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

July 20, 2017, Orlando, Florida – Sister Lorene Heck, OP, Chapter Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Dominican West Chapter, was one of 4,500 Catholic leaders invited to attend the July 1-4, 2017, Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America. Sister Lorene represented Region XV of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

The U.S. Bishops convened the convocation in response to Pope Francis’ call in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) “to embark on a new chapter of evangelization marked by the joy of the Gospel” and to form others as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. The bishops invited key leaders from dioceses, apostolates, movements, and Catholic organizations such as the LCWR. 

“I was grateful for the opportunity to attend,” Sister Lorene said. “I became more aware of the numerous Catholic organizations and movements and gained an increased awareness of the wide range of viewpoints within the Church in the United States.”

Sister Lorene said key objectives of the convocation were to equip and re-energize leaders to share the Gospel as missionary disciples and to provide leaders with key insights from their participation in a strategic conversation about the U.S. Catholic Church’s current challenges and opportunities. The pope is calling Catholics to go beyond “mere administration” to a missionary conversation, she said.

The convocation considered four key questions:

1. What is the nature of this current historical moment in the Church and in our nation?
2. How do we respond to this moment as missionary disciples?
3. Where are we called to go and to whom are we being sent?
4. What will we do when we get there? How will we engage the mission?

The convocation helped participants to answer those questions during plenary sessions around the themes of unity, landscape and renewal, work and witness, and a Spirit of Mission. Some 22 breakout sessions helped participants to go deeper into exploring these themes, and panel discussions provided the opportunity for delegates to set the context and guide the conversation. Sister Lorene attended a gathering of LCWR delegates, as well as breakout sessions on International Solidarity, Living in the Margins in our Country and our World, and Missionary Disciples in Solidarity with the Suffering Church.

Sister Lorene said she was especially excited to note that the vast majority of delegates were lay leaders in the Church, “dedicated, committed disciples.” She believes the greatest challenge for the delegates is “to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by the joy of the Gospel – to become ever more, and to form others as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ.”

Submitted by Sister Lorene Heck, OP