By Staff Reports
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Women who are discerning a call to religious life as Dominican Sisters are invited to Mr. Lincoln’s Hometown in June for a national event hosted by the Springfield Dominican Sisters.

Applications are being received now, and up to fifteen women will be selected for participation in the event, scheduled for June 16-20. The group will live at Sacred Heart Convent and experience the rhythms of apostolic religious life, which includes community life, prayer, active service, and theological reflection.
Any single Catholic woman age 20-45 who would like to participate is encouraged to apply at springfieldop.org/events.

Local non-profit organizations will provide sites for service activities.

Three additional congregations of Dominican Sisters are also participating: The Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Mich., the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wis., and the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Columbus, Ohio, are co-sponsoring the project. Vocation ministers from each congregation will be present to the participants and animate group activities. Vocation ministers are those who accompany women discerning God’s call to religious life.

“Springfield is a perfect place to give women a taste of the foundations of Dominican life: community life, prayer, study, and preaching, or service.” said Sister Denise Glazik, OP, minister of vocation accompaniment for the Springfield Dominican Sisters. “Our senior sisters at the motherhouse are gracious and welcoming, and the city is home to some stellar nonprofit organizations that will provide a wonderful immersion experience for participants.

“All single Catholic women, 20-45 are welcome to apply – but do it soon!” Sister Denise added. There is a limit to the number of participants who can come.

The $50 participation fee should not be a barrier for any applicant. Scholarships will be available for those who need them.

Why Dominican Life?
The Dominican Sisters hosting the 2026 Summer Immersion Experience are part of a worldwide Dominican family, the Order of Preachers. For more than 800 years, Dominicans have preached the Gospel in word and deed. Today, thousands of Dominican sisters, nuns, priests, brothers, associates and laity minister in more than 100 countries around the world. To learn more about the U.S. Dominicans visit dominicansistersconference.org.

By Simone Orendain

CHICAGO (OSV News) – Easter Triduum visits ended the Lenten season for a small group of Chicago-area religious and clergy who ministered to people in the U.S. without legal authorization that are detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

The same group started the 40-day period of preparation for the Lord Jesus Christ’s passion, death and resurrection with an Ash Wednesday visit to the processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, to bring holy Communion, give ashes and pray with those Catholics being held there.

The visits during the Church’s most sacred period of the year were a result of court orders that compelled the Department of Homeland Security to allow access to members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership. Last year, the Chicago-based Catholic social justice organization tried several times to enter the ICE processing unit but it was turned away each time.

Jesuit Father David Inczauskis was part of the CSPL team of three priests and a religious sister who went inside the Broadview facility on Holy Thursday, April 2.

On April 6, Easter Monday, he told OSV News he was struck when the group first saw those being brought for processing in handcuffs and ankle shackles.

It was the first time Father Inczauskis had encountered detainees in shackles. He has done prison and jail ministry in Peru and Honduras, and also ministered to minors in the U.S. who had been separated from their parents.

“I think to see this was unique, and particularly devastating and dehumanizing,” he said.

Father Inczauskis and another priest who spoke with OSV News described the setting for the pastoral visits. They said the small delegation prayed, read Scripture and gave Communion through a half door in what they described as an “intersection between two long hallways” separated by the door that opened in two halves. They said the 14 people they ministered to on Holy Thursday were brought to the door in two sets of five, and then four.

On the other days of the Triduum, there were far fewer detainees to minister to, sometimes just one or two, they added.

One priest was allowed to wash the shackled feet of the detainees after Father Inczauskis read the Holy Thursday Gospel on the Last Supper. In the reading, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples before going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, where he was then arrested.

The superior of the Claretians’ USA-Canada province, Father Paul Keller, led prayers and the opening and closing blessings. Also on Easter Monday, he described the same look of “shock and disorientation” on the detainees’ faces that he recognized when he was last inside the facility on Ash Wednesday. He noted they were within the very first minutes and hours of being brought in.

“Some people really broke down,” he said. “It was a moment in which they perhaps let out the sadness and frustration that they had been feeling.”

“But then also I got the sense that some of them took the foot washing as a sign of care and humanity in a situation of such dehumanization that this allowed them to experience those emotions of being cared for in this time of great distress,” he told OSV News.

The processing facility is located in Broadview, a suburb about 12.5 miles west of Chicago’s downtown. It was a flashpoint for heated clashes between protesters and ICE personnel at the height of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

CSPL sued for access to the facility in November last year, citing violations of their rights to freely exercise their religion under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

OSV News requested comments from DHS on the recent visits and has not yet received a response.

Among migrants most at risk of arrest and deportation by ICE about 80% are Christian — the majority of them (61%) are Catholic — according to a joint Catholic-evangelical report published by World Relief and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the Northern District of Illinois ordered a preliminary injunction to allow members of CSPL to give ashes and Communion on Ash Wednesday. He also ordered both sides to work out a schedule for future visits and allow religious and lay ministers to once again pray outside the Broadview facility, like they did for years until the immigration crackdown intensified.

In the partial injunction issued March 31 that forced the Triduum visits, Gettleman wrote, “The court finds that the government has substantially burdened plaintiffs’ exercise of religion.”

He noted, “The court also agrees with plaintiffs that the injunction is in public interest. Allowing plaintiffs to provide pastoral care to migrants and detainees will improve the condition of those detained at Broadview.”

Gettleman reiterated the need for both sides to schedule further, regular visits and prayer just outside Broadview facility, within view of the detainees. A status hearing was scheduled for April 7.

Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, CSPL’s executive director, told OSV News the Triduum and Easter visits were a “profoundly moving and stirring experience … for not only our ministers who entered, but the communities that surrounded those ministers with prayer.”

“And for our siblings, who are detained and their families,” he said, “it brought some comfort and consolation in a period of profound darkness.”

(Simone Orendain is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Chicago.)

By Katie Yoder

(OSV News) – Drawing inspiration from St. Carlo Acutis, a national shrine in Wisconsin is inviting Catholics to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States this summer by joining in prayer and learning about the holy men and women of America.

“They founded schools, cared for the sick, served the poor, and witnessed to the Gospel through lives of sacrifice, service and unwavering love for Jesus Christ,” said Father of Mercy Anthony Stephens, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. “Their example shows us what it truly means to be a faithful Catholic and to be American.”

Scheduled for July 1-9, “Catholic Saints of America” will feature a special novena, an exhibit honoring Americans who are saints or on the path to sainthood, and an opportunity to venerate their relics. The relics or remains of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Blessed Solanas Casey and Blessed Stanley Rother will be among those on display.

All this is taking place on the site of the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States.

“First, through this novena and exhibit, we hope people will come to learn about the canonization process,” Father Stephens told OSV News. “Next, we want to help people discover those who may one day be declared saints. Finally, we can help introduce people to a new devotion that inspires them to grow closer to Christ.”

The novena prayer, which Father Stephens is writing, will seek Mary’s intercession for unity, holiness and renewal nationwide. Alongside the novena, the exhibit will feature the stories of holy men and women of America. It will highlight their lives, virtues and legacy, organizers said.

Its format was inspired by a traveling Eucharistic miracles exhibit, which was based on a website created by St. Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager canonized last year.

“There are fewer than 15 American saints, and only a little more than 70 people whose causes (for sainthood) have been opened” in the U.S., Father Stephens said. “Each of these holy men and women has a beautiful story and powerful example, yet so few people know about them.”

“We do not have saints from 2,000 years ago; we have saints of today,” he added. “This shows that God is still at work, calling people to himself.”

Americans who have been canonized are Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton, John Neumann, Marianne Cope, Katharine Drexel, Damien de Veuster of Molokai, Junípero Serra, Kateri Tekakwitha, Théodore Guérin, Frances Xavier Cabrini and Rose Philippine Duchesne. St. Teresa of Kolkata was given honorary American citizenship in 1996, the year before she died.

Beatified Americans include Blesseds Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, Stanley Rother, Solanus Casey, Michael J. McGivney, Francis Xavier Seelos and Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodríguez Santiago of Puerto Rico. Five Franciscan friars known as the Georgia martyrs will join them Oct. 31, and the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen is also expected soon.

The shrine is in the process of inviting promoters of all U.S. causes to participate. So far, the promoters of more than 35 causes have confirmed they will collaborate in some way. Some will help create their respective exhibit displays, and many will attend in person, Father Stephens said.

While the novena and exhibit take place July 1-9, many of the promoters and representatives of these causes will be present July 3-5. For those days, guest speakers will also “engage with pilgrims, share the stories of these holy men and women, and provide opportunities to learn more about the path to sainthood in America,” said Kim May, the shrine’s event and volunteer coordinator.

Organizers expect that more than 15,000 pilgrims could attend, which would make this the largest event hosted by the shrine.

The exhibit will recognize in a special way the cause of Servant of God Adele Brice, a Belgian immigrant who reported seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary three times in 1859. She is buried at the shrine, which marks the site where they met. The cause for her sainthood opened in January.

Mary, as she appeared to Brice (sometimes also spelled “Brise”), is honored under the title of “Our Lady of Champion” for the nearby town of Champion, 15 miles northeast of Green Bay.

Father Stephens, who as the shrine’s rector serves as the actor or promoter of Brice’s cause, said the upcoming event will mark the 130th anniversary of the catechist’s death July 5.

The shrine plans to celebrate Mass that day at 11:30 a.m. local time to pray for Brice’s cause for canonization and for her continued intercession, he said.

“The afternoon will include guest speakers representing sainthood causes and catechetical presentations, continuing the mission Our Lady entrusted to Adele to teach the faith and lead souls to salvation,” he said.

The shrine will also host a picnic that day. In addition to Mass and speakers, videos and educational presentations will highlight America’s holy women and men.

The shrine, May said, is entrusting the event to the patronage of Mary under her titles of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas; the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States; and Our Lady of Champion.

The all-age event will include interactive activities for families. The shrine will offer history scavenger hunts, children’s activity pages and more.

“Our hope,” May said, “is that families will come together to celebrate this historic moment, learn about the holy men and women who shaped our nation, and be inspired to grow in faith.”

(Katie Yoder is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Maryland.)

NOTES: More information about the event is at https://championshrine.org/americansaints.