University of Notre Dame’s ethics center gives 2027 pro-life award to Dominican sisters
The University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture selected the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne for its 2027 Evangelium Vitae Medal. The center will present the award to Mother Superior Marie Edward, O.P., at a Mass and dinner at Notre Dame on April 24, 2027. Founded in 1900, the congregation cares for impoverished people dying of cancer at Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York. Notre Dame leaders praised the sisters’ work as a witness to the dignity of every person and an example of Christian charity.
about 15 hours ago
The University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture has named the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne the recipient of its 2027 Evangelium Vitae Medal, recognizing the congregation’s longstanding care for poor people dying of cancer. The award will be presented to Mother Superior Marie Edward, O.P., at a Mass and dinner at Notre Dame on April 24, 2027. 1
Founded in 1900 by Mother Mary Alphonsa—born Rose Hawthorne, daughter of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne—the congregation is based in Hawthorne, New York. Its sisters care for impoverished men and women with cancer at the congregation’s home. 1
Notre Dame President Father Robert Dowd said the sisters’ service expresses God’s mercy and affirms the dignity of every person, regardless of social status or worldly success. Ethics Center director Jennifer Newsome Martin called their work an example of Christian charity; the center said the sisters “serve as a countercultural sign” and help build a civilization of truth and love. 1
The Evangelium Vitae Medal is awarded annually on Respect Life Sunday, and the 2027 presentation will be the center’s 16th. It is named for Pope St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical on the dignity of human life and the protection of vulnerable people. 1
Mother Mary Alphonsa died in 1926 and is buried at Rosary Hill Home, the congregation’s headquarters. Pope Francis declared her venerable in 2024. 1*
Christian care for the dying and human dignity
Christian care for the dying begins with the conviction that a person’s dignity does not diminish when health, independence, or consciousness decline. Every dying person remains worthy of unconditional respect and loving care. For Christians, death is neither a problem to hide nor a human power to control at will: it is a profound passage approached with reverence, hope in eternal life, and faithful presence.
Care is more than medical treatment. It includes relieving suffering, attending to emotional and spiritual needs, and ensuring that the sick person is not abandoned or reduced to a diagnosis. Family, friends, health-care workers, and pastoral caregivers can serve through attentive presence, listening, prayer where welcomed, and practical support. The Church’s teaching describes this as staying with the suffering person—keeping vigil, consoling, and sharing the journey in hope.
Good medical care remains important even when a disease cannot be cured: medicine can still alleviate suffering and serve the person. Treatment should be judged in light of the person’s circumstances and the moral principle of proportionality—whether its likely benefits justify its burdens. Ordinary, proportionate means of preserving life are generally to be offered and accepted; burdensome or unusually risky treatments may be morally optional. This does not mean that care should cease: basic care, comfort, and support remain due.
Christian compassion does not mean intentionally causing death. The dying person needs help to live the remaining time with dignity, not to be made to feel that dependence or suffering has erased the worth of life. John Paul II warns that both artificially prolonging life without regard to its burdens and deliberately hastening death can reflect the mistaken idea that life and death are ours to dispose of at will.
Nor does refusing an excessively burdensome treatment amount to choosing death. It can be a reasonable acceptance that death cannot be prevented, while continuing appropriate care and comfort. The supplied sources affirm this distinction through the moral evaluation of proportionate and optional treatment, though they do not provide a full clinical guide for particular cases.
Christian hope does not deny the reality of pain or grief. It offers a horizon beyond death and calls others to accompany the dying person rather than leave them alone. Hospice, palliative care, family support, and spiritual care can make that conviction concrete: the person is still someone to love, accompany, and serve.