Simply translated, the Dominican motto “veritas” means truth. Truth, however uncomfortable it may be, must be pursued.
In 2025, the Dominican Sisters of Peace were awarded for one truth-seeking mission and continued another.
With a team of associates and sisters, Sr. Rosemary conducted research to identify persons enslaved by the Congregation in its early days.
There were enslaved persons brought with the founding members of the Congregation (1822-1865), while in other cases, wealthy supporters and relatives of the nuns “donated” enslaved people to the convents.
“It is painful to bring it up, but if you want to be true and have integrity, then you have to accept the past as best you can understand it,” Sr. Rosemary said.
The research, along with that of two other congregations, won the 2025 Fr. Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Award for Exemplary Church Research, awarded by Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
The research was an opportunity to treat those enslaved by Congregation members with the dignity they deserve. This effort included a moving ceremony and blessing of a monument in 2023 remembering the enslaved men and women.
“We’re going to acknowledge it and know it doesn’t represent who we are now,” Sr. Rosemary.
The search for truth continues with another injustice of America’s past: land stolen from the Native Americans. Sisters Gemma Doll, Susan Leslie, Jane Belanger and Terri Schell are part of a team of six looking into the Congregation’s land in Kansas and its connection to the Kaw Nation.
Justice Promoter Sr. Gemma is from Kansas. She says the search for truth and research into land justice is less about the land itself – the ultimate fate of which is not yet known –and more about the generations of hurt that Pope Alexander VI’s Doctrine of Discovery left in its wake. This decree legitimized the seizure of Indigenous lands and the subjugation of Indigenous populations.
“We are intentionally working with the Kaw Nation to really get to know each other better,” she said. “We want to know understand their dreams, for them to understand our dreams, and to explore how we might work better together.”
Sr. Susan Leslie answered the question many have when looking into wrongdoings from hundreds of years ago – why bother?
“It’s all about right relationship,” Sr. Susan said. “It goes back to Genesis. Am I my brother or my sister’s keeper? We are all of the same creator, even if our religious beliefs or systems aren’t the same. It’s about righting a wrong.”
The Land Justice Futures Committee, which also includes Sr. Claire McGowan, OP, and Julie Laudick, OPA, wrapped up a two-year process of meeting and study. The work toward right relationship continues.