Photo By Michael Alexander

With 55 years of ministry and service in Atlanta among them, Dominican sisters Patricia Caraher, Nora Ryan, and Emeric Bouch are returning to their motherhouse in Sinsinawa, Wis., in the next week or so.

Sister Patricia will continue her passion for social justice ministry, Sister Nora will work in pastoral care with sisters confined to the assisted living quarters at the motherhouse and Sister Emeric, an avid gardener, will help with the gardens around the motherhouse.

The three sisters, wearing colorful corsages, came to the front of the church before the conclusion of the noon Mass on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, and received a special blessing from the clergy and the congregation at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Atlanta, their home parish since residing here.

The celebration for the departing sisters continued in the Katharine Drexel Center after Mass, where well-wishers greeted the sisters, enjoyed refreshments and saw a video presentation of the sisters from over the years.

A proclamation was also presented to the sisters for their decades of “justice witness” to the parish. Our Lady of Lourdes Church will inaugurate an annual lecture on justice in the sisters’ honor.

“This annual event will draw on the rich history of Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters and their associates in advocating for children and the homeless, against the death penalty and human trafficking, for immigrant and women’s rights, against militarism and racism,” said the proclamation. It goes on to say the parish will provide an annual Sinsinawa Dominican travel grant to send a parishioner to a conference on a major justice issue and provide strategies to address that challenge.