Cathy Lins, Promoter of Preaching

The Lay Dominicans joined the Friars to promote the work of the Order and soak up the graces of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, IN July 17-21. More than 60,000 Catholics from across the country — clergy, religious, and lay people — participated in the final leg of the nationwide pilgrimage, adoration, daily Masses, workshops, nightly revival sessions, and a final Eucharistic Procession within the city.

During the day, our team interacted with a steady stream of pilgrims.

Fr. Mike Ford, OP, brought the arm of St. Jude to the Expo Hall, distributing blessings to thousands of visitors who venerated the apostolic relic.

Fr. James Pierce Cavanaugh, OP, blessed thousands of rosaries, received pledges for 2,948 rosaries to be prayed throughout the Congress for its success, and, together with our Lay Dominicans, enrolled guests in the Dominican Rosary Confraternity using sign-up sheets and QR codes for all four provinces.

Fr. Cavanaugh noted, "The hall was open from noon to 6:30 p.m. for four consecutive days; during that time, interest in our booth never abated. As people streamed by to pray with St. Jude, we enrolled people in the Rosary Confraternity, shared information about the Dominican Laity, and directed people to our Vocations Booth further down the hall. Through all this, our Lay Dominicans volunteered to distribute rosaries, collect enrollment forms, and hand out pamphlets."

Each night before the revival sessions ended, time was designated for Eucharist Adoration. Each time, silence fell over the crowd of thousands. You could have heard a pin drop. People knew WHO was present.

At the last session, plans were announced for the next Congress in 2033, the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, with possible regional Congresses preceding.

The Congress concluded with a call to continue the revival efforts. The Year of Mission has begun.

Lay Dominicans — where will we take our evangelization efforts from here? We have promotional materials now made — what conferences and events will we go to next? What opportunities will we create to preach the Good News and share the Gospel in our local communities? In our states? In our Province? Across our country?

Let's fan the flame. Holy Father Dominic, pray for us!

Ms. Mary Reinhardt, OP (NM-ABQ)

Recognizing her heroic virtues, the Vatican Congregation of Saints declared American Lay Dominican Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851-1926) to be Venerable on March 14, 2024. 

Rose was the daughter of renowned author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sylvia Peabody. Even though the Hawthornes raised their daughter as Unitarian, Catholicism was exposed favorably to her as a young child when the Church was still distrusted in early America. Between the ages of 2 and 9, Rose and her family toured western Europe while Nathaniel worked as United States consul to England. In Europe, the Hawthornes were assisted by devout Catholic servants. Their faith, as well as seeing Pope Blessed Pius IX during Holy Week in 1858, moved young Rose to consider more.

After the death of her parents, Rose married George Lathrop who pioneered copyright laws in the United States. They loved each other very much and entered the Catholic Church together in 1887. Unfortunately, their strong personalities made their union difficult. So, the couple separated three years before George’s death.

Rose sought deeper purpose in life and was inspired by the Vincentian motto “I am for God and for the poor.” After a dear friend died from cancer, Rose trained as an oncology nurse at New York Cancer Hospital (now Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). At that time, cancer was considered contagious. Most hospitals did not accept cancer patients and families shunned their cancerous loved ones.

Immediately upon graduating nursing school, Rose moved into the slums and ministered to impoverished cancer patients. In the New York Times, she wrote about her plan to care for cancer patients and invited others to join her. A Kentucky physician’s daughter was the first to answer her call. Eventually a Dominican priest encouraged the women to join the Third Order of St. Dominic after he observed their work with the sick poor. Rose and her companions became Tertiaries in 1899. In their ministry, they preached the sanctity of life and the dignity of the poorest of the poor.

As Rose opened homes for impoverished cancer patients, more women joined her efforts. Soon, she founded a congregation of religious sisters focused on the relief of incurable cancer. While leading the community as Mother Mary Alphonsa, Rose established a nursing home in Westchester, NY. Eventually, the area around that home was named Hawthorne. Wearing the Dominican habit, the Sisters were called the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. The Sisters still follow in the footsteps of Rose who cared for impoverished cancer patients right up to the night she died in her sleep in Hawthorne.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Three Received in Iowa

Samantha Fernholz (IA-DES)

JW Erie, Steve Guns, and Tanner Richards of the St. Pius V Associate Fraternity in Des Moines were received into the order on June 1st. The St. Pius V community is an associate fraternity to Holy Rosary in Minneapolis, MN.

Pictured: Mr. Andy Milam, OP, Mrs. Naomi Hard, OP, (MN-MSP President), Mr. JW Erie, OP, (newly received), Mr. Tanner Richards, OP, (newly received), Mr. Steve Guns, OP ,(newly received), Mr. Taylor Fernholz OP, Mrs. Samantha Fernholz, OP, Mrs. Sue Wick (MN-MSP Aspirant Formator).

Reception in Milwaukee

Mary Lee Odders (WI-MIL)

Mr. Andrew Klusman of the Queen of the Rosary Fraternity, Milwaukee, WI, was received into the Order on August 17, as witnessed by President Ms. Susan Henderson, OP; Fr. Leon Martin, SAC; Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary; and Mr. Klusman's wife, Atalie, and son, Roman.

Former Lay Dominican makes First Profession in Cloister

Mary Lee Odders (WI-MIL)

Milwaukee’s Queen of the Rosary Fraternity rejoices in the First Profession of Sister Maria Julia of the Eucharist, OP, at the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Summit, New Jersey, on August 24. Sister Maria Julia, formerly Rebecca Derks, completed her formation with the fraternity as a Lay Dominican before entering the cloister.

The video of Sr. Maria Julia's First Profession may be found at this link. More photos and details of Sister's profession may be found at this link.

Below: Sr. Maria Julia with Miss Sarah Greydanus, OP, a Lay Dominican from the Summit, New Jersey fraternity and college classmate of Sr. Maria Julia. Photo courtesy of Miss Greydanus.