What's Happening

November 18, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, the General Council issued the following statement in support of the recent pastoral message by the U.S. Catholic Bishops.

At their Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a “Special Pastoral Message” addressing their concerns about the “vilification of immigrants.” This “marked the first time in 12 years the USCCB invoked this particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops,” their public affairs office noted.

As women of faith, we have been deeply concerned about the frightening and unlawful treatment of our neighbors – children, women, and men made in the image of God – through our government’s indiscriminate deportation of immigrants and arrest and detention of people of color, including citizens. We are grateful for this pastoral call of our U.S. bishops, and stand with them as they state:

· We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.

· We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.

· We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.

· We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status.

· We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools.

· We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones. …

· We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.

We agree with our bishops that “Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together.” We join them in urging “all people of good will to continue and expand” efforts undertaken by many Catholics “to accompany and assist immigrants.” We are grateful to the many priests who are using their pulpits to share stories of terrible abuses taking place in their parish neighborhoods and to exhort parishioners to take action in support of their immigrant neighbors.

We invite members of the public to join us for a presentation on What’s Happening with Immigration at our Motherhouse campus on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Weber Retreat and Conference Center, 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan. It will be given by Sister Attracta Kelly, OP, JD, immigration attorney and founder of the Adrian Dominican Office of Immigration Assistance. The event is open to the public, free of charge, and available by livestream at adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.

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Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor; Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor

November 14, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Come join a ritual celebration of Winter Solstice from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, December 21, 2025, at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. 

The celebration of the shortest day of the year calls us to remember, in the words of theologian Teilhard de Chardin, that “we await the coming light, rising from the darkness … ‘There is light and only light ahead of us.’” In song and dance, we will remember that we are light for those we meet and for the world.

The celebration is facilitated by Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, a Dominican Sister of Adrian, a retreat leader and spiritual director, and the facilitator of Weber Center’s monthly Days of Mindfulness.

The Winter Solstice celebration is free and open to all. Registration is not required. 

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. On East Siena Heights Drive, turn into the driveway between Adrian Rea Literacy Center and the solar panel-covered carport. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.