Topic archive
Anti-racism
Loretto Community condemns racism in all forms.
The Community is working to understand its complicity in systemic racism. We cannot atone and change without knowing the truths of our past.
Loretto Reflects on MLK and His Message of Nonviolence: Creating the ‘Beloved Community’
I’ve been to the mountaintop. I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. Martin Luther King Jr. Autobiography.…
Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project Held a Solar Picnic – 10/28/2022
The Loretto Carbon Reduction Fund is excited to highlight a recent grant recipient: the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project (SVBHP). On Friday, October 28, supporters of the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project held a “Solar Picnic.” Participants watched as solar…
‘We Say Their Names’: Loretto Seeks Forgiveness, Reconciliation for Participating in System of Enslavement
God who wishes to work with us and who counts on our cooperation, can also bring good out of the evil we have done. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, #80 Look back in history – slave ships arrived in 1619 and…
Loretto Roots: Loretto’s Involvement with Enslaved Persons and Educating Indigenous Children
We cannot go back, we can only go forward,in a cyclical manner.” Kylan Jacobs, Osage Nation Loretto President Barbara Nicholas SL assigned Annie Stevens SL and Libby Comeaux CoL a one-year project to look into Loretto’s involvement with enslaved persons…
Loretto Heeds John Lewis’s Call To Find Way To Get In ‘Good Trouble’
John Lewis said to America, “You must find a way to get in the way and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. … You have a moral obligation, a mission, and a mandate, when you leave here, to go out…
Slaveholding in Loretto’s history: Honoring the sacredness of human dignity
We gathered in our home church to see and hear with our hearts a tragic reality about our homeplace, that these grounds have been a place of wounding for many individuals of dignity and worth. Eleanor Craig SL This past…
Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification at Loretto Motherhouse
The Loretto Community is pleased to share through social media some highlights of the Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification that took place November 2021 at our Kentucky Motherhouse. Through this ritual and particularly through the Ancestor Spirit Portraits installed in…
Honor Dr. King: End Racism!
A young boy grows up in the era of segregation, a young man is moved into leadership in the civil rights movement, an educated leader works through painful moments believing his message of non-violence is right — all this is…
Exploring Intersections: Affordable Housing
The basic human need for shelter is often unattainable for those at the mercy of the elements, job layoffs, economic downturns, overcrowded projects. The conversation, “Exploring Intersections: Affordable Housing,” will take place Wednesday, Dec 8 from 3 to 4 p.m.…
Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification
During the 2021 Assembly, Loretto invited all to observe its “I Was Here” Project, a ritual of remembrance and sanctification at the Loretto Motherhouse, a community of wounding for more than 50 individuals enslaved between 1812-1865. The “I Was Here”…
Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification
A ritual of remembrance and sanctification at the Loretto Motherhouse, a community of wounding for more than fifty individuals enslaved between 1812-1865. The event program is here. Watch it live at
To Listen and Learn: Loretto Confronts Racism
From the founding of Loretto in 1812 to today, Loretto has sought to live out the meaning of these words, “We strive to bring the healing Spirit of God into our world and we commit ourselves to improving the conditions…