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Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

September 22, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, the Leadership Council issued the following statement on the occasion of the International Day of Peace.

We invite all people of goodwill to join us this International Day of Peace in calling on President Trump and our elected leaders in Congress to exert the formidable influence of the United States in helping to bring peace and stability to our troubled world.

Our hearts ache for our suffering kin in the Holy Land. More than 60,000 Palestinians, including 18,000 children, have been killed since the start of the brutal Israeli war in Gaza. The war is a response to the horrific Hamas-led attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 251, including 30 children. Today, Hamas still holds 48 men and women in cruel hostage – and last week Israeli forces launched a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City, an area with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including children weakened by hunger, acute malnutrition, and disease resulting from unconscionable restrictions on humanitarian aid. Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Matthew 19:14)

In the face of such unutterable human suffering, especially among innocent children, we believe as women of faith that it is a moral imperative to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war. We urge President Trump and Members of Congress to exert all the influence the United States has to forge peace through our diplomacy and economic power – bringing about an end to the savage conflict and the return of all hostages.

We also call on President Trump and Members of Congress to impose harsh sanctions on Russia to pressure it into ending its criminal war of aggression against Ukraine, which it continues to escalate with massive drone and missile assaults against civilian targets. Since Russia began its unlawful invasion in February 2022, more than 13,880 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including at least 726 Ukrainian children. In the lasttwo weeks, Russian aircraft have also provocatively violated Polish and Estonian airspace, with a Russian drone incursion into Poland that Polish and NATO forces scrambled to shoot down.

Please join us in calling on our elected leaders to do all they can to help bring peace to these and other warring places in our world. Let us do all we can to live in peace. And let us work hard to build up one another. (Romans 14:19)

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The theme this year for the UN’s International Day of Peace is “Act Now for a Peaceful World.” It marks 80 years since the United Nations was established in 1945, in the wake of World War II, to maintain global peace and security and promote international cooperation. This year the World Economic Forum cites state-based armed conflict as the top risk in its 2025 Global Risks Report. Observing this year’s theme, UN Secretary General António Guterres stated that “peace doesn’t happen by accident. It is forged.” He said: "Peace is the most powerful force for a better future – and it is within our grasp if we choose it.”

The Leadership Council is comprised of 11 Sisters, including Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Peg Albert, OP, Chapter Prioress; Peggy Coyne, OP, Chapter Prioress; Sara Fairbanks, OP, Mission Prioress; Durstyne Farnan, OP, Mission Prioress; Pat Leonard, OP, Chapter Prioress; Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor; Lorraine Réaume, OP, General Councilor; Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor; and Mary Soher, OP, Mission Prioress.

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?”