Sr. Joan Chittister to Address Ohio Dominican Spring Commencement

March 3, 2006

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Ohio Dominican University will hold its 85th commencement exercise at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 13, 2006.  The University will confer degrees on approximately 330 graduates, joined by hundreds of family and friends on the Oval in front of Erskine Hall on Ohio Dominican’s main campus, 1216 Sunbury Road.  (In the event of rain, commencement activities will take place across the street in Alumni Hall, directly west of Sunbury Road.)  

On Friday, May 12 at 7:00 p.m., the traditional hooding ceremony will take place at the Baccalaureate Mass in Alumni Hall. The homily will be delivered by the Most Reverend Frederick F. Campbell, Bishop of the Diocese of Columbus.  

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, one of the church’s key visionary voices and spiritual leaders for more than 30 years, will address graduates at commencement. During the ceremony, the University will confer an honorary degree, Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, on Sr. Chittister. 

A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pa., Sr. Joan is an award-winning author and international lecturer on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and contemporary religious life and spirituality.  She serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders. She is also vice chair of the Niwano Peace Prize Committee in Tokyo, and a founding member of the inter-religious International Committee for the Peace Council.  

Sr. Joan held the Brueggeman Chair of Ecumenical Theology at Xavier University and was an invited fellow and research associate at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University. She has served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization of the leaders of Catholic religious women in the United States; as president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses; and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years.   

Sr. Joan writes a weekly web column for the National Catholic Reporter, “From Where I Stand,” and is the author of more than 30 books. Two of her most recent books, Called to Question, a Spiritual Memoir and In the Heart of the Temple, received first-place awards from the Catholic Press Association in 2005.   

She has received numerous honorary degrees, awards and recognition for her work, including the U.S. Catholic Magazine’s “Award for Furthering the Cause of Women in the Church.”

 She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Mercyhurst College; a master’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Notre Dame; and a doctoral degree in Communications Theory from Penn State University. Sr. Joan is the founder and executive director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality located in Erie, Pa.