What's Happening

August 28, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – “This is a movement of the Spirit – a call of the Spirit. It was a call that couldn’t be ignored.”

That was the sense of Sister Mary Hroscikoski, OSF, of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota, of a new movement among U.S. Catholic Sisters: going beyond efforts toward the environmental sustainability of their land to land justice. 

Sister Mary was participating as a panelist in a late July webinar, organized by Land Justice Futures, in which three Sisters discussed their congregations’ journey to develop a plan for land justice for their property. Also participating were Sister Patricia Siemen, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister, and Sister Joan Gallagher, CSJ, of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, New York. The discussion was moderated by Sarah Bradley and Hilary Moore of Land Justice Futures.

Land justice involves each community determining for itself the best way to heal the land; protect it from extraction of oil, gas, or any other resource; and restore its stewardship or use to communities that were dispossessed of the land, such as the Native American nations that once inhabited it and the Black community that over the years was systematically deprived of its use through various discriminatory practices. 

Sarah explained to more than 100 webinar participants that Land Justice Futures is working with 14 U.S. communities of women religious to help them develop their land justice commitment. The Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood are in the 2023-2025 cohort, while the Adrian Dominican Sisters are in the 2024-2026 cohort. “We’ve asked these Sisters to join in the conversation,” Sarah said. “They’re leaders in land justice and we think they have significant stories to share.”

Sister Patricia said she moved from “intellect to heart” after participating in a workshop in early December 2023 about the systematic domination of Indigenous peoples in the United States. “I felt more of the role of the Catholic Church in the harm that has been going on over the generations to our Indigenous brothers and sisters,” she said. She was also reminded of the “generational trauma that continues to this day because of the intentional taking of land from Indigenous people and the intentional stripping of the identity of the people.”

Some 53 Adrian Dominican Sisters and Co-workers also learned about the 500 years of domination during a two-day workshop offered in June by Brittany Koteles and Jessica Rathburn, of Land Justice Futures. During this workshop, they also heard from people who are working through a new vision of justice and inclusion. The workshop was the beginning of the Congregation’s discernment process toward land justice development for the Motherhouse property.  

Sister Patricia said she was moved by the desire of the workshop participants to work toward land justice. “It is part of a spiritual journey and the intersection of all of our other commitments to see land justice as something that holds racial justice, justice for the poor, and ecological justice,” she said. “It’s a center point that can actually inspire and uphold all of our other commitments.”

Sister Joan, a member of her the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood’s Earth Land Committee for more than 30 years, said her community has been working to “embrace a mindset and heart-set of the whole, the oneness of life.” The Sisters in her community have been working to “unanimously affirm this land ethic” and discern how to live into it. 

Sister Joan is particularly moved by the stories of the people who have endured domination by the majority culture and the loss of their land. “Opening to the story of how they have had to educate, fight, and even had to buy back the land has moved me to stand in solidarity until justice is restored,” she said.

The panelists acknowledged that they are all continuing the journey to understand land justice and to discern how to put it into place for the land where their communities reside. “There are no quick fixes here,” Sister Mary said. “This is slow work [and it requires] being willing to be patient and to keep listening to the God of love and the cries of the Earth and the cries of those who have been so deeply wronged.” 

While each congregation is on its own unique journey, the panelists were quick to point to the benefits of being companioned by the other communities and by Land Justice Futures. 

Working toward land justice has been “a path that I would never have anticipated,” Sister Mary said. In their efforts toward land justice, she said, working with other congregations through Land Justice Futures has given her a “collective sense” of the communities of women religious that are involved. “We’re all in this together, a whole collective of us saying this is of value.” 

Sister Joan called the collaboration “a wonderful allyship. To be with other congregations shores me up and affirms that yes, this is the right path.”

Sister Patricia also acknowledged the benefits of working with the Land Justice Futures team. “You are a creative, energetic gift to all of us,” she said. “You are a gift of the Spirit, and we want to partner with you.”

For more information on land justice, visit the video library of Land Justice Futures.
 

Caption for above photo: Brittany Koteles of Land Justice Futures gives a presentation on the Doctrine of Discovery during a Land Justice workshop offered to Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and Co-workers in June 2024. 
Adrian Dominican Sisters File Photo