What's Happening

January 17, 2025, Southfield, Michigan – Three Adrian Dominican Sisters participated last month in a meeting of the Gamaliel Nuns’ Caucus, a coalition of religious Catholic Sisters and lay community organizers working together to bring about “transformative justice” in society. 

Sisters Cheryl Liske, OP, Xiomara Méndez-Hernandez, OP, and Janice Brown, OP, participated in the afternoon session of the Nuns’ Caucus, held at the end of the Fifth Biennial Race and Power Summit. The summit drew affiliates and leaders of the Gamaliel Network, along with invited allies and partners, to the three-day event. The theme was “A Pivotal Moment in Time: Resistance, Persistence, Insistence.”

Founded in 1989, the Gamaliel Network trains community and faith leaders “in building political power and creating organizations that unite people of diverse faiths and races” in work for justice. The network is made up of 44 affiliates and state offices in seven states. 

Participating in the Nuns’ Caucus meeting were sisters and organizers who attended the Race and Power Summit and others who participated via Zoom.

Sister Theresa Keller, FSPA, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, opened the meeting by explaining that the Nuns’ Caucus began about two years ago with a letter of intent. In their work for justice, the Sisters intersect with community organizers represented by Gamaliel. This intersection led to the proposal for a more formal network of sisters and community organizers within Gamaliel.  

“Historically, many Catholic religious sisters came to this country to serve the many immigrant communities,” said Sister Cheryl, a community organizer who served Gamaliel as National Training Director and a senior trainer. “They supported the common good by building social infrastructure,” such as hospitals, schools, and universities. 

In spite of the good that Catholic sisters brought to the United States, Sister Cheryl admitted that in many places, sisters were “complicit in racism and segregation. We lament in regard to such things as not being significant voices,” she said.

Sister Cheryl pointed to NETWORK, a social justice lobby formed by Catholic sisters about 50 years ago to serve as a voice for people suffering from poverty or other forms of injustice. “We renew our efforts to support the common good,” she said. “Today’s sisters, rooted in the Gospel and ancient practices, persist with our call for transformative justice inside and outside the Church structures.”

Sister Xiomara, a native of the Dominican Republic and Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference, related her own experience of racism when she came to the United States to enter the Adrian Dominican Congregation. She expected the people of the United States to be good people because of her experience with the Adrian Dominican Sisters who ministered in her country. 

“I was privileged in my country because I was a light color,” she said, but she experienced the biases of some people in the United States. “I was feeling less and less and didn’t know why.” She learned that she was experiencing racism. 

Sister Xiomara educated herself on the biases in the United States and became involved in the Congregation’s efforts to root out racist attitudes. In its Toward Communion Circle created to work towards the Congregation’s 2016 Enactment on Racism and Diversity, “we wanted to undo racism among us to raise diversity,” she said. “We wrestled a lot, and some of the stories were painful.”

Sister Xiomara cited the efforts of the Revolutionary Love Project with its three practices: See no stranger; love others, but first tend to your own wounds and fears; and adapt the practice of a midwife: push for new life. The project was founded by Valarie Kaur, a civil rights leader, lawyer, educator, activist, and author.

“I refuse to see myself as a victim,” Sister Xiomara said. “I want to see all of us as a beautiful creation of God. I want to see myself as more than a survivor but a thriver.”

Sister Janice spoke of prayer as a basis for religious life. “Prayer is where we find our ground, where I open myself to a greater world,” she said. Contemplation “is a time to step aside and be with God. You stop and contemplate and just let that sink in … bringing you to a higher level of consciousness.”

Study is also an important part of the Dominican tradition and the tradition of other congregations as well, Sister Janice said. It involves understanding the world and discerning where God is and what God plans for us. 

Prayer and study bring us to spiritual activism, “the act of transforming oneself,” Sister Janice said. “Prayer is a breath of life that holds us as a community and as a unique child of God. It brings us back to the essence of who we are and whose we are.”   

The meeting concluded with a discussion on how participants were sustained by prayer and their mission, and on ways that community organizers and Sisters can work together and learn from one another. 
 

Caption for above feature photo: From left: Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, Sister Xiomara Méndez-Fernandez, OP, and Sister Janice Brown, OP.

October 17, 2024, Detroit – Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates were among crowds of people on October 6, 2024, who attended one or two Detroit stops of the Nuns on the Bus and Friends Tour. The tour began September 30, 2024, in Philadelphia and concludes October 18, 2024, in San Francisco.

Nuns on the Bus is a program sponsored by NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, to educate voters on the major issues during national election years and to promote multi-issue voting. The 2024 theme is Revolution of Hope: Vote Our Future So Everyone Thrives, No Exceptions. For the first time, multi-faith and secular coalition partners are riding on the bus with the Catholic Sisters.

Among those attending one or both of the Detroit stops were Adrian Dominican Associates Carol Hofer and Geri Pleva and Sisters Nancyann Turner, OP, Anneliese Sinnott, OP, Kathleen Nolan, OP, Barbara Matievich, OP, Nancy Jurecki, OP, Barbara Cervenka, OP, and Barbara Kelley, OP. 

During the afternoon rally held outside the Electricians’ Union Hall, Nuns and Friends from the Bus and local activists spoke on various issues of concern, emphasizing the importance of encouraging all eligible citizens to vote. 

“I believe that the growing religious and racial diversity is our superpower,” said Rev. Adam Taylor, President of Sojourners Magazine and an ordained Baptist minister. “Far too many politicians are engaging in the politics of fear and scapegoating. We are here to advance justice for all.”

Referring to a line from Isaiah 58:12, in which the prophet said Israel would be known as the “repairer of the breach,” Rev. Taylor spoke of the variety of breaches that the people of Detroit and around the United States are called to repair, including the greater availability of guns than food stamps. “We have the power to repair the breaches in our midst,” he said. “Our vote is our voice.”  

Sister Sally Duffy, SC, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, spoke of the violence and scapegoating that immigrants face today. In particular, she spoke up for the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio – a city in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. . “The Haitian immigrants are revitalizing Springfield,” she said. “They’re filling jobs that need to be filled in manufacturing.” 

During the town hall meeting that evening in a packed Gesu Catholic Church, Nuns and Friends on the Bus and local activists emphasized the need to be multi-issue voters and to vote in ways that benefit the common good. Speakers described six freedoms that Nuns on the Bus emphasize during this election year.

•    The freedom to participate in a vibrant democracy: “We all have the freedom, right, and responsibility to cast a ballot and to help in shaping our society for the common good,” Sister Catherine C. Darcy, RSM, said. Pointing to the Christian Nationalist movement that seeks to make the United States a Christian nation, she said, “Our democracy must include everyone.”

•    The freedom to be healthy: Deborah Weinstein of the Coalition on Human Needs noted progress in providing health insurance, reducing prescription drug costs, and offering food and nutrition programs. “All of those projects can be either extended, approved, or wiped out, depending on Congress next year and the decision the president makes,” she said.

•    The freedom to care for ourselves and our families: Sarah Christopherson, a tax justice advocate, spoke on the need for programs that value workers over profit, make homeownership possible for more people, and invest in college and trade training programs. Through the expanded child tax credit program, children were able to eat well at school and domestic violence was reduced because of less stress in the families, she said.

•    The freedom from harm: Sister Barbara Pfarr, SSND, a community organizer, said people have the right to be free from the danger of gun violence. In addition, she said, the rights of marginalized communities – such as people of color, and LGBTQ+ people – must be respected.

•    The freedom to live in a welcoming country that values dignity and human rights: Sister Sally Duffy, SSND, encouraged the audience to hold leaders in Congress and the White House to account: restoring the right of an individual to seek asylum and to create pathways to citizenship.

•    The freedom to live on a healthy planet: Sister Louise Lears, SC, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, noted the right of all people to breathe clean air and drink clean water. In addition, she called on people to work to mitigate the effects of climate change in the wake of climate disasters such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Participants also met in small groups to discuss their vision for Detroit and heard a call to action to make a voting plan and to encourage others to vote for the common good.

Sister Kathleen Nolan, Director of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, said she was impressed by the speakers “because they reflected the concerns of their communities in Detroit.” She said the events were unifying, giving a sense of drawing people together. “It was refreshing because it was not about specific candidates, but it was issue-focused: what’s important for communities, for people,” she said. 

 

Caption for above feature photo: Standing in front of the bus before the October 6, 2024, Nuns on the Bus Town Hall Meeting at Gesu Parish in Detroit are, from left, Adrian Dominican Sisters Barbara Matievich, OP, Barbara Kelley, OP, Nancy Jurecki, OP, Anneliese Sinnott, OP, Nancyann Turner, OP, and Kathleen Nolan, OP.