LCWR Prophetic Witness: A Creative Response

“What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”

This phrase from paragraph 60 of the final synod document published in October 2024 refers to the need for ongoing discernment around women’s leadership and equality.

It could also easily describe the creativity of Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Public Witness organizers who made a way forward despite unexpected obstacles to lift up sisters’ voices and presence at this year’s gathering in Orlando, Florida.

After the wheels were already in motion for the LCWR’s 70th Anniversary Celebration in Orlando, the county changed their ordinances regarding all peaceful public gatherings.

This meant that sisters would not be able to gather in a public place to offer a peaceful witness, as had been done when hundreds of Catholic sisters marched through downtown Atlanta, Georgia as part of the LCWR gathering last year.

Not easily deterred, public witness organizers came up with an alternative: they would organize the public witness outside, but within the hotel grounds and livestream the event to expand its reach.

Walking for Peace

This Walk of Lament and Hope would also find its way beyond the hotel grounds as individual sisters logged their own miles, walking for peace individually or in small groups.

On Aug. 14 in the early morning, hundreds of sisters lined up to pray and process in a Jericho Walk.

As Joshua and his troops encircled the walls of Jericho for seven days before they came tumbling down, participants in a Jericho Walk traditionally walk seven times around a place where injustice is present, like a prison or detention center.

In this case, seven groups of sisters each processed once around the outdoor area, circling seven justice issues displayed in the center: upholding the dignity of all life, racism, migration, climate crisis, violence, poverty and the right to vote.

Voices, Steps and Prayer

Each circuit of sisters added their voices and their steps, praying together, committing themselves to ongoing action for justice and invoking the names of saints and founders as part of the Litany of Saints, which included our very own Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

During the concluding remarks, sisters reaffirmed a pledge made as part of the LCWR Declaration of Commitment published earlier this year: “We pledge to live our call to be courageous witnesses of love – refusing to surrender our moral authority or succumb to despair.”

Far from succumbing to despair, the creative organization of this year’s LCWR Public Witness demonstrated Catholic sisters’ resilience and capacity for adaptation.

Hotel guests tapped along to the sung Litany of Saints, staff took in the prayerful procession as they went about their tasks and people across the U.S. tuned in online to join their prayers with those of us present in person.

The Jericho Walk offered a creative model of nonviolent presence at a time when many face pushback for speaking out and showing up for the sake of justice.

May this prayerful experience continue to move in all those who participated and may each of us find ways to walk in peace wherever we are, despite any obstacles we may face.