What's Happening

October 17, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters issued a statement today supporting the call of the churches in Jerusalem and Pope Francis for global prayer for an end to the escalating conflict in the Holy Land. Below is the statement.

Statement of the Adrian Dominican Sisters 

Today we join people of faith around the world in prayer and fasting for peace in the Holy Land, as called for by the churches of Jerusalem and echoed by Pope Francis.

More than 1,400 children, women and men were massacred in a horrific attack by Hamas last week. Israeli airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip are now estimated to have killed more than 2,800 Palestinians, including children, women and men. Fighting along the northern border of Israel has escalated. The Israeli blockade of food, water and electricity in Gaza has created a humanitarian crisis for more than 2 million inhabitants of the 140 square-mile area. At least 199 Israeli children, women and men, including foreigners, are still being held hostage by Hamas. 

“Prayer is the meek and holy force to oppose the diabolical force of hatred, terrorism, and war,” Pope Francis said. Let us all join in this meek and holy force of global prayer today for a resolution to this dire and escalating conflict that restores God’s justice, love, and peace in the Holy Land and in the hearts of all the children of Abraham. 

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A Rosary Prayer for Peace, open to the public, will begin at 4:00 p.m. today in St. Catherine Chapel at the Motherhouse of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 E. Siena Heights Dr., Adrian, Michigan.

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

November 21, 2017, Adrian, Michigan – Iyad Burnat, a nonviolent peace activist from Palestine, brought his message of the nonviolent resistance to Israel’s settlements and the longing of the Palestinian people for justice and peace to the Weber Center Auditorium on November 13. In his heart-felt, sometimes difficult, presentation, he spoke of the injustices inflicted on the people of Palestine and their longing to live in justice and peace in their homeland with the Israelis.

Mr. Burnat spoke before an auditorium filled with Siena Heights University students, Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, and members of the greater Adrian community. The event was sponsored by Siena Heights University and the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation.

Before addressing the desires of many people in Palestine for a life of shared justice and peace, Mr. Burnat set the context for the situation in Palestine and laid out the injustices faced by his people. In 1948, he said, 7 million Palestinians became refugees with the arrival of people who wanted to establish Israel on their former land. In spite of the efforts of the United Nations to create a two-state situation, in which the people of Palestine and the people of Israel would share the land, Israelites built – and continue to build – settlements within the Palestinian borders.

Mr. Burnat said Israeli settlements had been built on his small village of Bil’in and other villages around the West Bank. Through the years, he said, more and more land set aside for the Palestinians was confiscated and used to create settlements for the people of Israel. He recounted much of the injustice that the Palestinians continue to face: water diverted to Israeli settlements from Palestinian people; checkpoints established between different parts of Palestinian land, making it difficult for the people to go from one area of their land to another; and violence against those who protested the occupation. These injustices made life difficult for Palestinians, Mr. Burnat explained.

In 2004, Mr. Burnat and others in Bil’in decided to hold nonviolent demonstrations against the occupation every Friday. “People from all over the world join us,” he said. “We use nonviolence in our strategies. We fight with our bodies” rather than with weapons. For example, he said, they have stood in front of bulldozers that were going to destroy part of their land to create the settlements. Sometimes, as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people participate in the demonstrations, he said.

“In spite of the nonviolence of our struggle, we have faced much violence from the Israeli Army from the beginning,” Mr. Burnat said. The army has used teargas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators, among other weapons. He recalled that 2,000 Palestinians – of which 800 were children – had been killed in 2014.

At a more personal level, Mr. Burnat spoke of the different times in which three of his sons had been shot. One of his sons lost his foot because he was not permitted to go to the hospital to have needed surgery. During his own most recent arrest two years ago, Mr. Burnat was attacked by six soldiers and endured two broken ribs, teargas sprayed into his eyes, and 10 hours of pain before he was let go to call an ambulance.

Mr. Burnat continues to focus his efforts on nonviolent demonstrations and on getting the word out about the situation to the rest of the world. “We invite everybody to come and visit us and see the life of the Palestinians, because we believe the internationals have become our messengers,” he said. People from other countries usually attend the weekly demonstrations.

He said that, because of the media, many people in the United States don’t understand the situation fully. “The media want to show the Palestinians as violent,” he said. “Go to the ground. Visit Palestinians. Meet Palestinian people. Taste our food.” He added that people in the United States need to understand that many of the weapons used by the Israeli Army against Palestinians comes from the United States and that – in spite of what the media might say – Palestinians do not want to eradicate the Jewish people.

Asked if the United Nations’ proposal for two states in Palestine was the solution to the violence and injustice, Mr. Burnat said no. “We believe and are working to have one state for everyone to live together in peace, justice, equality, and freedom,” he said. “This is the way we would like it to be. We are not against the Jews or the Christians.”