July 22, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and Co-workers welcomed two very special visitors on July 9, 2026. Gerard Timoner III, OP, Master of the Dominican Order, spent the day at the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, accompanied by Father Louis Morrone, OP, Prior Provincial of the U.S. Central Province of St. Albert the Great.
Brother Gerard, a native of the Philippines and the first Asian to serve in this position, is the 88th Master of the Dominican Order and the 87th successor to St. Dominic. He was elected to a nine-year term during the Dominican Friars’ worldwide General Chapter, held in July 2019 in Vietnam. Worldwide, the Dominican Friars and cloistered nuns make their profession of obedience to him.
The title Master of the Order means teacher, Brother Gerard said in an interview, adding that his experience is as “student of the Order. There are many things I’ve learned from the Dominican family.”
The Dominican family encompasses friars, cloistered nuns, apostolic sisters, Dominican Laity who are associated with the friars, and Associates who are connected to the sisters. Also carrying on the Dominican Charism are Co-workers of the Dominicans and of their sponsored institutions; alumni of Dominican schools and parishes; members of the Dominican Young Adults throughout the world; and participants and past-participants of the Dominican Colleges Preaching Conference and the Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference organized by the Dominican Youth Movement USA.
Sister Elise D. Garcia, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, welcomed the Dominican priests to the Motherhouse at the beginning of the Mass celebrated in St. Catherine Chapel.
During his homily, Brother Gerard counseled the assembly to focus on one piece of apostolic advice offered by Jesus in the Gospel: to shake the dust off their feet when their preaching is rejected. While rejection of the Gospel can be a painful experience, bringing about a toxic memory, “our Lord tells us we must learn how to shake off these thoughts,” Brother Gerard said. “We are supposed to carry the Good News, and any bad news would combat the goodness of the Good News ... We must preach the joy of the Gospel, but we must do so also with joy. Otherwise, we are not credible.”
After Mass, Brother Gerard met with Sisters individually and informally during an indoor picnic for residents of the Dominican Life Center on the Motherhouse Campus. He later took the opportunity during an interview to reflect on the ministries and lives of Dominicans throughout the world.
“The continuing challenge is the promotion of vocations,” not only for people coming into the Dominican Order but for those who have been finally professed for years, he said. “A lot of times, branches, including the friars, forget that we need to promote the vocation of all our sisters [and brothers], because when we do that, we are able to attract new vocations.”
Brother Gerard recalled conversations he had with Motherhouse residents, including one Sister who was attracted to the Adrian Dominican Congregation because she was taught by them throughout her school years. “You can sense that she really loved her teachers,” he said. “So, when we are actually doing what we are supposed to be doing, it is the best way to promote new vocations.”
Asked for a message to the U.S. Dominican family, Brother Gerard said, “First, congratulations. You have just celebrated 250 years, and I think that is both a grace and a challenge for you.” He then addressed a challenge: the growing, deepening polarization among the people of the United States. “It seems that you have to make a choice” between the two sides, “when in fact what we need to do is have a third path.”
That path, he said, is to stand with Christ, observing ways in which members of each side follow Christ and where their actions oppose his teaching. “The challenge is to make the Gospel speak to our culture – affirm what is best and criticize what is contrary to the Gospel ... Where does Christ stand on any issue? That should be our stand.”
Brother Gerard also counseled U.S. Dominicans to follow the way of St. Thomas Aquinas who, in his Summa Theologica, examines the positions that oppose the views of the Church and states them clearly and respectfully before countering them through Scripture and the Church’s teaching. "Before I can engage you in dialogue, I must be able to state your position in such a way that I can say I understand the other,” Brother Gerard said. While this approach might not result in both sides agreeing, he added, we have gained understanding and “we are still brothers and sisters,” treating one another with respect and love.
Brother Gerard began his formal afternoon presentation, “What’s Happening Around the World in the Dominican Order?” by summarizing the numbers of Dominicans worldwide: 5,091 Friars, 700 in initial formation, and 24% over the age of 75; 1,952 cloistered nuns; 17,854 apostolic sisters; and 128,000 lay fraternities, including 117,000 in Vietnam.
Brother Gerard also focused on the restructuring of the Order: the opening of new provinces in some areas and the merging of other provinces which might not otherwise have a large number of friars. He gave the example of Africa, which now has three Provinces, and Vietnam, which opened its first Province in 1967 and now has the largest number of friars. Many of the Provinces in Europe, on the other hand, are merging because of lower numbers of friars in each Province.
The situation in Europe is similar to that of Sisters in the United States, Brother Gerard said. But he spoke words of encouragement to his audience: “Now the land is brown. You might think we are closing down.” But he gave the example of four friars who remained in Avila, Spain, during that country’s suppression of the religious, yet they continued to minister and have since prospered.
“It’s up to you how you imagine your future,” Brother Gerard told the Adrian Dominican Sisters. “Do you imagine this time as a period after a great harvest and then prepare the land and have that same energy to plant again, like the first Sisters did?” He was referring to a small group of Dominican Sisters who came from Europe to New York and ultimately started “a very big family of Dominican Sisters” in the United States.
No matter its size, the Dominican Order has been blessed with the charism of preaching, not only from the pulpit but also from lives of love and service, Brother Gerard said. “We don’t have a claim to it as an exclusive gift,” he added. “Our duty is to remind the Church that preaching is very important for the Church.”
Finally, Brother Gerard reminded his audience that the Dominicans of today not only rely on one another in their ministry of preaching but also on their models: the Dominicans who have gone before them, including more than 389 beatified and canonized saints of the Order who preached in various ways. He gave the example of Fra Angelico, whose “preaching continues to reverberate until today” through his art. “Our models are the saints, and that should be very important to us.”
Caption for above feature photo: Brother Gerard Timoner III, OP, begins his address to the Adrian Dominican Sisters during his July 9, 2026, visitation.