective” and “Dominican Women Dreaming and Preaching with Hope.” During one presentation, she spoke about her experience at a gathering of DSIC Sisters under the age of 65 in Caleruega, Spain, in 2024, when the Sisters from each continent developed a manifesto, their plan of action for their region. The Sisters presented their manifestos during a follow-up gathering in Rome in May 2025 with elected congregational leaders.
Participants in the CODALC Encuentro focused on their own action plan to implement the manifesto. “It was very well conceived, and they came up with their own ideas on how to live out the manifesto,” Sister Xiomara said.
Sister Xiomara also experienced the work of Dominicans in Paraguay in a sightseeing tour of the ministries of the Dominican men in Barrio “El Bañado” (the Bathed Neighborhood) in the capital Asunción. The tour included a neighborhood near the bank of the Paraguay River whose homes are destroyed by flooding from heavy rainfall – which happens consistently and unpredictably every 1-5 years. She learned of a project to build a wall to protect 1,500 of the 2,500 homes affected by the flooding. “It was so moving: the faithful accompaniment of our brothers for more than 40 years,” she said. “They live in the neighborhood with the others.”
The Dominican men – Friars and Brothers – in El Bañado are generous in many ways, not only in their dedicated ministry, Sister Xiomara said. They have a foundation and “are in the process of raising awareness through raising funds” promoting the dignity of the marginalized people who live in their neighborhood. They were also generous in their hospitality to the Sisters, providing a snack of flatbread and special tea for the sightseers, she said.
Sister Xiomara was pleased with the “blessing of reconnecting with these women with whom I had so much history.” During the 2024 celebration in Caleruega, she said, she “learned so much about our deep connections with CODALC and the DSC, and how many Sisters of our own congregations were an integral part of it.”
Caption for above feature photo: Participants in the June 2025 Encuentro sponsored by the Dominican Conference of Sisters pause for a group photo.
July 11, 2025, Notre Dame, Indiana – History and congregational archives are important tools to keep the knowledge of the dedicated ministries of U.S. women religious alive well into the future – and even to bring a sense of healing from division.
Those were some of the lessons that archivists of congregations of U.S. Catholic Sisters heard about during a national conference, held June 22-25, 2025, in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Among those featured in a recent Global Sisters Report article was Adrian Dominican Associate Arlene Bachanov, of the Congregation’s History Office. She and Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Mary Navarre, OP, Director of Archives, noted the healing effects of investigating the past. Their research helped members of the two congregations to understand the division experienced by the Grand Rapids and Adrian Dominicans, who were once separate provinces of the same Dominican congregation in New York.
“There were all sorts of assumptions about what happened,” Arlene told the conference participants. But their research – collected into a 30-page publication, Golden Links – revealed that, in 1894, Bishop Henry Joseph Richter wanted the Sisters in Grand Rapids to be a diocesan congregation. Sisters could choose to become part of the new Grand Rapids congregation or remain in the New York congregation as part of the Adrian Province. The Adrian Province became an independent congregation in 1923.
Both Arlene and Sister Mary had extensive help in their research from their respective archives: Arlene through Lisa Schell, Archivist, and Sister Joy Finfera, OP, Secretary of the Congregation and Director of the Office of Information, and Sister Mary through the Associate Director of Archives, Jennifer Morrison.
Read more about the importance of archives for congregations of Catholic Sisters in an article written by Dan Stockman for The National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Reports.