As McConnell steps back, nuns host prayerful protest for Gaza at his Louisville office

As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent shock waves through the nation’s capitol Wednesday by announcing he’s stepping down from Republican leadership later this year, dozens of people stood alongside Catholic nuns outside his downtown Louisville office to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Loretto Community — which is made up of the Sisters of Loretto, a congregation of vowed Catholic sisters based in Nerinx in Marion County, and Loretto co-members, who are supporters but don’t take canonical vows — organized a public prayer service for peace in Palestine and Israel.

For a half-hour, the group sent up prayers for Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, thousands of slain Palestinians, orphaned children of Gaza, residents at risk of starvation and soldiers, journalists and medical professionals killed during nearly five months of conflict.

“We remember, and we mourn,” the crowd recited together.

Neither McConnell nor his announcement were an overt topic of the service, but a group of two sisters and two co-members did meet with one of his aides in the federal building immediately afterward.

Sister Mary Swain — who throughout the service held a poster of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” which is largely interpreted as an anti-war statement — said the service was needed to continue to bring people’s attention to the ongoing situation in the Middle East and express support for a ceasefire.

“As all those lines in that prayer said, it’s such a tragedy about what’s going on with the Palestinian people,” Swain said. “It’s such a tragedy what happened to Israel on October 7.”

Swain, who joined the sisters in 1958, said the Sisters of Loretto and the broader Loretto Community have a history of activism.

Clothed in their long, black habits, Swain, now 83, recalled how she and other sisters took part in a march for open housing in Louisville in the spring of 1967. At the time, the city’s Black residents were not allowed to rent or own homes wherever they chose.

“There we were, marching along,” Swain said.

Susan Classen, a co-member of the community, said they were also active in opposing the construction of the Bluegrass Pipeline.

“It’s part of the spirit of the community, to be active in this way,” Classen said.

Classen, who led much of the service Wednesday, said their message was to “send food, not bombs.” The community’s mission calls on them to “work for justice and act for peace.”

“It is well within that mission to feel the suffering of the people in Gaza and to ask why they’re suffering, and where the bombs are coming from. They’re coming from our tax dollars,” Classen said. “The humanitarian crisis that is unfolding, with the children that are dying, the women, the babies. It’s our tax dollars that are paying for that.

“We’re complicit, and feel a sense of responsibility, and a moral and faith obligation to do everything that we can to stop that.”

Classen said she hopes to see McConnell support a ceasefire, to cut military spending and to increase humanitarian aid.