November 2022

As I was leaving, I walked by a car with several people standing by it. One young man wanted to let me know that he heard some of what we were saying during the vigil. I could see that it was important for him to tell me the name of a young relative murdered in Dayton several years ago. I think he was comforted by my listening to him and offering support and prayers. That was an added and unexpected benefit of the vigil.

I walked on to our car and passed the House of Bread, co-founded by Sister Dorothy Kammerer, CPPS. Our car was in the parking lot of Catholic Social Services, which also has past and current connections to our Congregation. It was definitely a CPPS kind of day!

In slider above and at right, Homicide vigil in Dayton, Ohio, on October 8, 2022; Michelle Bodine photos.

One of the core activities that the SOAP Project has been undertaking is to visit motels informing the employees how to detect when human trafficking is occurring. We also give them small bars of soap and makeup remover that are labeled with the national anti-human trafficking hotline number. Over the years, Precious Blood Sisters have assisted SOAP with labeling thousands of bars of soap.

SOAP’s Dayton chapter is planning to have a concerted effort to visit motels on March 4, before the 2023 NCAA Tournament First Four basketball games. Several weeks ago, some volunteers took a Human Trafficking 101 class to prepare. Jen and some Sisters also gathered with other volunteers for a short session and visited a few motels.

For me, the most satisfying part of this process is a return visit to the motels. Many times, we hear success stories about women who used the phone number on the bar of soap to call the hotline and escape trafficking. Also, it is gratifying to hear how the employees and managers have become much more aware of the problem and gratefully receive our material. Since we did not visit motels during the COVID outbreak, there are boxes of labeled soap ready to be distributed that were prepared by the Sisters and other volunteers years ago.

The Dayton SOAP chapter is affiliated with Abolition Ohio, founded in 2010 through the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton. Abolition Ohio has about 30 members and takes a holistic approach to prevent human trafficking. The SOAP Project is just one of the many aspects by which they are doing this. The Sisters of the Precious Blood have been associated with Abolition Ohio since the beginning, trying to fulfill our mission to “be a life-giving, reconciling presence” to victims as well as to the volunteers.

Recently about 20 Sisters became prayer partners with women who are trying to escape trafficking and begin recovery. This is coordinated through the organization Dear Dinah, another affiliate with Abolition Ohio that is engaged with the women who wish to recover from trafficking. It is heartening to know that through the collaboration between these affiliates and law enforcement, human trafficking has decreased considerably in the Dayton area.

In slider above, Peg Birkemeyer, along with Sisters Mary Ann Mozser, Arlene Hirsch and Rita Rogier, apply labels to the bars of soap and makeup remover; at right, Sisters Arlene, Mary Ann and Rita; Jen Morin-Williamson photos.

PBS has produced a recent riveting documentary capturing the stories of this slow-moving trauma of gun violence and the reality of how it changes each of us in fundamental ways.

Watch Ricochet: An American Trauma, a PBS NewsHour special report, online for free.

Laudato si’ (On Care for our Common Home), the second encyclical of Pope Francis, was published in 2015. In it, the pope laments environmental degradation and global warming and calls all people of the world to take unified global action. It presents a challenge for all of us to consider in a radical way how our future on this planet will be determined by the manner in which we treat all of creation.

In response to this call from our pope, we Sisters of the Precious Blood have taken some action for the good of our environment. During our Assembly of 2019, we created several directive statements, which animate us to live Gospel values in our present world. One statement is “We continue and expand our efforts regarding care of our endangered earth.”

Our Congregation’s Justice Committee, of which I am a member, raises awareness and strives to challenge people to think, judge and act for the common good of society. We are grateful to our U.S. Congress for creating laws to care for our earth and to our pope for challenging all of us humans to care for our earth. However, it is we, the people, who must act.

What will you do for our environment? How will you address climate change? What will you do to care for our earth?

Decades of public and Catholic education did not impact the story I was taught and continued to tell myself, which I passed on to my children. Then in graduate school, I started learning about racism and the history that I’d never learned. I realized that I had missed a lot. I began being very intentional about broadening my perspective and educating myself through reliable, scholarly sources. I began being very attentive to how I referred to people, taking into account their preferences. And I discovered that what I had learned all those years ago may not be respectful — or accurate.

I can be intentional in changing my mindset and educating myself about history and culture. One good first step has been to understand that each tribe prefers to be addressed by its tribal nation name, such as the Delaware Tribe of Indians; the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma; or the Great Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Nation. If I don’t know the specific nation name, I can use “American Indian” or “Native American” — never simply “Indian,” which refers to the peoples and cultures of the South Asian nation of India. And even these general terms are inadequate for some and evolving. Or, if I am speaking with a Native person, I may ask them their preference.

If you are interested in learning more, take some time to read “American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving” from the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Here is the link.

Thank you to Patricia Dixon — a former member of the Congregation who is also a member of the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians and professor emerita of American Indian Studies, History, and American Studies at Palomar College — for providing cultural and historical insight. Thank you also to Sister Mary Yarger, CPPS, for connecting us with Ms. Dixon.

In slider above, Sisters Terry Walter and Joyce Kahle at the water pump in Guatemala; contributed photo. At right, The First Thanksgiving painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.