What's Happening

July 2, 2025, Pampanga, the Philippines – Sister Mary Ann Caulfield, OP, got a first-hand look recently at the work of a peace education organization for which she serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. She traveled to the Philippines to experience offered by Francisco “Frank” Vega, DMin, Program Director and Trainer, and Jean Marvel, Trainer, of the Peace Education Foundation, to local school faculty members, students, and Adrian Dominican Sisters. 

Based in Miami Shores, Florida, the Peace Education Foundation receives grant funding from the Adrian Dominican Sisters Ministry Trust in support of its mission to teach conflict resolution techniques and violence prevention strategies to Dominican teachers and lay leaders in Argentina, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and the Philippines. Adrian Dominican Associate Lloyd Van Bylevelt is President of the Peace Education Foundation.

Sister Mary Ann, Co-Director of Resident Life for the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, said that for the past two years, she, Lloyd, and Frank planned the workshop during Zoom meetings with the Sisters in the Philippines. 

Because of her involvement, Sister Mary Ann felt it was important to attend the workshops in person. “I wanted to see how [the program] works, how they present it to the teachers, how you can bring this guided curriculum to the schools,” she said. “I felt blessed that I was able to go, to see how the program worked, and to be with our Sisters.”

The faculty workshops were held in schools where Adrian Dominican Sisters minister: a combined workshop for the Dominican School of Angeles City and the Dominican School of Apalit on June 3, 2025; Holy Rosary College, Tala, Caloocan, on June 5; and for professors and students representing diverse academic fields at the University of the Assumption on June 7, 2025. In all, 150 people attended the workshops.  

The training team coordinated workshops with Sister Rowena Cruz, OP, Principal at Dominican School of Angeles City; Sister Lourdes Pamintuan, OP, Principal at Dominican School of Apalit; Josephine Vendiola, Director of Holy Rosary College; and Sister Marissa Figueroa, OP, of the University of the Assumption. 

The team from the Peace Education Foundation also offered a day of recollection for all Sisters of the Our Lady of Remedies Chapter on June 8, 2025.

Sister Mary Ann characterized the workshops and the overall program of the Peace Education Foundation as “outstanding.” She was impressed by the way Frank and Jean worked together. “They interacted with each other on whatever lesson they taught,” she recalled. “They got the teachers involved in the project, helping them learn to teach the different themes to the children.” She said the workshops were interactive, including input and small-group activities.

The Peace Education Foundation offers training and follows up with the schools, families, and other organizations that it trains, Sister Mary Ann said. For the schools in the Philippines, for example, the Foundation will have follow-up Zoom sessions to check on the status of the schools’ peace training and to answer any questions. “We don’t leave them on their own,” she said.

The Peace Education Foundation offers a variety of training programs for teachers, administrators, counselors, students, parents, bus drivers, families, and communities. These training programs include conflict resolution, peer mediation, work with bullies, peacemaking skills for children, creating caring children, resolving family conflicts, and resolving issues drivers encounter.

The Foundation also offers books that schools can use in their curriculum, teaching peace skills at different, age-appropriate levels, from Pre-K through high school. “Each of the books has guidelines and teacher preparation and activity sheets,” Sister Mary Ann explained. “The children learn how to live peacefully. It’s a skill-based curriculum,” which can also be reinforced as all subjects are taught.

“Teachers are key,” Sister Mary Ann said. But once the children learn the skills and the principles, they can teach them or reinforce them with each other. For example, younger children can teach their peers that “hands are for helping, not hurting.” 

Sister Mary Ann said the philosophy and teaching of the Peace Education Center “goes hand in hand” with the Vision of the Adrian Dominican Sisters: Seek Truth, Make Peace, Reverence Life. For example, she said, if you don’t know somebody well, seeking truth can involve asking questions of that person to increase understanding, respect, and peace.

“We can live in peace, each one of us, if we work on it, if we respect one another,” Sister Mary Ann said. “If each of us can, within our soul, live one day in peace – mind, body, and spirit – would we not want to live it always?”

July 2, 2025, Rome – Five Adrian Dominican Sisters attended the Hope/Esperanza 2025 gathering of Catholic Sisters from throughout the world. Sisters Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP, Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC), Ruby Lumanlan, OP, Liberty Mendoza, OP, Maria Eneida Santiago, OP, and Nery “Luchy” Sori, OP, were among nearly 200 sisters who gathered in Rome June 3-6, 2025.  

“Religious life is alive. Religious life is exciting. Religious life is intentional. Religious life is so diverse and so committed – committed to the present and to the future,” said Sister Xiomara upon her return from the gathering.

Hope/Esperanza 2025 brought together 191 Catholic Sisters under the age of 65 from six continents for the event at the Fraterna Domus Sacrafono Retreat Center. More than 100 Sisters also participated virtually. The event was coordinated by the Leadership Collaborative, a U.S.-based leadership development program for Catholic women religious. 

Sister Xiomara, who served for 10 months on the Program Committee, described the event as a gathering and an encuentro (encounter) rather than a conference. “We had conversations of the Spirit,” she said. “It was deep dialogue in hope.” The conversations contemplative, joyful, and honest, she added. “We were our most authentic selves.”

The gathering was also inclusive, focusing on drawing out the voices of all participants. They received spontaneous interpretation in their choice of five languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and English. “The Sisters on Zoom were as engaged as the Sisters who were present,” Sister Xiomara added.

Sister Liberty explained the flow of Hope/Esperanza 2025. The Sisters spoke of their first love, their calling to religious life, and told stories “of what sustained us in difficult moments, of baring our vulnerabilities when we shared our lamentations.” Participants moved from lamentation to celebration, she said. “The assembly illuminated the profound spiritual wisdom in acknowledging and celebrating even small victories …. The Spirit reminded us that these small victories are precious blessings, vital glimmers of God’s providence.”

Finally, Sister Liberty said, the assembly moved from celebration to leadership. “Hope 2025 was a sacred and safe place where the Holy Spirit unveiled a pathway to deeper well-being for those entrusted with leadership, which we actually all are …. Whenever we are called to lead, we know that it will be a continuous process of self-emptying and allowing, awaiting, and accepting God’s movement of filling us with the graces that sustain us through all seasons of leadership ministry.” 

Attending via Zoom were Adrian Dominican Sisters Jenny Fajardo, OP, Marilín Llanes, OP, Lorraine Réaume, OP, and Mary Soher, OP.

“I feel grateful and blessed for being able to attend Hope 2025 via Zoom,” Sister Jenny said. “It was a beautiful experience to be immersed in our global sisterhood … and bringing our own cultural differences and beautifully sharing this culture.” 

Sister Jenny said she felt blessed to hear the “heart-tugging” sharing of other sisters, as well as “the call we all receive to be at the foot of the cross and be sent to minister to God’s little ones amidst our own vulnerabilities and pains.” The call to collaborative leadership “will enable us to serve as one global sisterhood in this wounded world,” she said. “We become bearers of hope to all we encounter on the journey of life.”  

Sister Marilín said “the experience was truly a deepening of the global sisterhood reality. The diversity of cultures and languages was amazing. As a virtual participant, I felt very much a part of the process. The facilitators did a fantastic job in keeping us all informed – truly a synodal experience as we journeyed through the different movement themes each day … Together we explored the heart and soul of the hope that dwells in our communal desire and expectation of good things to come.”   

Both Sisters Liberty and Xiomara expressed gratitude for their experience in Rome. “Please allow me to express my sincerest gratitude to our leadership and to our Congregation for the blessed opportunity to grow in faith and be in such a profound solidarity with our sisters from across the globe,” Sister Liberty said.

Sister Xiomara spoke of the “blessing and honor” she experienced in being part of the Program Committee. 

Sister Xiomara came away from her time in Rome with hope. “My biggest hope is that people continue to be engaged in this kind of encuentro,” she said. “We need to find these places to reconnect to our vocation and to be ready to continue to listen to the voice of God.” She spoke of the importance of the global sisterhood represented by Hope 2025. “I want it to continue,” she said. “The Church needs it. The world needs it. Our congregations need it.”

Read more about Hope 2025 in this Global Sisters Report article, written by Dan Stockman.