What's Happening

January 24, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters expressed grief at the brutality of the two recent episodes of mass shootings in California and stand in solidarity and prayer with the victims and their families. Below is their statement. 

We are horrified and grieving at the brutality and increased incidence of gun violence in our nation. Shooting sprees in California over a two-day period, beginning on the Lunar New Year, have taken the lives of 11 people in the largely Asian American community of Monterey Park and seven individuals believed to be Chinese farm workers in Half Moon Bay. The rampage in Monterey Park is the deadliest in this new year, yet one of 39 mass shootings of four or more people injured or killed in just the first four weeks of 2023 that have claimed the lives of 69 people. It is a “striking explosion of violence across a range of sites in nearly every corner of the nation,” as the New York Times reports, citing data gathered by the Gun Violence Archive.

We stand in sorrowful prayer, solidarity and heartache with our brothers and sisters in the Asian American community and with all others suffering the impact of violent crime in our nation. As people of faith, we believe in the right to life and inherent dignity of all human beings. As citizens of a nation founded on the rule of law, we look on the epidemic gun violence and easy access to weapons as threatening our people’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We call on Congress to enact sweeping gun safety and control legislation, including a renewal of the ban on assault weapons.

Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ General Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Janice Brown, OP, and Bibiana “Bless” Colasito, OP, General Councilors; Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress; and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor.