Provincial Council 2023

Behind the scenes at the annual in-person meeting of fraternity delegates

Dear Brothers and Sisters in St. Dominic,

Thirty Lay Dominicans walk into a Franciscan retreat center — it sounds like the opening of a bad joke! But it’s actually the annual in-person meeting of the Provincial Council (PC), the governing body for Central Province Dominican Laity. From September 14-16, delegates from the fraternities — as well as the Executive Council, committee chairs, and several others — gathered for a long weekend at the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Marytown, Illinois.

While this newsletter can’t cover all of the PC’s packed schedule, the goal here is to give you a behind-the-scenes look at this incredibly important annual gathering. Please thank your fraternity delegate the next time you see them — after all the travel, prayers, meetings, discussions, and socialization, we’re all exhausted (especially the introverts!)

Our Province, guided by the Holy Spirit, is undergoing a time of great renewal and growth. I hope that through this edition of Veritas, and the personal reports of each of your delegates, you may share in the encouragement and sense of unity that the Provincial Council was blessed to experience.

N.B.: Slides, documents, etc. will be appended to the minutes of the PC meeting, and are available on our provincial Sharepoint site. Please contact your fraternity's delegate if you would like to access any of the presentations in full.

— Mrs. Rebecca W. Martin, OP

editor@layopcentral.org

Image: The Meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic, Fra Angelico (WikiArt)

What is the Provincial Council, Anyway?

The Provincial Council (PC) is the governing body of the Lay Dominicans within a particular province. It is made up primarily of elected delegates from each fraternity, so that decisions may be made with full representation of the interests of all Lay Dominicans. In addition to the delegates, the chairs of the various committees are also voting members of the Council. The Provincial Executive Council (PEC) leads the full body of the PC, and is made up of the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and DLIPC delegate. The Provincial Promoter, while not a voting member of the PC, is an essential link between the laity and the rest of the Dominican Family.

NB: At the time of the PC meeting, the Central Province was without a Provincial Promoter. However, since then, we are grateful to Fr. Louis Morrone, OP, for reappointing Br. John Steilberg, OP in that role — more details will follow in a later edition of Veritas.

Colorado — Cedaredge

Helen Hawkins, Delegate

Cheryl Riley, Provincial Secretary & Scribe

Renee Valenzuela, Provincial Vice President

Colorado — Denver

Robert Pickering, Delegate

Colorado — Evergreen

Luchie Jones, Delegate

Patricia Stange, Observer

Colorado — Wheat Ridge

Lyna Harritt, Alt Delegate

Illinois — Oak Park

Victor (Rocky) Romano, Delegate

Illinois — River Forest

Mary Foley, Alt Delegate

Illinois — Springfield

Patricia Kloppenburg, Delegate

Indiana — Bloomington

Michael Faris, Delegate

Indiana — Carmel

Lisa Shoemaker, Delegate

Katie Willen, Provincial Archivist

Indiana — Evansville

Tim Martin, Delegate, Provincial Treasurer

Fr. Jim Koressel, Priestly Fraternity of St. Dominic

Indiana — West Lafayette

Kim Padan, Delegate

Jonathan Stahl, DLIPC Delegate

Indiana — South Bend/Michiana

Don Stelluto, Delegate

Kansas — Lawrence

Vincent Francisco, Delegate

Michigan — Ann Arbor

Linda Thompson, Alt Delegate

Mary Schultz, Alt Delegate

Rebecca Martin, Provincial Editor

Gwendolin Weinberger, Provincial President

Michigan — Grand Rapids

Nancy Their, Delegate

Michigan — Lansing

Carol Clack, Delegate

Minnesota — Minneapolis

Eric Barczak, Delegate

Joey Odell, Formation Chair, Tech Coordinator

Missouri — St. Joseph and Kansas City

Tom Smith, Delegate

New Mexico — Albuquerque

Marie Levy Ryan, Delegate

New Mexico — Los Alamos

Chad Meyer, Delegate

Wisconsin — Madison

Cathy Lins, Delegate, Promoter of Preaching

Wisconsin — Milwaukee

Susan Henderson, Alt Delegate

ABSENT

Illinois — Chicago

Alejandra Gallegos, Delegate

Michigan — Bay City

Catherine Moore, Delegate

Michigan — Farmington Hills

Edward Shea, Delegate

Missouri — St. Louis

Dawn Casey, Delegate

National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe at Marytown

For the second consecutive year, the PC gathered at the Conventual Franciscans' beautiful retreat center at Marytown, just north of Chicago. On the same floor as our rooms, we had our own private chapel for prayers and Masses, and a central meeting room for business and socialization. Excellent meals were provided by the friendly kitchen staff of the retreat center, and as true Lay Dominicans, many of us made a secondary "pilgrimage" to the shrine's well-stocked bookstore. Attendees also received after-hours access to the main chapel of the Shrine with 24-hour adoration. This beautiful and comfortable setting is a highlight for PC attendees, and several delegates' spouses joined them to make a personal retreat while the PC met.

Thursday

Confraternity of the

Most Holy Rosary

Each member of the Rosary Confraternity strives to pray the complete Rosary each week (3 Rosaries, 15 decades, not binding under sin), and must have his/her name inscribed in the register of the Confraternity. One must be old enough to understand and fulfull the obligation.

Joining the Rosary Confraternity means that each rosary you pray benefits the entire global Confraternity — and you benefit from the prayers of thousands of fellow members the world over. Pope Leo XIII stated in his apostolic constitution on the Confraternity, “whenever a person fulfills his obligation of reciting the Rosary according to the rule of the Confraternity, he includes in his intentions all its members, and they in turn render him the same service many times over” (Ubi Primum 1898, 1). In addition, a number of indulgences are attached to the Confraternity, which has been entrusted to the Order of Preachers for centuries

Enroll in the Rosary Confraternity

Thursday began early with an impromptu Mass for the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Fr. James Pierce Cavanaugh, OP, needed to celebrate his daily Mass, and took advantage of the private chapel. Those who had already arrived were able to participate, which was a lovely way to start the weekend.

After dinner and Evening Prayer, attendees gathered for a brief talk by Fr. James Pierce, who is the Central Province promoter of the Rosary Confraternity. Fr. James Pierce gave us an overview of the nature of the Confraternity, and his efforts at rekindling participation. He asked for the assistance of the Lay Dominicans in promoting the Confraternity, beginning with our fraternities and parishes, and for financial support as well. There is a great deal of work to be done, and the Lay Dominicans ought to participate whole-heartedly.

N.B. Veritas will invite Fr. James Pierce to provide more information on the nature and needs of the Confraternity for the December issue.

We also welcomed delegates from three vibrant, newly-formed fraternities: Evergreen, Colorado; South Bend, Indiana; and Lawrence, Kansas. Please keep them in your prayers — the spirit of St. Dominic is alive and well in each one! Thursday evening wrapped up with a community rosary and some social time, including a well-stocked snack table.

Friday

On Friday, the real work of the PC began — bright and early, with 7:00 AM Morning Prayer and Mass. (The PC weekend is not for the faint of heart...it's long hours and lots of work!) Provincial President Gwen Weinberger officially opened the PC with a brief ceremony, which included the collective renewal of our Profession. The following prayer, full of material for meditation, preceded the renewal:

"Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord: the Word of God calls us out of darkness into the light of Truth. With the confidence of God's children, let us ask the Lord to renew within us the promises we made when we embraced the Dominican way of life, and ask the Lord to strengthen us in our commitment."

The renewal of Profession provided a foundation for our proceedings, a reminder of who we are and why we were present together. It served as a transition from the busyness of our everyday lives and the bustle of travel, into these days of service and conversation.

Secretary Presentation

Provincial Secretary Cheryl Riley asked for review and approval of the 2022 PC minutes, which were approved with only a few minor changes. Cheryl gave a brief presentation on the secretary's form that has been distributed to fraternities. She emphasized a few essential points:

The secretary form serves as essential record-keeping at the fraternity level. Every fraternity should be keeping a set of archives, including minutes from every meeting as well as data for each member. Your fraternity's history is part of the province's history, which is part of the history of the whole Order of Preachers. If you don't tell your story, no-one else will.

There have been occasions where issues with a particular fraternity might have been alleviated if the PC had received insight into how those issues developed, and if good written records had been kept rather than sharing only verbal information. The requested level of detail isn't just the PC being nosy; it's an essential tool for good communication within our Dominican family.

Minutes also have a broader community impact: when you write down and share what you're doing at your fraternity, there's the possibility of others learning from your methods. One fraternity's approach to a topic or concern can help others address the same topic or concern. Another fraternity can draw inspiration from your fraternity's unique approach.

The editor of Veritas also relies on well-kept minutes to pull together the quarterly newsletter.

Dominican Democracy

Next, Provincial Vice-President Renee Valenzuela gave an excellent presentation on the nature of Dominican governance, and the work of the PC Governance Committee. PC delegates were reminded that together, they form the governing body of the Central Province Lay Dominicans. Renee reminded us that the PC exists within the framework and history of Dominican democracy, which is profoundly different from civil democracy. Renee compared the political atmosphere of democracy to "two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for lunch" and explained that Dominican democracy is governance through a body that debates and discusses for the good of the whole order, especially within our province.

As a province of Lay Dominicans, we are autonomous — it is not the friars' responsibility to govern us. At the same time, we're not an island, making up our own rules as we go along. The efforts of the Governance Committee are not to shape the Central Province into any particular other province. Rather, we are trying to come into true compliance with all that the Order of Preachers requires. Ultimately, each one of us should know how to live as a Dominican no matter where we go in the world.

This year, the committee produced four documents. The first is a note to the friars to explain what we need from a Religious or Spiritual Assistant. The other three are pieces of the Particular Directory:

Leadership in the Province
Leadership in the Fraternity
Dispensations

Note on Fraternity Document Review

When documents are submitted to the Provincial Council and through them, to the fraternities, for review, some comments are helpful and some are not. Keep in mind that the Provincial Directory as a whole will be proofread before it is finalized, so nitpicking about typos is simply a waste of time at this level of document review, especially given that the document will likely go through further changes after feedback is received.

If you (individually or as a fraternity) have a concern with an item or the way a point is articulated, please both explain the nature of your concern AND propose an alternative. This might be as simple as suggesting a different word or phrase, or as complex as thinking through a different way of addressing the topic. Make your comments productive, not destructive — and please return all comments by the requested deadline so that all parties involved can keep the process on track.

Treasurer's Report

Tim Martin, recently appointed our Provincial Treasurer, gave delegates an update on the finances of the province. He is working to organize our banking for improved transitions to future treasurers. Tim shared about the work of economist Dr. Jacob Imam, who speaks and writes on Christian investing. Tim hopes to arrange a virtual presentation from Dr. Imam as we discern how best to deal with our investment funds.

Communications Committee Presentation

Your friendly local editor, Rebecca Martin, got two hours right after lunch to hold the PC spellbound (or frozen in boredom, depending on how you look at it.) The salient points

The communications committee has expanded to include Cheryl Riley, Prov. Secretary; Cathy Lins, Promoter of Preaching; and Kathryn Willen, Prov. Archivist. We are still in need of a Promoter of Vocations.

The scope and impact of our communications work has to be focused first on serving our existing Central Province Lay Dominicans; next on the global Dominican family; then on prospective Lay Dominicans; and finally on the evangelization efforts of the whole church.

We have sent a total of 6,300 individual emails since the launch of Veritas in 2022. Of the sent emails, 74% were actually opened. This is an excellent statistic, but still needs to be monitored. The number of recipients has grown from under 300 to nearly 500 in 18 months.

In addition to making sure everyone is receiving and reading Veritas, we also want to make sure that everyone is comfortable contributing both as individuals and as fraternities. We clarified that an individual does not require permission from fraternity leadership in order to submit a contribution.

The committee is working on a number of projects, including some necessary governance documents and a communications policy. Stay tuned for some special issues of Veritas going forward.

We are developing a survey to gather information from Veritas subscribers, and hope to send it by the end of the year.

There is a lot of work to be done on the website, more than a volunteer could manage. The committee proposes to hire a freelancer to build out the website over several months, and once it has been improved, search again for a volunteer webmaster to maintain it.

A good deal of time was spent discussing the Communications Policy, which will provide guidelines for members and fraternities in their development of print and digital resources. This fall, the draft policy will be sent to delegates to share with their fraternities.

Joey Odell and Renee Valenzuela helped delegates access the files stored in our central SharePoint database. "It's on SharePoint" became the theme of the PC meeting... :D

In Memoriam

On Friday evening, we celebrated a brief memorial service and rosary for our Lay Dominican brothers and sisters who passed away in 2023. Each fraternity delegate brought a candle to the altar in honor of the deceased individual(s) from his or her fraternity.

Saturday

Formation

The work of the formation committee over the past year has been focused on preparing a handbook for formation directors, equipping them with the guidelines and information needed to form new Lay Dominicans.

Special Note

The three levels of formation are as follows. Please note that the old wording of "Initiate, Candidacy 1, Candidacy 2" are no longer to be used.

Inquiry/Inquirer — formation up until Reception into the Order
Candidacy/Candidate — from Reception until Temporary Profession
Temporary Profession/Temporarily Professed — from Temporary Profession until Perpetual Profession

Liturgy

Tom Smith, our provincial liturgist, shared the work of the liturgy committee. This has been focused on developing working ceremonials for fraternity life (reception, profession, etc.) and developing the provincial necrology. Helen Hawkins created a simple book of prayers which she shared with the delegates.

Chad Myers motioned to make the working ceremonials the norm for fraternity use until they are finalized, allowing fraternities to also provide feedback while they "test-drive" the ceremonies. The motion was seconded and passed.

New Promoter of Preaching

Cathy Lins, newly-appointed Promoter of Preaching, delighted the PC with her contagious enthusiasm for the project before her. Cathy shared her own vocation story as a Lay Dominican, then laid out a road map for 2023-2024. Her five points included the questions she would like to ask and steps she'd like to take with the goal of helping fraternities develop their preaching skills:

1) Where are we?

2) What do we have to work with?

3) What do we want to achieve?

4) Some simple steps to start with

5) A project we can achieve

Cathy has a great deal of experience in non-profit work, and explained some of the training and grants that might be available to us. She intends to attend the various Dominican preaching conferences, and bring back action items for the province to benefit from.

Cathy encourages fraternities to reach out to her directly — and as soon as possible — via her email address: preacher@layopcentral.org. She is looking forward to consulting with and serving you.

As Lay Dominicans, we preach from the pulpit of life, through our thoughts, words, and actions.

— Mrs. Lucie Jones, OP

Visit of Prior Provincial, Fr. Louis Morrone, OP

Fr. Louis Morrone, OP, visited the PC on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by his socius, Br. Joe, and Br. John Steilberg, at the time our former provincial promoter (he was reappointed to provincial promoter the weekend after the PC.) We were delighted to get to know Fr. Louis, who was elected prior this summer. The friars mingled with delegates over lunch, and returned to the PC meeting room for a longer visit. Fr. Louis, who previously served as religious assistant for the Evergreen, Colorado fraternity, addressed a few important needs for the province:

The need for strong leadership in the fraternities
The need for religious assistants
The need for good record-keeping
The need for responsible financial management at the fraternity level
The need for solid formation of each individual Lay Dominican

Fr. Louis encouraged fraternities in need of a Religious Assistant to reach out to him directly. It may be possible to have a friar join meetings via Zoom and come to the fraternity in person once or twice a year. He will do his best to help in this matter.

The friars provided guidance on a number of questions raised by delegates.

A group apostolate is an essential priority for each fraternity in order to fulfill the pillars of our Dominican life. If your fraternity hasn't found one, keep working on it. There are many possibilities.
When preparing for elections, it is recommended that fraternities discuss the needs of each position, and discuss possible candidates for that position to discern who would be the best fit for the needs of fraternity governance. It is licit to propose oneself for a position, though without campaigning! Dominican democracy is about service.
If decision-making in the fraternity is proving difficult, work on collectively making smaller decisions and "practicing" for bigger ones. But sometimes the president simply needs to step up to lead, and others need to follow in obedience.
Archives must be kept faithfully, and stored in a reliable place, preferably with digital backups. A process should be in place for passing the records through the generations of the fraternity, and if kept at an individual's home, instructions given to the family for preserving and transferring records in case of death.

The PC would like to express our deep gratitude for the time, attention, and care shown to us by the friars! We look forward to continued fruitful cooperation across the branches of the Dominican family.

Please visit the newly-completed home of our nuns in Girard, Illinois: the Dominican Monastery of Mary the Queen!

Wrapping Up

Our final items included a brief update by Jonathan Stahl, our DLIPC delegate. The Dominican Laity Inter-Provincial Council is made up of delegates from the US and Canadian provinces. On a rotating schedule, a DLIPC delegate serves on the ICLDF, the International Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities. The next ICLDF in-person meeting will be in 2028 or 2029.

The PC continued discussing the various governance documents, with delegates presenting the points raised by their fraternities' discussions. Some changes were proposed, and the documents with changes were ratified by vote.

PC vs. PEC — The governance of the province is in the hands of the fraternity delegates operating as a body. The Executive Council — president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and DLIPC delegate — is elected from among the PC and is entrusted with sensitive or confidential business; setting up new fraternities; paying the bills; etc.

Last but not least, we wished Gwen (pictured, top right) a very happy birthday! Gwen announced the dates for the next years' PC meetings:

Dec. 30, 2023 — Zoom
Mar. 30, 2024 — Zoom
June 29, 2024 — Zoom
Aug. 31, 2024 — Workshops for Fraternity Leadership
Sept. 12-15, 2024 — in-person, Marytown
Nov. 30, 2024 — Zoom

Those who were able to stay through Sunday brunch attended the beautiful Mass at the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, in celebration of the Shrine's 75th anniversary (pictured, below.)

And then everyone went home and took naps (I hope!)