In Ministry - Stories

October 7, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – “I think the Dominican charism is embedded in us in how we live and who we know, and it’s just carried out.” Those are the words of Sister Sharon Park, OP, who carried out the Dominican Charism from hospitals and a community college to the halls of the Capitol Building in Olympia, Washington. 

Sister Sharon didn’t start out as an Adrian Dominican Sister. She attended Bishop Blanchet High School and was taught by members of 10 congregations, including the Edmonds Dominican Sisters. She entered the Edmonds Dominican Congregation, which ultimately merged with the Adrian Dominicans in 2003. 

After years in her chosen ministry – nursing, in a variety of settings – Sister Sharon embarked on an unusual ministry that involved 40 years of her life: advocacy with the state legislature of Washington on behalf of the common good. 

While serving as a public health nurse – visiting and caring for patients, largely senior citizens, in their homes – Sister Sharon became aware of the injustices that senior citizens and people living in poverty face. “They make choices between medicine or food,” she observed. “There’s an injustice there.” 

As a member of the Social Justice Committee of the Archdiocesan Sisters Council in Seattle, she took part in a six-month process in which she learned about the workings of the state legislature in Olympia. She and Sister Margaret Casey were chosen in 1977 as the first lobbyists for the Washington State Catholic Conference, begun under Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen of Seattle, to support public policies in the state legislature that promote the common good. 

Sister Sharon served as Associate Director for 20 years, leaving for a few years to work toward her master’s degree in theology with a concentration in bioethics from Seattle University. She returned to the WSCC and, in 1997, was appointed Executive Director, a position she held until her retirement in 2017. She later served the Archdiocese of Seattle as Vicar for Religious.

Much of Sister Sharon’s ministry involved lobbying for or against bills that would affect the common good. She often met with Catholic school superintendents, representatives of the Catholic Charities agencies in Washington, or other Catholic entities to discover how a particular bill would affect their work and the people they served. This is the beginning of a long process of lobbying for a bill: finding a sponsor for the bill, shepherding it through a committee; and lobbying for the bill to be passed in the House and the Senate and eventually signed by the governor.

“We lobbied for every entity the Church had,” Sister Sharon said. “Schools were a major issue. We worked with ecumenical issues … and life issues.” In addition, she said, they lobbied for social services for the aging, for the environment, programming for children, children’s and family services, and jail ministry. 

Sister Sharon emphasized the need for lobbyists to negotiate as much as possible for bills that would uphold the common good, knowing that the bill might not contain all the elements that the lobbyists hope for. “You get as much as you can at this time, and you know at the next session, you’ll try to get the rest.”

At the same time, Sister Sharon emphasized, “You don’t compromise the principles, but you can negotiate around the edges. We don’t give up who we are: Catholic Christians who stand up for the truth as we know it, but you also have to listen to what other people say.” 

Sister Sharon’s ministry also involved working on the bishops’ pastoral letters and documents. She was particularly pleased with the 2001 pastoral letter, The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good by the Catholic Bishops of the Pacific Northwest. She was involved in the listening sessions that guided the bishops in writing the letter. 

“The Columbia River starts in British Columbia,” she said. For three years, she said, “we went to all the states and British Columbia, all the entities that touched the Columbia River: farmers, governments, people who fished the river. We met with all of those groups and we just listened.”

Sister Sharon had the unique opportunity to hear how an individual was personally affected by another document she helped to develop: the WSCC’s document on the Living Will and the Power of Attorney. She spoke at parishes and other Catholic organizations to explain the Church’s teaching on end-of-life issues. “One woman came to me and said, ‘This is the most helpful thing that has happened to me,’” Sister Sharon recalled. The document eased her mind and conscience about taking her husband off life support when he was dying.

While serving formally as an advocate, Sister Sharon also had a positive impact on the people she worked with in the state capitol. Upon her retirement, a House Resolution proclaimed, “Legislators and lobbyists often describe her as an intelligent, thoughtful, and caring member of the Capitol community, who would also be an effective negotiator on some of the most difficult issues facing policymakers.” 

Sister Sharon is now formally retired and living at the Motherhouse in Adrian. Still, she said, “I’ve been involved as much lately as when I had a full-time job.” She serves on 10 committees: four in the Archdiocese of Seattle and six in Adrian. 

 

Caption for above feature photo: Sister Sharon Park, OP, in front, third from the left, attends a bill-signing ceremony with Governor Booth Gardner of Washington State.

October 23, 2024, Houston, Texas – Sister Maureen O’Connell, OP, Director of the Secretariat for Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas, took an unconventional path to her vocation as an Adrian Dominican Sister. Born into a tight-knit Irish Catholic family in Chicago, she was the niece of Sister Mary Frances Coleman, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister. 

Sister Maureen was educated by Sisters: the Adrian Dominican Sisters in first and second grades, the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters for the rest of her elementary school years, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame in high school. “I was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to be a nun because everybody thought I was going to be a nun,” she said. “I think that’s why it took me a while.”

After her freshman year in college, Sister Maureen entered the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation but stayed only for a few months. “I felt I was clear I didn’t have a vocation,” she said.

Sister Maureen attended Chicago Teachers College and finished her bachelor’s degree in education at DePaul University in Chicago. She also holds a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Houston.

She taught with Adrian Dominican Sisters for three years at Infant of Prague School in Flossmoor, Illinois. Among her teaching colleagues was a high school friend whose aunt was the first woman police officer in Chicago. When her friend Donna heard about the entrance exam for the Police Academy, she talked Sister Maureen into taking the test with her. “It was truly a lark,” Sister Maureen recalled. “There was no one in my family who was in the police. I took the exam and I was pretty high on the list – fifth.” 

She attended the Police Academy in June and, after graduation, was first assigned to the youth division to work with women and children. “It was a different spin on being a teacher,” she said. Later she was assigned to serve as a detective in the vice division. She served as a police officer from 1966 to 1977.

“There’s a sense of camaraderie in the police department,” Sister Maureen said. “I was 26 and adventurous for sure.” Being a Chicago police officer offered opportunities for exciting work, including undercover operations and serving on a security detail when First Lady Pat Nixon was in town.

While serving in the police department, Sister Maureen became friends with some of the Adrian Dominican Sisters teaching at Aquinas High School in Chicago. “That was the beginning for me in considering religious life,” she said.

She entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation in 1977, professed her first vows in 1980, and in 1982 moved to Houston, where she has since ministered in a variety of ways. After serving as a counselor, Sister Maureen founded Angela House, a residential program to help formerly incarcerated women prepare for healthy and independent lives in the greater community. 

“It’s amazing to see the resilience” of the women who came to Angela House, Sister Maureen said. She remembers being inspired “seeing what these women have to overcome even to get into the community after they’ve already paid their debt.” She continues to serve on the Board of Angela House.

Sister Maureen took on her current ministry as Director of the Secretariat for Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in 2020, overseeing the Justice and Peace Office and the archdiocese’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which offers grants to local anti-poverty and social justice programs. 

In 2022, the Office of Aging and Children’s Youth Services were added to her secretariat. “Our aging population is very vulnerable and the youth are also a very vulnerable population, so [they] fit into the area of social concerns.”

Sister Maureen’s responsibilities and activities are varied, including serving on the Cardinal’s Cabinet and on several boards in the archdiocese: St. Vincent de Paul Society; Catholic Charities; San José Clinic, a medical clinic that works with uninsured patients; and a shelter for women and children seeking asylum.

Her biggest challenge, she said, is “helping people to understand that Catholic social teaching is really the foundation of our faith and closely connected to the Gospel.” She works with parishes, priests, and lay people to help them understand Catholic social teachings. She also teaches them about Care for Creation. “Because this is such a big gas and oil community, people are often askance at care for creation,” she said. But an all-day event on the topic two years ago brought in about 120 people, she added. “It was a delight.”

Sister Maureen also relishes her work managing the CCHD grant process. She and a small group of people visit the organizations that have requested grants. She appreciates “seeing the people who don’t have the capacity to hire a grant writer and yet they’re the ones who are feet on the ground, serving people. It’s been a great privilege for me to work with them.”

Sister Maureen draws on her past experiences as a police officer and at Angela House in her current ministry. “I’m trying to make connections among other agencies and programs,” she said. “That’s what I did at Angela House. Who can we connect with that will help us further the mission?”  

She was honored on October 24, 2024, by the Emmaus Spirituality Center at its Journey with Emmaus Gala.
 

Caption for above feature photo: Sister Maureen O’Connell, OP, cuts the ribbon for a new facility of Angela House, a residential program to help formerly incarcerated women successfully transition into healthy lives in the community.

Co-workers at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals who were accepted as Adrian Dominican Associates in March 2020 are, from left, Donna Barnes Riggins, Holly Lyman, Teressa Conley, Aimee Moran Yannis, and Natasha Mulroney.
Photo by Thierry Lach
 

October 3, 2024, Henderson, Nevada – Adrian Dominican Associate Holly Lyman calls her current ministry “fun chaos. But it’s the most wonderful job I’ve had. It’s really a calling.”

As Director of Community Health for the eight campuses of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada, Holly oversees 119 community health programs, eight centers, about 75 employees, and 100 volunteers. St. Rose Dominican Hospitals was a sponsored institution of Adrian Dominican Sisters until 2019, when sponsorship was transferred to Catholic Health Care Federation.

A native of Utah, Holly has lived “everywhere in the country,” as well as in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico. “My husband was transferred to Las Vegas 35 years ago and we said we’d just stay here for a year – and we’ve been here ever since.”

Working in healthcare all while in Nevada, Holly joined the staff at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals 22 years ago. Sister Molly Nicholson, OP (d. 2023), presented her orientation and served as Holly’s mentor for 10 years. “I immediately knew this was the right job,” Holly said.

Holly became an Associate in March 2020 with four other co-workers at St. Rose Dominican. A pivotal point in her decision to become an Associate, she said, came when Sister Molly blessed her hands on August 23, the Feast of St. Rose of Lima. The ritual “really connected me to that calling,” she said. “When Molly blessed my hands, I felt that healing presence of God. I wanted to continue that wonderful, warm, joyful, caring spirit.”

Holly continues to be inspired by the Adrian Dominican Sisters who minister at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals: Sisters Kathleen “Katie” McGrail, OP, Jean Williams, OP, and Elisabeth Nguyen, OP – as well as by her memories of Sister Molly and Sister Monica Stankus, OP (d. 2016). She also finds inspiration from the Adrian Dominican Sisters who came by train to Henderson in 1947 to establish the hospital. “It’s incredible to think about the courage that those seven women had,” she said, noting their long travel from Michigan and their hard work from the very beginning to set up the hospital and care for the people. 

While preaching is a well-known aspect of the Dominican Charism, Holly believes she has another calling. “My calling is doing, not so much preaching,” she said. “I’m not a big preacher, but I like to go out and do and show the healing presence of God through my service. So that’s what I see as my ministry: direct, hands-on service,” preaching through her ministry.

Holly indeed provides management and hands-on service to the vulnerable people served by Community Health. Her department’s many programs fall into four priorities: food security, through the U.S. nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), her department’s own delivery program to homebound people, and a fruit and vegetable prescription program to make sure people have a nutritious diet; a transportation program, giving 500 homebound seniors rides to doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, the pharmacy, and any other place they need to go; community health workers, who help clients navigate all 21 pathways to health, including food, employment, and safe housing; and chronic diseases, serving patients struggling with conditions such as heart problems, diabetes, HIV, breast cancer, and dementia.

Holly makes the rounds of the various centers served by her program. “I’m in the centers every day,” she said. “I’m out seeing the people. I love to do the rounds and talk to everyone.” 

However, she is primarily responsible for the administration of the many programs, including writing for the grants that support them. Her ministry involves “going out and finding money so we can serve more of the vulnerable,” she said. “The more funding I can get, the more people I can serve and the more employees I can get on staff.”
Holly connects with the Adrian Dominican Sisters and with the 2022 General Chapter Enactments, which include one focused on spirituality. She was especially inspired by Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, who “said we’re living in a time of global chaos and paschal hope,” she noted. “We need that hope to move us along. I feel like the Adrians are that hope. They work so hard to create a really good future that’s filled with hope. I love that and I want to be a part of that.”

 

Left: Associate Holly Lyman speaks at the St. Rose Dominican Hospitals’ opening of the Sahara Center. Right: Members of Associate Holly Lyman’s Community Health Team assemble during the Sahara Center opening, waiting for Sister Kathleen McGrail, OP, to bless their hands.