Statement of Adrian Dominican Sisters on Measures Taken to Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19

March 13, 2020, Adrian, Michigan – As U.S. public health officials on March 9 called for stricter measures of social distancing to mitigate the accelerating community spread of COVID-19 in the United States, the Adrian Dominican Sisters took immediate steps to join in the national effort. Effective March 10 through March 31, 2020, the Congregation has suspended:

• all Congregation-related travel as well as meetings, conferences, and gatherings involving travel by its 533 Sisters, 206 Associates and nearly 300 Co-workers;

• personal travel by Sisters to areas where the virus has been reported and participation anywhere in social or other events involving larger groupings of people;

• all workshops and programs sponsored or hosted by Weber Retreat and Conference Center; and

• visits by off-campus guests to the Dominican Life Center of the Motherhouse where the community’s elder members reside.

A task force comprised of the Congregation’s Administrator and lay leaders of the Motherhouse campus are meeting daily to monitor the pandemic and to develop effective mitigation protocols and implement new measures as needed. As conditions warrant, these suspensions may be modified in the coming days and/or extended beyond the end of March.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters join with people around the world in prayer for the victims of the coronavirus, their families, and all healthcare workers who are courageously serving on the frontlines of this pandemic. In their letter to the community announcing this “prudential preventative action,” the five members of the General Council wrote that the measures were being implemented “for the common good of our own community and the larger communities in which we live and serve.”