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By Rebecca Ford

 

This article was previously published in Grains of Wheat 36(4) Winter 2008-09, pgs 4-5.

 

For more than a decade, Dominican Sisters across the country have been talking about ways to collaborate with each other in order to improve their missionary efforts. At first, there were just four congregations involved in the conversation. Over time, other U.S. Dominican congregations joined the discussion until there were 13 congregations sitting at the table, including the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend.

   In 2003 and 2004, several of these Dominican congregations began to commit themselves to exploring the possibility of an even closer union, though at the time, no one knew what that closer union would look like. Again, the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend chose to be part of the new “cluster” discussion. Other congregations included the Dominicans of St Catharine KY, Dominican Sisters of St Mary of the Springs in Columbus OH, Dominican Sisters of St Mary and the Eucharistic Missionaries of St Dominic in New Orleans LA, Dominican Congregation of St Rose of Lima in Oxford MI, and the Sisters of St Dominic of Akron OH.

 

Searching Questions

Sr Margaret Ormond from Columbus OH, who was the Coordinator of Dominican Sisters International, was invited to address the new cluster of congregations about their future and about the possibilities that they were considering. As Sr Margaret journeyed around the world, she wrote a series of four letters over the course of almost four months, in which she raised thought-provoking questions for the Dominican sisters to consider.

   From Palestine she began, “[Jesus’] life was about saying: ‘I CARE,’ even to the point of death . . . . How is this cluster going to strengthen our primary vocation to care—to care for our Earth, for our planet, for our sisters and brothers, especially the poor? Will this cluster enable us to combine ideas and resources so as to care more for our planet and the people in it? Will this cluster enable us to streamline our internal operations so as to focus more of our attention outward and not on ourselves?”

   From England, Sr Margaret continued her questioning with a quote from Thomas Merton: “‘The rush and pressure of the modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.’ Can the cluster help us deal with this violence that seems to be controlling our lives? . . . . Contemplation is the sine qua non of Dominican life. It is integral to our Dominican Mission and foundational to the Holy Preaching . . . . Can the cluster insist that we grab hold more steadfastly to this pillar of our Dominican life? If the cluster is only going to multiply meetings, place more demands on us, carry us away with conflicting concerns that will not advance our Dominican Mission in the Church, then let’s forget about it. But if this cluster is going to reinforce our contemplative call and help us to find ways to simplify our busy lives, then we must say YES because our world is waiting, really pleading for such a contemplative witness.”

   From Rome, Sr Margaret asked the sisters to broaden their sense of family, neighbor, and freedom. “We can connect with people the world over and feel their pain and tears as if it was our own. Are we willing to add these faces to our family album and allow these people to inhabit our hearts? Without such links in our globalized world, our sisters and brothers in the developing world will not survive and our planet won’t either . . . . How is this cluster going to help us open our hearts and minds so that we can extend our mission beyond the confines of our local world and church and address seriously the impact of globalization on our lives and ministries?”

   Broadening one’s sense of family and neighbor requires a bit of detachment, Sr Margaret explained. “Our brother, Albert [Nolan] makes it very relevant when he talks about detachment as freedom, not held down in chains or enslaved. He gives us a list of possible things that might be enslaving us: ‘Some of us are attached to the past—practices, customs and big numbers of the past. Some are attached to their works—their apostolates, ministries, parishes or schools. Then there are those who are attached to their particular religious congregation or province—with its history and customs. Often we are deeply attached to our reputations . . . . Perhaps we have become obsessed with tidiness, orderliness, cleanliness or our privacy . . . . Are we willing to let go of our own congregations, as we now know them, only to create one with sisters who will re-member us along national, continental and international lines for the sake of our common mission? Our globalized world requires different links, different structures, different family photos.”

   Finally, Sr Margaret asked the sisters to consider their life styles. “Dominic insisted . . . . that the friars embrace mendicancy . . . . to ensure the witness of simplicity of life and to help the ‘poor who are perishing’. . . . As citizens of the richest country in the world, we as North Americans, are spoiled. And this reality is very bad for us because it makes people, especially the poor, invisible . . . . Many of us are clueless regarding the realities that 80% of our sisters and brothers face every day. We are prone to comfort and we are losing contact with the real world . . . . Can the cluster help us to be counter-cultural in this regard, and make us open-eyed and critical about our own life styles? Will the cluster encourage us along the path of simplicity? . . . . Can we find the support and strength we need to become more uncomfortable with the policies in our congregations, culture and world that exalt comfort as a false sense of security? Can we challenge each other to become more uncomfortable with the things of this world?”

   “Only if this cluster makes a difference in our Order and in our world, in concrete and transformational ways,” Sr Margaret cautioned, “can we justify the expense of time and talent and treasure.”

 

The Birth of a New Congregation

For the next two years, inspired by Sr Margaret’s call to a renewed commitment to care, to pray, to love neighbor as self, and to live in unencumbered freedom and simplicity, the cluster of seven Dominican congregations continued to visit together, and as separate congregations, about their visions and hopes for the future.

   Finally, throughout the spring of 2007, each of the seven congregations voted to proceed with the collaborative work of becoming one new congregation. Their decision was affirmed by the Holy See a few months later with a letter of approval from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on November 7, 2007—the Feast of All Dominican Saints.

   As of 2008, the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend are pleased to announce that the name of their new congregation will be Dominican Sisters of Peace with civil incorporation in Kentucky, and headquarters in Columbus OH where offices will be located for leadership, finance, mission advancement (communication and development), information technology, and human resources. The Founding date and celebration for the new congregation will be during Easter of 2009.

 

Kentucky Roots

Becoming part of the new congregation of Dominican Sisters of Peace connects the sisters in Great Bend KS to the very first Foundation of U.S. Dominicans that began in Kentucky  on Easter Sunday in 1822. In those early years, Edward Dominic Fenwick and Samuel Thomas Wilson OP wanted to begin a uniquely American order of Dominicans. They asked women in the church to consider becoming Dominican Sisters. Nine women, all born in America, stepped forward, including Angela Sansbury, who is now considered the foundress of the Dominican Sisterhood in the U.S. These first nine sisters lived in a log cabin, and went to work starting their first school, St Magdalene Academy.

   Not long after, the then Bishop Fenwick OP of Cincinnati asked that some of the sisters in Kentucky come to minister in Ohio. Four sisters left for Somerset OH in 1830, including Mother Angela’s sister, Sr Benvin Sansbury who was recently named one of Ohio’s outstanding women of the 19th century by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. In Ohio, the sisters founded one of the first Catholic schools, St Mary’s Academy. Eventually, it was the bitter struggle over slavery that would form the backdrop for the sisters’ educational efforts. Ohio, an anti-slavery state, was a destination for escaped slaves through the underground railroad, not to mention home for three of the Union’s top generals. Ohio had reason to celebrate their Union victory in 1865, along with the fourteenth amendment that later gave blacks the right to vote. But for the sisters in Ohio, it was a sad year as a fire destroyed their school in 1866. Two years later, the sisters traveled by covered wagon to rebuild St Mary’s Academy in Columbus OH.

   While the Dominican Sisters of St Mary of the Springs were becoming established in Columbus, the first immigrant Dominican sisters began arriving in the U.S.  Four Dominicans from Holy Cross Monastery in Regensburg, Germany arrived in New York City in 1853. They were given shelter in the rectory basement of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where they took charge of the parish school within a week. They became known as the Amityville Dominicans. Another band of Irish Dominican immigrants, led by Mother Mary John Flanagan, arrived in the bustling port city of New Orleans LA in 1860 to start a new foundation among the unique mix of French, Spanish and African cultures that was forming in the area. It was an Irish pastor who requested the Dominican sisters’ presence, and after teaching in the parish school for a year, the sisters started St Mary’s Academy which still flourishes today.

   The Amityville Dominican ministries continued to respond to the explosive growth of Brooklyn NY throughout the 1850s, followed by U.S. expansion into the western territories. At first, the sisters’ expansion was limited to the upper midwest. In 1869, the first group of Amityville Dominicans traveled to Newburgh NY to start a new congregation. From Newburgh, still another group of sisters travelled to Caldwell NJ to respond to the needs of the West, especially the schools of northeastern Ohio. By 1929, a new congregation of Dominican sisters, led by Mother Beda Schmid, began in Akron OH. Known as the “Rubber Capital of the World,” Akron was the destination for many of the immigrants who were coming to work in the rubber plants.

   In 1902, another nine Amityville sisters left Brooklyn NY for Great Bend KS under the leadership of Mother Antonina Fisher. With the Kansas-Nebraska Act that opened up new territories in 1854, and the Homestead act that granted free land in 1862, settlers and pioneers flooded west where education and health care was scarce. The sisters opened St Mary’s Academy first. But the demand for a hospital was so great, they also sent for sister nurses from New York and opened St Rose Hospital in 1903.

   Finally, four more immigrant Dominican sisters arrived from Repcin Czechoslovakia in 1913 at the request of a priest who wanted their help with the missionary efforts in his Pennsylvannia parish. When other women wanted to join their effort, the sisters traveled to Detroit to seek financial assistance. Following Wilbur and Orville’s first flight in Ohio in 1903, and the first Model- T in 1908, Detroit held many fresh possibilities for ministering among the people who worked in the factories, auto plants, steel mills, and gravel mines. Father Zalibera invited the sisters to teach. They continued to maintain contact with their Dominican sisters in Czechoslavakia until difficult communications throughout WWII forced them to officially separate and form their own Dominican Congregation of St Rose of Lima in Oxford MI.

   Throughout the 1920s, there were also two women who ministered in the New Orleans area without any affiliation with the Dominican Order—at least not to start with. Catharine Bostick and Margaret Grouchy lived and prayed together and from their devotion to the Eucharist, they engaged in catechetical and caring outreach. The Archbishop of New Orleans encouraged them to continue, and soon other women arrived to join them. They became known as the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Eucharist. In 1950, they advanced their cannonical status by becoming affiliated with the Dominican Order, at which time they became known as the Eucharistic Missionaries of St Dominic.

 

Common Ministries

Responding to the needs of the American people, the roots of the Dominican Sisters of Peace took about a century to develop. It took almost another 100 years for each of the congregations to develop into maturity, each with their own well established ministries and projects. Today, supported by about 700 sisters and almost 500 associates, the new Dominican Sisters of Peace Congregation will pool these ministries into the primary areas of education, healthcare, housing, spirituality, ecology, and overseas missions.

   Most significantly, and following in the footsteps of St Dominic who valued study, the Dominican Sisters of Peace will sponsor educational opportunities for all ages, including a fully accredited early childcare and pre-school program in Massachusetts, pre-K through 12 schools in Memphis TN and New Orleans, and two college prep high schools for women in New Orleans and New York. For a liberal arts education, the sisters will sponsor St Catharine College in St Catharine KY, Albertus Magnus College in New Haven CT, and Ohio Dominican University in Columbus OH. Finally, for individuals who cannot read or who do not know English, the Sisters will sponsor three adult learning centers in Columbus OH, and New Haven and New Britain CT.

   Mindful of those who are no longer able to care for themselves, or who need assistance with their housing, the Dominican Sisters of Peace will sponsor health care centers in St Catharine KY, Waterford MI, Columbus OH, Richfield OH and New Orleans LA. There is a special Alzheimer’s care unit, assisted-living apartments, and housing for low-income seniors in Waterford MI. And in Great Bend KS, Cedar Park Place will continue to provide housing units for seniors and disabled individuals.

   Also in Great Bend KS, the Heartland Ministries (Heartland Farm, Heartland Center for Spirituality, and the Heartland Center for Wholistic Health) will continue to provide services and resources that are mindful of the relationship  and balance between the earth and the human mind, body, and spirit. Additional retreat centers for the new congregation are located in Ponchatoula LA, Oxford MI, Liebenthal KS, Columbus OH, and Waterford MI. And other very fine ecology centers are located in Plainville MA, St Catharine KY, and Bath and Blacklick OH.

   Most of the Dominican Sisters of Peace can be found in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, Colorado and Illinois, with a few living in other states as well. But they have also branched out beyond U.S. borders with overseas missions in Chimbote Peru and San Pedro Sula Honduras, as well as Nigeria, Africa where a daughter congregation, the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena, carries the fire of St Dominic as well.

   And so, the journey continues: a hundred eighty six years of Dominican presence in the U.S. . . . we are proud to introduce: The Dominican Sisters of Peace!

Introducing the Dominican Sisters of Peace:

A New Congregation of Seven Midwest Dominican Communities