Hartland religious order not associated with the Catholic Church
February 4, 2021
By Jon King / [email protected]
A group of Livingston County women who dress as nuns and have gained notoriety as supporters of former President Donald Trump, are not nuns at all, at least not those recognized by the Roman Catholic Church .
An article Wednesday in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) says the women, who call themselves “The Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” are based in Hartland Township, but according to a spokesperson for the Diocese of Lansing, “do not have canonical status in within the Church.” The newspaper reports that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the two associations of Catholic nuns in the United States, have also confirmed that Dominican sisters are not members of either body. Moreover, they are also not listed in the Official Catholic Directory, which the RCN says is “the only authorized directory listing official Catholic institutions and organizations.”
The women recently made headlines when they appeared at a rally hosted by then-President Trump last October in Waterford Township, where the former president spoke about them publicly. The order’s website has many photos of women, dressed in their full robes, praying in a chapel and working around a farm. But otherwise, it contains very few details about the group, other than to say that their “primary purpose … is to restore and preserve traditional Dominican convent life in the United States.”
Since no phone number or email address was listed, NCR was unable to obtain comment. However, the newspaper noted that in one of the photos of the chapel there is a flag “bearing the arms of the Holy See sous sede vacante, used after the death or resignation of the pope, or by traditionalist groups who don’t do it”. accept the validity of the pope.”
The website also contains a donation link. Although the group is listed at an address off of M-59 in Hartland Township, it is registered as a nonprofit foreign corporation with an address in Connecticut.
NCR also spoke with Mercy Sr. Sharon Euart, executive director of the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, who said that when people present themselves as religious without recognition by the church, “it’s a misrepresentation and may cause scandal on the part of those who believe that they are legitimate and recognized religious in the Church”.
Photo – AP/Alex Brandon
