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Dominicans strive to show that people can live off the land
By Janine Anderson
CALEDONIA - Once Bishop Richard Sklba had blessed the Eco-Justice Center's three alpacas, they trotted over to the fence to greet the crowd.
The three young animals, newly arrived from Indiana, were the hit of the Sunday afternoon dedication ceremony. People ooh-ed and aah-ed over the leggy animals, pointing at their fuzzy heads and noticing the shear marks still visible in the fur on their sides.
The three animals came to live at the Eco-Justice Center on Michna Road a few weeks ago, and they are just one part of the harmonious community three Racine Dominican nuns are building in Caledonia, with lots of help from family, friends and the Racine-area community.
Over the past month volunteers have spent more than 600 hours at the small farm, clearing brush, cleaning the barn and tidying up the chicken coop. The three nuns who live there - Kathleen Bohn and sisters Janet and Mary Ann Weyker - opened the farm to friends and family Sunday afternoon, giving everyone the chance to walk the grounds, see the animals, and give thanks for the start of a new endeavor.
The Eco-Justice Center is a place for the three women to live in harmony with nature. They raise chickens, which gives them fresh eggs. There will be a vegetable garden to grow their own produce. And the alpacas will be shorn, like sheep, each year for their hair. Each of the nuns at the center works with textiles: one spins, one weaves and one knits. The alpacas will give them the material to work with.
Racine Dominicans Dolores Enderle and Lisa Lucht came out for the
Sister Enderle has been a champion of the Eco-Justice Center since it was first proposed.
"I think it's wonderful," she said. "I'm a city girl, but this is one way we can show to ordinary people that there is a way to live more simply. We can't all live in a rural setting but we can all do something for the environment."
Not everyone in the Racine Dominican community was initially excited about the idea.
"I was slow to warm up to it, but I'm totally sold on it now," Sister Lucht said. "It's a fabulous tribute to Mother Earth."
The volunteers that have come to help at the farm, which belonged to Dennis and Marian Kornwolf until they sold it at a discounted price in September, are from throughout the Racine community, one of the things that makes people like the center so much.
"People from every walk of life came out to clear out and clean up," Sister Enderle said. "This says something for the Racine community."
Sklba praised the center before leading the gathered crowd on a meandering walk through the property, blessing the land and animals with holy water.
"Words and a sprinkle of water do not make a place holy. The lives of the people who come there make a place holy," he said. "The miracle of life is everywhere, from tiny seeds that come forth and flourish to dandelions that refuse to be inhibited by concrete. Š Curiosity is sacred. It's not that wonders have ceased, but all too often we cease
wondering."
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