The diocesan Catholic Men’s Ministry will sponsor a mini-conference for men on Saturday, Aug. 26 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Westerville St. Paul Church, 313 N. State St. The event will be preceded by the church’s regular 8:30 a.m. Saturday Mass.
Speakers will be Father David Sizemore, episcopal vicar for the Diocese of Columbus and pastor of Newark St. Francis de Sales Church, and Brad Pierron, missionary program director for the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus in Knox County.
The event also will include small-group discussion, plus a light breakfast. Men from throughout the diocese are invited to attend and energize their vocation of virtuously living as husbands, fathers and brothers in Christ.
For more information and to register, go to www.CatholicMensMinistry.com.
Cloistered Dominican nuns no longer in diocese
The cloistered nuns of the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary have disbanded and left the diocese after relocating to the former Ss. Peter and Paul Retreat Center in Heath in 2020 from Buffalo, New York.
Earlier this year, the last of the remaining sisters transferred to other cloistered Dominican monasteries in the United States after a period of discernment.
When the small community of 14 sisters came to the diocese in September 2020, the Ss. Peter and Paul Retreat Center was intended to be a temporary home until they could build a new monastery. After considering possible locations, the nuns settled on Somerset in Perry County, where the first Mass in Ohio was offered by a Dominican priest in 1808.
The Dominican Friars of the Eastern Province of St. Joseph arranged for the nuns to take ownership of land adjacent to Somerset St. Joseph Church, the first Catholic church in Ohio where Dominican priests have continued to serve.
In spring 2022, the sisters realized during the planning process that the challenges were too great to build a monastery and to continue as an autonomous community. Consequently, a decision was made to suppress the monastery, which required approval from the Holy See, said Father Albert Duggan, OP, the socius for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.
The Dominican sisters had resided in Buffalo since 1905 before their move to the Diocese of Columbus. Their charism as cloistered nuns withdrawn from the world included silence, work, penance and intercessory prayer for the needs of people and the salvation of the world.