USA
A celebration of new associates, renewals
Eight new Amityville Dominican Associates were bonded on April 19 at 4 p.m. Vespers in St. Albert’s Chapel in Amityville’s motherhouse. At a beautiful ceremony, Cathy Blackman, Shirley Douglas, Lucille Forelli, Carol Lee, Marian Magadan, Ann Messina, Nancy Szabo and Vincent Whitfield became Dominican Associates. There were also five associates who renewed their commitment. Michele Venza renewed for 10 years, and Maureen Collins, Gladys Reyes, Mary Stanis and Jane Webster renewed for five years. More
Dominican Sisters of Peace Associate Bob Hessman’s daughter, Mel, was murdered in 1989, leaving behind a husband and three small children. Mel’s sister Jude Hessman, an associate candidate, says it took her eight years to forgive Gregg Braun, the man who was convicted of the murder and eventually executed. Gregg was a former elementary student at St. Dominic’s School in Garden City, Kansas. In this reflection, Sister Jolene Geier, OP (Peace) and Bob write about the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation, as well as the need for prison reform in the United States. 
Eve Tetaz, an 83-year-old author, veteran peace and justice activist and retired public schoolteacher from Washington, D.C., crossed the line onto Fort Benning, carrying with her a poster of one of the 43 students disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Mexico this September, and the prophetic Isaiah verse, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares.” Longtime SOA Watch activist Nashua Chantal, a 62-year-old human rights defender from Americus, Georgia, carried a ladder to the fence erected to keep anyone from entering the base. This is the third arrest at Fort Benning for Chantal, who previously served a three-month sentence in 2005 and six months in 2013 for crossing the line. For those who have been to the vigil, Chantal always dresses in a “Study War No More” message.
