HAWTHORNE — A community of Catholic sisters who have cared for terminally ill cancer patients for more than a century has filed a federal lawsuit after seeking a religious exemption from a New York State mandate they say conflicts with their faith. 

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility serving patients with incurable cancer, are challenging requirements issued by the New York State Department of Health related to gender identity policies in long-term care settings. 

“The State of New York threatens to shut down the ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Rosary Hill Home…unless they violate their Catholic faith,” according to the case summary.

What the New York State Department of Health is demanding 

The April 7 press release from the Catholic Benefits Association says, “the New York gender ideology mandate requires Rosary Hill Home and other long-term care facilities to house biological men in women’s rooms even over the opposition of a female roommate, to permit residents and their visitors of one sex to access bathrooms set aside for those of the opposite sex, to use false pronouns, to use language and ‘create communities’ affirming patients’ sexual preferences, and to accommodate patients desire for extramarital sexual relations.”

Recent Vatican declaration on gender theory 

In 2024 the Vatican said clearly that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected,” and said it is “unacceptable that ‘some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable.’” (Declaration “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity, 59) 

Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne respond 

Mother Marie Edward, O.P., the order’s superior, said the sisters’ work has always been guided by a commitment to treat every patient with dignity and charity.

“We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies, and faiths,” she said in an April 7 press release. “We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith.” 

The lawsuit seeks relief that would allow the sisters to continue operating their ministry in accordance with their religious beliefs.

The mission continues 

At Rosary Hill Home, the focus remains on caring for patients in the final stages of life, many of whom have no financial resources or family support.

Sister Stella Mary, administrator of the home, said the sisters’ mission comes directly from their foundress, Mother Alphonsa Hawthorne. 

“Our foundress charged us to serve those who are ‘to pass from one life to another’ and to make them as comfortable and happy as if their own people had kept them,” she said.

As the case proceeds in federal court, the Dominican Sisters say their focus remains unchanged: caring for the sick and accompanying the dying with compassion.