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November 26, 2025, Detroit – About 40 Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates and interested community members spent the weekend of October 31-November 1, 2025, immersed in the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. 

The Selma Retreat – organized by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Diversity Enactment Circle and offered through Weber Retreat and Conference Center – included a screening of the film Selma, dinner, group discussion of the film on Friday, and a visit to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit on Saturday. The program was designed to honor the 60th anniversary of the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights advocates who sought the guaranteed right to vote for African Americans.

The retreat was an opportunity for Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates to live out the Congregation’s Diversity Enactment, which commits to “acknowledge and repent of our complicity in the divisions prevalent in our Church and our world; act to dismantle unjust systems; and build the beloved community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate.”

“Everyone who was involved appreciated the opportunity, the discussions, and in that I think there’s a growth – whatever growth that might be,” said Sister Janice Brown, OP, who helped to organize the retreat. “It was different for each person, but I think everyone left holding something new in their heart.” 

“We continue to work toward and understand what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God, and that life – humanity and [all of] creation – has a certain dignity,” Sister Janice said. “That’s what Martin Luther King focused on, and he didn’t do it alone.”

Sister Patricia McDonald, OP, helped organize the retreat. “We wanted to help people become aware of the injustices some people have to deal with,” she said. She added that the retreat was a “good reinforcement” of what she had learned as a history teacher and historian. “I’ve always looked at civil rights as an area of study,” she said. “It’s a social justice issue, and the African-American population has been treated so unjustly.” 

The Selma Retreat was not Sister Pat’s first study of the civil rights movement. She participated in an April 2019 civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama with seven other Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates and members of the First Presbyterian Church in Tecumseh, Michigan. “What hit me was to be physically in the space and to walk the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and to know that that was where African Americans were beaten,” she said.

Both experiences reinforced for Sister Pat the awareness of the racial injustice still found in the United States. “Our rules are not fair,” she said. “It instills in me the responsibility we have to be just and … to have a social consciousness. What struck me is the need to change unjust rules, practices, and laws that exist in our democracy.”

Sister Nancyann Turner, OP, was especially impressed by the integration of the civil rights advocates’ faith with their actions. “Hopefully, that foundation and integration is part of all that we are about.” 

Sister Nancyann also admired the courage and persistence of the civil rights activists. “I have not yet had to put my life on the line for my beliefs, but I surely hope I would be willing to,” she said. “I lament with so many people today and I surely want to walk with them in hope.” 

Sister Janet Wright, OP, said she was jolted when walking into the museum. “Some of the fear and anxiety came back for a few minutes,” as she recalled original intense feelings in 1965 during the Selma March. “Some of our Sisters wanted very much to go to Selma but couldn’t,” she said. 

In general, Sister Janet said, the retreat “has given me a renewed and more informed awareness of the courage of all involved in civil rights and voting rights.”

Sister Janice believes the call of civil rights activists 60 years ago is still ringing today. “We are called to stand up for one another,” she said. “We are called to speak truth to power and to do that in a way that is respectful. We’re part of a larger body of Christ, and we’re called to [speak out] for one another.”

 

Caption for above feature photo: Participants in during the second day of the October 31-November 1, 2025, Selma Retreat pose in the foyer of the Charles Wright Museum of African American History.

January 17, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – The Leadership Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters issued the following statement in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both pending in the U.S. Senate.

As women of faith who believe that all of us were created equal in the image of God, we call on the U.S. Senate to take immediate action to enact the two voting rights measures now pending. Nothing could more justly commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day than passage of legislation ensuring that all citizens of voting age are free to exercise their constitutional right to vote. 

The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy. It should not be dependent on political party, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, or economic status. As a nation blessed by people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, including descendants of people who were sinfully enslaved for 12 generations, we are a multiracial democracy. As Dr. King once said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” 

We are in the same blessed boat and we believe that our differences are a gift from God that we are called to honor, respect and value. We call on the Senate to take whatever steps are necessary to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which would prevent partisan gerrymandering and make it easier to register and vote, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore protections in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the vast majority of Congress has continued to reauthorize in bipartisan support until recently. 

As Dr. King once said, “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.… This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Leadership Council, led by Prioress Patricia Siemen, OP, are Sisters Peggy Coyne, OP, Chapter Prioress; Joy Finfera, OP, Secretary; Judy Friedel, OP, Chapter Prioress; Elise D. García, OP, General Councilor; Patricia Harvat, OP, General Councilor; Mary Jane Lubinski, OP, Mission Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, Administrator and General Councilor; Mary Margaret Pachucki, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; Mary Priniski, OP, Chapter Prioress; Mary Soher, OP, Mission Prioress; and Sharon Spanbauer, OP, Mission Prioress. Sister Rosita Yaya, OP, also serves on the Leadership Council as Chapter Prioress in the Philippines.